THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON REDUX

Ponderous. Oh so ponderous! Roger Waters's new fangled version of the legendary and massively selling Dark Side of the Moon is intended to be a reflection on old age, dovetailing with those themes of time and mortality that were cornerstones of the lyrics. It's interesting that while he hasn't tried to claim that this is any sort of replacement for the original - a record he still professes to love - he has tried to claim that this makes the rerecording more "indicative" of the concepts behind it, which I'd say is a far more loaded statement. DSOTM has more to its theming than death and dying, of course. It more holistically represents the challenges of life, speaking on stress, anxiety, the rat race, greed, conflict, division, and madness. The LP came from a young band and road crew who were on the rise, ambitious, familiar with the drudgery of touring and recording, and haunted by the sort of spectre of the lost Syd Barrett. It was a collective effort within and beyond the group and is suffused with an at once youthful yet fairly wise perspective. Waters is not only flying solo in one of the truest senses but is laser focused on elements of the record that naturally speak more to him at his age and after the many losses he has since experienced, which are parts of a whole and while he brings some powerful perspectives to them he fails to add to anything else, for better or (more likely) for worse. The redux also feels tired and burdened, which proves to be a double edged sword, appropriate yet taxing.

There's nothing to say about the lyrics that haven't already been said since they are exactly the same. Can't blame Waters for doing so. What's important are how they are sung and his spoken word monologues that replace the original's interviews. His singing is mostly monotonous, which is mostly an issue, failing to bring the full weight of his age to the lyricism and leaving the redux well short of the power of the original. It's the heart of the chronic fatigue of the new recording, whose whispered tones are more concrete shoes than representations of the ravages of time. The spoken word portions, on the other hand, have some promise. Certainly the most arresting part of the rerecording is "The Great Gig In The Sky" wherein Waters describes the passing of a close friend. I also came to love the spoken version of "Free Four"'s lyrics on "Speak To Me", which have evolved from some of Waters's finest and most portentous early lyrics into elderly words of wisdom. The rest of the spoken sections, however, are about as dull as the singing. There aren't sageful pearls to be found elsewhere, just some of his more half-witted and (I have to say it) pretentious sides.

Most of the music also suffers from a deep lethargy. It's quite slow and heavily understated, mainly in ways that are boring and go beyond representations of age into meaningless muzak. While "The Great Gig In The Sky" can be more than forgiven for being so musically empty as it gives space to Waters's remembrance of his late mate, the same can't be said for the majority of the album. "Time" in particular suffers from this and by comparison not only to the original but especially to Stardeath and White Dwarfs's version from their DSOTM cover LP with The Flaming Lips. Stardeath's take is similarly slow and calm, but finds unique beauty and tranquility in it in intentional counterpoint to the harried lyrics, while Waters's solo version here is empty of all power, irony, reflection, and anything else. While Stardeath's cover arguably needed an appropriate replacement for David Gilmour's guitar solo - their take just didn't have a break - this version suffers far worse for having one. At least there are some rays of instrumental hope here, however, with "Speak To Me", "Breathe", "On The Run", and "Any Colour You Like" all benefitting from some fairly unique instrumentals that don't variate from the pace of the redux but do give you *something* to listen to. Those cuts are okay.

Listening to this rerecording front to back starts you off with some good music and hope for the project but ends up sputtering out into a void. I enjoyed parts of it but I can't in good conscience recommend it outside of those few aforementioned highlights. Waters clearly came into this with some good intentions but failed in fulfilling them in their entirety, showing that for all his talent and experience he is flawed and likely weighed down by his long running biases.