IN THE FLESH - LIVE

This is certainly not an all-bad album at all. But I'm not sure if it really stacks up to PINK FLOYD (in any incarnation). My biggest wish for this album is that ROGER WATERS would have stuck to his solo work; this he does a pretty good job on, and I will say that "Each Small Candle" was an immediate hit with me. I think it may show that Mr. Waters has made some real strides in coming to terms with his past. Although I might have asked the drummer to back off a little on "It's a Miracle", I'd say the solo works were done well.

However--here's what lowers the rating of this album so much. The PINK FLOYD stuff. If you have a sensitive ear, you may not take well to this part of In the Flesh. WATERS does not do as DAVID GILMOUR did in PULSE and take over the "missing" vocals, which I could've respected a bit more; instead, he has one of his guitarists sing. I think this was a mistake--though the singer in question has a pleasant voice, it's rather sad hearing someone trying to imitate GILMOUR, rather than WATERS at least trying to put his own unique spin on it. Admittedly WATERS does do this on "Wish You Were Here", and it's one of the few PF songs on there that I really enjoy. The keyboards, under Jon Carin, aren't too bad--after all, this guy played alongside RICK WRIGHT on the PULSE tour. His study under the master shows. ;-) But the guitars...it's just not GILMOUR. Not even close. I think the guitars really ruin some songs--"Comfortably Numb", for instance. Instead of going with the flow of the song, it turns into a flashy duel of the guitars that I think doesn't fit very well with the song. And the drums--I don't think "Time" came off very well at all; the drummer overdoes it in a major way.

Now, as I said, not all of the PF material is bad. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" is excellent (it's worth noting that the sound of the sax has an interesting resemblance to a certain Farfisa organ!), and the material from The Final Cut is in general pretty good. I also thought that "Wish You Were Here" showed WATERS' personal concert style at its best; you can almost feel a finger being pointed in your direction: "And I wish that YOU were here". But most of the PINK FLOYD material really falls short, in my opinion.

Now, a hardcore ROGER WATERS fan might well like this. I'm not saying it's an entirely bad album--but "fans only" really is a perfect description of it, hence the 2 stars. But if you have a sensitive ear and/or are very attached to the traditional PINK FLOYD musical sound, you may not want to buy this album. It's just not everyone's cup of tea, and I ultimately didn't find enough to compel me to keep this album; I finally ripped the tracks I wanted and sold it.