AMUSED TO DEATH

I've been exploring Roger Waters' solo career for some time in order to find another album that would illegibly resemble The Final Cut. Unfortunately both The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking and Radio K.A.O.S. proved to be poor substitute for the last great Pink Floyd release as I felt that pretentiousness was clearly taking over Waters' work. But like the soldiers in his stories, he continued marching on doing that same album until almost getting it right with Amused To Death.

Clocking at over 70 minutes, this album might be a tough journey for anyone unfamiliar with Waters to undertake, but it's definitely the one that I would recommend undertaking. Amused To Death might not be that perfect conclusion to the artist's long search for perfection of his style and I personally can't even call it an excellent release, but there is definitely something that still attracts me to this album even after all this time. Stylistically this as close to a Roger Waters album that we were going to get. The production is slick and the vast amount of performers do a great job of keeping the overall mood of the album in place, even if there are a few deviations from that rule.

I guess that my main concern with all of Roger Waters solo output is that it lacks anything new to express outside of the already well-established formulas that existed on both The Wall and The Final Cut. Yes, the message of this particular release might be a bit different but that's really not enough for me to feel any different about its music. The last four tracks are the longest of the bunch and are clearly intended to be the punch line to the album but I'm just not feeling. Watching TV is decent, Three Wishes is almost a reminder of the good old days of Pink Floyd, but lack the competent touch of Rick Wright in the arrangements. Finally we have the lengthy conclusion of It's A Miracle and Amused To Death that make up a fourth of this 14 track release. Both are expanded to the point of extreme that simply doesn't work for me. The interesting thing is that those same tracks worked marvelously when Roger Waters performed them in a live setting during his In The Flesh tour.

Amused To Death is probably his best solo release but best is just not enough when you are an ex-member of Pink Floyd. I'm sure that some fans of The Wall and The Final Cut will feel right at home with this material, even though I'm one of those people. All in all, it's a good, but non-essential release for fans of progressive rock music.

**** star songs: What God Wants, Part I (6:00) Perfect Sense, Part I (4:16) Perfect Sense, Part II (2:50) The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range (4:43) Late Home Tonight, Part II (2:13) Too Much Rope (5:47) What God Wants, Part II (3:41) What God Wants, Part III (4:08) Watching TV (6:07) It's A Miracle (8:30) Amused To Death (9:06)

*** star songs: The Ballad Of Bill Hubbard (4:19) Late Home Tonight, Part I (4:00) Three Wishes (6:50)