THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON REDUX

I generally do my best to be positive on this site. I cover music I like (mostly), and I aim to give acts the benefit of the doubt when possible. I've heard it said that critics should be curators, not gatekeepers, and that is an ethos I strive for. But every now and then, you run across a flaming pile of shit so spectacularly bad, you have to stop and gawk. It's a trainwreck with bodies strewn everywhere, and the mere sight of it makes you sick, but you can't look away. And to top it all off, the person driving the train is a notoriously unpleasant curmudgeon. When a situation like this arises, it's hard not to react to the spectacle.

Having a nice, long hate on an album can be a fun, cathartic exercise on occasion. I haven't really done that on this site before now, but it's something I did a number of times when I was writing reviews on my personal Facebook page. The Astonishing, Dream Theater's overblown, under-thought rock opera, was a particularly fun record to bash. I'm looking forward to expanding on that in my eventual Dream Theater Deep Dive. (I did bash Leprous's last two albums pretty hard, but even my Aphelion review found some limited good.)

I touched on this briefly in my Pink Floyd Deep Dive, but Roger Waters is pretty easy and fun to dislike. He often comes off as a self-important douche who is deeply unpleasant to spend time around. Normal, likable people don't get married five times or have irreparable rifts with coworkers. Sure, his politics are not too terribly different from my own on most fronts, but his sanctimony goes a long way in making me second-guess those overlapping views. 

He only seems to have gotten more unpleasant in his old age, too. His spats with David Gilmour, which seemed to have quieted down a bit in the mid-2000s, have only flared back up as nasty as ever in recent years. And the dude is even on Russia's side in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Add into that mix some additional ridiculous, egotistical statements?like his bitter, petulant outburst that he is "far, far, far more important" than The Weeknd when the Canadian press didn't give his tour enough attention?and it's easy to see why it's hard to look away from his nonsense.

Now, to Roger's credit, he's not intending for this to be a replacement for The Dark Side of the Moon. This work is presented as a different take on things. The album is a reflection on life and death, and re-recording it with another fifty years of life experience sounds like a concept that could work? theoretically. The problem is, Roger's best work was always strongly reliant on David Gilmour and Rick Wright providing significant musical input. This manifestation of Dark Side simply lacks that ineffable spark that made the original one of the greatest rock albums of all time. In many ways, this release feels like him attempting to diminish the importance of the other members of Pink Floyd and cast himself as the act's true creative force.

I get what Roger was going for here. He's an old man now, and I'm sure his lyrics feel all the more true to him. And yes, there is something to be said about the gravity of many of these passages. "Speak to Me" has been replaced with a somber recitation of some of the grimmer lyrics from "Free Four", off Obscured by Clouds, and it's actually a rather promising opening (especially based off the shitshow that is the first single, "Money", but that comes later). 

"Breathe", instrumentally, is a decently interesting reinterpretation, with a stripped-back feel. Strings and acoustic guitar help add a sense of weight. However, Roger Waters was never the strongest singer, and age hasn't been particularly kind to his voice. He's doing better than Ian Anderson, but that's a low bar.

"On the Run" has its focus shifted from tense, claustrophobic synth loops to Roger's poetry. I don't particularly like poetry, and this stuff is no exception. Between this and "Speak to Me", it feels like Roger Waters is doing his best to take the instrumentals on this album and refocus them to be about him personally. He wrote the lyrics for the other six songs, after all, so why shouldn't these bear his mark too?

"Time" eschews its iconic opening cacophony of clocks, instead having Roger recite more tedious poetry. I know he wants this to be his own spin on Dark Side, but all the changes he's made so far simply strip away all of the original release's charm and character. He's turned it into a sleepy, spacy mush.

The verse is minimalistic and supported mostly by acoustic guitar. Roger's voice is also a poor substitute for the beauty of David Gilmour and Rick Wright's harmonizations. The overall mushiness of this album is only made worse by the decision to excise all guitar solos. Like, I get that Roger Waters and David Gilmour fucking hate each other, so I can understand Roger's spiteful instinct to minimize any guitar flashiness. But at the same time, the call to have the music just lazily drift along does not help anything or anyone.

"The Great Gig in the Sky" replaces Clare Torry's iconic vocal riffing with a story about one of Roger's friends passing away. Thematically, I can understand the decision, but it just doesn't make for good or interesting music. And at the end of the day, shouldn't that really be the point of recording an album? You can put a particular angle or spin on your music without making it drowsy, uninteresting monotony.

It's almost impressive how badly Roger Waters ruined his best-known composition, "Money". His voice is especially poor here, and he's sucked all the fun out of the iconically infectious ⅞ groove. I'm pretty sure he's trying to come off as (even more) cynical and jaded, but he just sounds bored. The strings don't add anything interesting, and his decision to replace another guitar solo with more poetry is simply not good. This song is an absolute slog. It feels like a punishment. Why am I doing this to myself?

The original "Us and Them" had a pretty sedate pace, so this interpretation is less galling. It sticks with the stripped-back acoustic motif, like the rest of Redux, but that just makes it feel like bland elevator music. Roger's voice also feels quite thin and unimpactful. On the plus side, the instrumental section of this song is actually instrumental, rather than another poetry reading. This song is the closest to its original, so it's probably the best on the album. Being the best track on this album isn't much of an honor.

"Any Colour You Like" is almost unrecognizable, in contrast. The swirling, kaleidoscopic instrumental is now an acoustic, vaguely-bluesy backing over which Roger Waters is allowed to hoarsely mumble.

The overall sleepiness of this album continues on "Brain Damage". This interpretation is more lazy than offensive. It's not like "Brain Damage" was the most energetic song to start with, so slowing it down even more practically grinds it to a halt.

And the album reaches a fittingly disappointing non-climax with "Eclipse". The original is one of the most explosive, satisfying conclusions to an album in all of popular music history. The version presented here, though, leaves the listener with musical blueballs, as it offers no proper resolution to anything preceding it. This song vaguely hints at the original's dramatic, cascading organ part, but it's nothing more than a weak gesture. This cut just sluggishly somnambulates out of the preceding one and sort of lingers around for two minutes. Roger Waters sounds like he's gargling gravel, with absolutely no sense of purpose.

I know I referenced the original The Dark Side of the Moon a lot, but that was absolutely unavoidable. This album is an artist going back and remaking his best-known piece of work with a different perspective, so my feelings and opinions on the original are going to be inextricable from my views on this redux. 

This is a dull, dull album. It doesn't accomplish anything of note, and this will serve more as an embarrassing footnote at the end of Roger Waters's career than as anything of substance. The production is good, sure, but this music doesn't deserve it. Redux is a mess, but it's not the particular type of musical abortion I was imagining. Don't bother with this, unless you're looking for a sleep aid narrated by someone doing a Tom Waits impression.

It's still better than The Final Cut, though. Fuck that album.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2023/10/23/album-review-roger-waters-the-dark-side-of-the-moon-redux/