Bam's Music Reviews: The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux (Roger Waters, 2023)
I'm Bam. I like possums, I like music! Let's get into it~
The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux is a progressive rock/spoken word album by Roger Waters. It was released under his own label, SGB Music Limited, on October 6th, 2023 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, and serves as a "re-imagining" of the original 1973 album. According to Waters, the album's style was inspired by The Lockdown Sessions, an album he had released the previous year which contained several stripped-down versions of older Pink Floyd songs, the most notable of which being "Comfortably Numb 2022", a song he would use as the opener during his controversial This Is Not a Drill tour (which will not be discussed in this review, as it does not pertain to the quality of it). Even before release, many people saw it as a polarizing concept, a notion which wasn't brightened in the slightest once singles like "Money" started rolling in. With the album being out for nearly a month now, and with me having a lot of time to gather my thoughts, what do I think of this bold recreation of one of the most important progressive rock albums in history? Sit down, and I'll tell you. Without further ado...
As I mentioned in the preamble, I consider Dark Side Of The Moon (from here on being referred to as DSOTM for the sake of brevity, with this album respectively getting referred to as DSOTM:Redux) to be an extremely important album in the landscape of progressive rock. Part of the reason is that I simply consider it one of the best albums Pink Floyd ever put out, often duking it out for the #2 spot with Wish You Were Here, and only being consistently beaten by The Wall. That, coupled with my overall adoration for Pink Floyd in general, leads to the album being pretty solidly within the top rankings of my personal favorite albums of all time. I'd also like to mention that I think that Waters, while definitely past his prime at this point, can still make some pretty solid music. In particular, his 2017 album Is This The Life We Really Want? is an album I'm planning on reviewing here at some point, as I find the album quite enjoyable and features tracks that I still occasionally return to, like "Dejá Vu" and the title track.
With both of these major points laid out, I can say in pretty good confidence that this album is a steaming pile of dogshit. In my eyes, the album would already be solidly bad if it was a completely original set of recordings with no association with other projects released previously, and wouldn't get anything higher than a 4/10. But it just so had to be a re-take on a personal favorite album, and the horrifying levels of mutilation on display drive me ever so closer to an unescapable void of despair that cannot be properly put into words. Part of me doesn't even want to touch this thing and just let it rot away into obscurity, but deep down I know I wouldn't be satisfied with my existence if I didn't rip this album at least six new assholes before burning the whole thing at the stake.
There are two glaring issues in just about every track in DSOTM:Redux that make listening to it an active chore, the first issue being one of its key selling points; the compositions have been just about completely redone to "bring out the heart and soul of the album musically and spiritually". This sounds like a pretty interesting way of going about things if done properly, and could elevate some tracks on the album to heights never seen before! Unfortunately these new compositions don't do any of that, and often feel flatly like the opposite, as if they're actively wringing out any last drip of life and soul from the tracks before tossing them on the ground as dry husks. The album is consistently at a slower tempo, every track's instrumentation is much more toned back and emptier, and, seeing as I'm a hobby guitarist in my spare time, one final kick to my balls personally, every single solo has been completely gutted and thrown out.
For those not familiar with the original DSOTM or simply people who aren't as tuned with guitars as I am, solos play a massive role in some of the key songs on the album, not only to provide a change of pace to keep them from getting stale (an issue I should've mentioned in my review of St. Anger - a big reason why that album sounds so monotonous is for this exact reason), but also to serve as emotional explosions to balance out slower and mellower tracks on the rest of the album. Removing the solos only serves to weaken the album overall, especially considering that they're some of the most iconic solos from the 70s, and singularly comes across as Waters continuing to be a whiny baby and refusing to accept that David Gilmour's contributions to DSOTM were extremely important to the album's success.
The second, and much larger issue, is hiding in the genre of the album: Did you happen to catch that I called this album a progressive rock/spoken word album? Yes, good old Mr. Roger "I promised a concert and instead read my novel for 20 minutes before telling my fans to fuck off" Waters is insistent that he clumsily tacks on a bunch of personal stories and hilariously one-dimensional political takes that, in some instances, the original does with far more subtlety and class. AND THESE ARE IN NEARLY EVERY SINGLE TRACK OF THE ALBUM! They're especially egregious on the originally instrumental tracks, with "On The Run" being the worst example of this. Originally a fast and energetic instrumental with a very iconic synth sequence that helps to bring some energy after "Breathe", one of the more mellow tracks. The version on DSOTM:Redux, on the other hand, despite being only 10 seconds longer than the original, somehow manages to feel much duller and lacking in energy thanks to the slower tempo, all the while Waters is driveling nonsense about a dream he had, and among other things mentions Pilotwings and Gut Laliberté almost back to back with no real cohesion. They didn't even get the melody right!
By far the biggest butchering just so happens to be on my third favorite song on the album, and was the first single released for it as well (Great jorb, Waters! You really subverted my expectations by promoting the album with the worst shit from it!), that being "Money". Oh my god, "Money". When the song was released as a single back in July, I happened to run into it by accident, as I hadn't really been focused on what Waters was doing at the time. The track proceeded to sucker punch me right in both kidneys at once, and within an hour of listening to it I had written a 600-word review on it alone on cohost, which I'll link at the end of this review for context. To summarize, "Money" takes one of the grooviest tracks from the album that served to bring some energy before transitioning to "Us and Them", a deeply soft and touching track. the original "Money" very likely features the solo most people recognize, and indeed many consider it one of the best solos in history. It's fast, energetic and has subtle, yet biting commentary of capitalism that takes some eye to properly notice.
As you can probably imagine, Waters' rendition throws all of this out the window. The version from DSOTM:Redux is a meandering and incredibly dull slog that almost single-handedly kills the album when going through it. It's over a minute longer than the original, partly because the song easily feels like the one that's been slowed the most of the entire setlist, and the previously mentioned legendary solo is nowhere to be seen. What's replaced it is a spoken word section that goes on for, and I counted, 2 minutes and 41 seconds. Factor in the instrumental bits before and after it, and suddenly nearly half of the song is dedicated to Roger Waters Podcast Hour. And this would be acceptable if it weren't for it being a garbage story about a boxing match that is clearly trying to have some kind of message behind it (likely anti-capitalism, like the original), only for it to come off as complete and utter noise from one ear to another. I skipped the track entirely when the album first came out since I knew I wouldn't survive through it, and I highly recommend doing the same.
And yet, as begrudgingly as I say this, the album does have some points of merit to it. The instrumentation, while pretty empty, have been performed quite well, and the mixing serves to at least make the album still be listenable instead of it being a case of hurting both the soul and the ears. The album's take on "Us and Them" is also rather beautiful, notably being one of two tracks (three if you count "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" as separate songs) that doesn't feature any spoken word sections in them. In general, with the exception of "Great Gig In The Sky", the already slower and mellower tracks on DSOTM aren't butchered as badly as the faster tracks... with the key word being "Partially".
On March 24th, 2023, over half a year before DSOTM:Redux was released, a remastering of DSOTM was released through David Gilmour and Nick Mason's own record label, Pink Floyd Records. The remaster was done by James Guthrie, a veteran in the industry who has closely worked with the band ever since The Wall, and featured many additional goodies, most notably including a live performance from Wembley in 1974, something that hadn't been previously released as standalone or on vinyl (the live performance had appeared on previous rereleases, such as in the Immersion box set in 2011). However you may feel about the quality of the remastering, it's pretty clear that love was put into the release, and clearly serves as a celebration of the album's still ongoing legacy. I feel nothing similar with this record. Despite supposedly being a "tribute" of the album, and that it's "more indicative of what the concept of the record was", I simply do not hear any of that in the slightest. All I am hearing is a sad old man trying to milk out the last remnants of goodwill his fans still have for him, all the while continuing his neverending feud with the people he used to be at the top of the world with 50 years ago. Maybe it's time to give it a rest, Roger. David and Nick are doing just fine. I'll finish this review by throwing back the rewritten final lyrics of Eclipse:
I'll tell you one thing, Roger, me old mucker. It is all dark.
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