ALBUM REVIEW: Roger Waters - The Dark Side of the Moon Redux

    Earlier this year, on 1 March 2023 to be exact, Pink Floyd fans and the group alike celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon, an album that began a four-record streak of acclaim for the group, brought international fame, became the fourth best-selling album in history, is preserved in the Library of Congress for "cultural, historical or aesthetic significance", and remains in the never-ending discussion of "greatest album of all time". Floyd themselves celebrated with a big ol' deluxe boxset, complete with a new remaster (which sounds great, by the way) and a live performance of the album at Wembley from 1974; a rightful celebration for one of music's most eternal records - so what if the album was re-recorded by the original lyricist, possibly out of spite? Well, enter the now 80 year-old Roger Waters, who looked to "bring out the heart and soul of the album musically and spiritually" to use his words. Of course, The Dark Side of the Moon is partially an album about life and death, so the potential for an older, wiser Waters to bring a new perspective to the record is certainly there, even if you can't shake the fact that this is likely a "fuck you" to Gilmour, too. In spite of this, Roger's revisit of one of his most beloved albums proves to be a tedious, sometimes cringey, but mostly uninteresting endeavor that provides little of worth in comparison to the titanic original.

     Now, if you can believe it, this album has already garnered some defenders who insist that this is a fascinating new take on the album, with some even insisting that the violent internet reaction is overly harsh - for full transparency, I am not in that crowd, but believe me there's plenty to touch on. The easiest thing to poke fun at with this re-recording is how barren and empty the album is - in comparison to the musically sharp compositions and performances on the original album, most of Dark Side Redux is strictly acoustic guitar and some light percussion, with the occasional other instrument thrown into the mix for select songs. I went into this without hearing any of the lead-up singles, so hearing the acoustic style on "Breathe" was actually kind of interesting, and I'm gonna use this time to give the album one of only a few compliments; the instrumentals don't sound bad. They're mostly pretty mellow and relaxing, and while it definitely gets tired after a bit (you just wait), they aren't awful on the ears. Still, the album completely squanders all this by the time (pun intended) you get to "Time" and it suddenly clicks that the entire album sounds the same - the entire. Fucking. Thing. If it was more varied, I could forgive such a light and mellow approach, but at 47 minutes it gets old, and quickly - for being only around four minutes longer than the original Dark Side, it feels like 20 minutes longer.

    And then there's Roger's... "singing". I don't use that to be mean, by the way - most of this album is really more spoken than sung, resembling a late-stage Leonard Cohen album more than anything from Roger or Floyd (not to knock Cohen, of course). Again, at first it's kind of interesting with "Speak to Me" and "Breathe", but at a certain point, it goes from interesting to annoying, and at some points even cringe; the most immediate example of this is on "Money" (possibly one of the worse remakes on the album, too), where he uses the original solo spot to muse with some poem about good and evil and boxing. It's incredibly uninteresting, and that's really all you need to know about that part. "Any Colour You Like" is another awful case, where the formerly interesting instrumental is given virtually the same minimalist treatment as Waters spouts more poetry over it, culminating in him listing off various colors in what is definitely one of the album's more embarrassing moments - I couldn't help but groan at this part. "Great Gig in the Sky" is apparently done as a tribute to a recently lost friend of his, which is sweet, but its completely ruined by what I think is the worst remake on the album - Roger is humming the vocal part from the original, and it sounds auto-tuned. To be fair, this song did provide a lot of entertainment value in the sense that it made me laugh really fucking hard when I heard it. This isn't to say that every remake is terrible, but many of them certainly are. "Time" is decent enough and at least brings a new perspective given Roger's old age, and "Brain Damage" is probably the best sounding on the album, in part because Roger finally sings a bit proper, and he actually doesn't sound too bad in spite of his age. Still, these minute highs are few and far between a sea of uninteresting or bad moments like a poultry "On the Run" or a version of "Us and Them" that's so in one ear and out the other that I actually couldn't define to you what happens in the song.

    Given that I'm sure you're just so eager to quit reading and hear this yourself, I want to end with a few overall thoughts about this - I was not expecting an album on par or better than the original Dark Side, and those who defend this redux will tell you that that's exactly why people hate this, but I don't buy that. I also don't personally believe that this album is a cash-grab as some have stated, and I think that Roger's stated reasons for re-recording the album aren't necessarily lies. The redux here isn't recorded awfully, it sounds okay, and hell some parts are even a smidgen interesting or decent, but The Dark Side of the Moon Redux is largely a very boring and drab revisit to one of Roger's most timeless works with Pink Floyd, and frankly I don't blame people for being disappointed with what we were given. Maybe in a few years I can appreciate this more? I suppose that will remain to be seen, but as it is, Waters' redux proves a watered-down substitute to the real deal - talk about missing the starting gun.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to The Dark Side of the Moon Redux.