Is This The Life We Really Want?

Good Roger review from you on the front page the other day, Steve!

^Thanks Aussie Byrd Bro. On quick reflection Barbu, I changed my rating from 3.5 stars to a solid 4 stars. I must have been having a senior moment at the time. Or partying too much. Or just digging the album. All three probably, while really enjoying myself!  

Edited by SteveG - June 19 2017 at 08:00

Of course the lyrics are great, but the mixing is awful.. So compressed, and not a single guitar solo..

I like the title-track, Picture That, and Smell the Roses.. I guess it's better than nothing, but it's not comparable to Pink Floyd, and neither is Gilmour's stuff.. I think they were the most complementary duo in rock, although Waters did write most of the music, and sang half the songs, but Gilmour made everything better.

MortSahlFan wrote: Of course the lyrics are great, but the mixing is awful.. So compressed, and not a single guitar solo.. I like the title-track, Picture That, and Smell the Roses.. I guess it's better than nothing, but it's not comparable to Pink Floyd, and neither is Gilmour's stuff.. I think they were the most complementary duo in rock, although Waters did write most of the music, and sang half the songs, but Gilmour made everything better.

MortSahlFan wrote: Cristi wrote: MortSahlFan wrote: Of course the lyrics are great, but the mixing is awful.. So compressed, and not a single guitar solo.. I like the title-track, Picture That, and Smell the Roses.. I guess it's better than nothing, but it's not comparable to Pink Floyd, and neither is Gilmour's stuff.. I think they were the most complementary duo in rock, although Waters did write most of the music, and sang half the songs, but Gilmour made everything better. To me the song writing credits in PF are strange to say the least. There are a lot of songs credited to Waters but then you hear Wright and Gilmour doing a lot of things in those songs. I mean how is Welcome to the Machine a Waters song when the greatest thing about that song is Wright's keyboards.  And many other songs... Roger usually gave the best songs for Gilmour to sing. There's a "Making of Wish You Were Here" and I believe Roger did most of the synth stuff, sound affects.. I'm guessing that beautiful 20 second finale might be Rick's pleading synth/keyboard.

Cristi wrote: Roger is good at creating a concept but he always had to surround himself by great musicians to pull his ideas off. He had Clapton on Pros and Cons and Jeff Beck on Amused...

They added guitar solos - that had nothing to do with his songs.. They were done (you can hear some demos during the PF days), and they added on top of what was done. Each guy only had one decent solo, anyway (title track, and What God Wants).. I wonder how "Pros and Cons" would have heard had the other 3 in PF chose that instead of "The Wall".

Cristi wrote: MortSahlFan wrote: Cristi wrote: Roger is good at creating a concept but he always had to surround himself by great musicians to pull his ideas off. He had Clapton on Pros and Cons and Jeff Beck on Amused...  They added guitar solos - that had nothing to do with his songs.. They were done (you can hear some demos during the PF days), and they added on top of what was done. Each guy only had one decent solo, anyway (title track, and What God Wants).. I wonder how "Pros and Cons" would have heard had the other 3 in PF chose that instead of "The Wall". Nothing to do with songs? Their presence made the songs better, solos add a lot to songs if you ask me.  I wonder what The Wall might have sounded if it were a collective effort.  The Wall might have been Roger's work, but Gilmour, Ezrin and Kamen added a lot to the final product.

Just sounded like you inferred he depended on those guys. Jeff Beck said he always wanted to work with him, especially after hearing he drove to the Middle East in a car with hardly any cash, and said he wouldn't leave his yard if he didn't have at least 10 quid on him... I love guitar solos, but I think if he would have used Dave Kilminster, he still would have good something great - Roger has a good ear.. The producer doesn't like guitar solos, and Roger said this was the first time he let someone else really produce, but most think it's mixed real poorly, with some sanitized Radiohead-esque sound affects - that's not what Pink Floyd was about. Roger's songs were mostly cowboy chord songs with a little bit of polish. I expected more considering it had been a few decades since his last one.

Even as recently as a few years ago, Roger said that Gilmour was great, and mentioned how the three co-produced it. I know he only has 3 credits, but as I've mentioned before - David will take ANY song and make it better. He plays a cool solo on Supertramp's "Brother Where You Bound" (Helliwell later played some sax on a later album).

Have you heard any of The Wall demos? The longer, but slower and funkier version of "Young Lust" is really cool. Also nice to hear all the variations of "Another Brick" - including the tribal tom-tom drumming on one version, and added lyrics/melody.

I think you and others might enjoy this.. It's really cool! Reminds me of the show "Classic Albums" in a way.

Cristi wrote: ^ I've seen that :)

Why did they remove that cool bass line in "Welcome to the Machine"? -- sounded so groovy!

Cristi wrote: MortSahlFan wrote: Cristi wrote: Roger is good at creating a concept but he always had to surround himself by great musicians to pull his ideas off. He had Clapton on Pros and Cons and Jeff Beck on Amused...  They added guitar solos - that had nothing to do with his songs.. They were done (you can hear some demos during the PF days), and they added on top of what was done. Each guy only had one decent solo, anyway (title track, and What God Wants).. I wonder how "Pros and Cons" would have heard had the other 3 in PF chose that instead of "The Wall". Nothing to do with songs? Their presence made the songs better, solos add a lot to songs if you ask me.