Roger Waters’ Dark Side of the Moon (Redux) Attempts to Erase Pink Floyd

Jonah Krueger
·7 min read
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The post Roger Waters’ Dark Side of the Moon (Redux) Attempts to Erase Pink Floyd appeared first on Consequence.

Even when he was still an active member of Pink Floyd, Roger Waters was a magnet for controversy and conflict, especially towards the end of the ’70s as he vied for control of the group. Stories of the bassist spitting on audience members, habitually firing core members, and reducing any and all outside input have become integral aspects of the Pink Floyd lore. In his latest effort of seeing just how far he can push his fans before his elaborate stage show downgrades from arenas to clubs, he’s rerecorded the seminal Dark Side of the Moon in full. Appropriately titled Dark Side of the Moon (Redux), the new version does exactly what it sets out to: shining the spotlight on nothing and nobody else but Waters. Funny thing about the spotlight, though, is it can expose flaws just as easily as it demands attention.

The obvious question classic rock fans and college freshmen are asking themselves as they press play on Waters’ latest passion project is, “Why?” To take Waters at his word, it’s to give the 10 iconic songs the perspective they were always meant to have. “The original Dark Side of the Moon feels in some ways like the lament of an elder being on the human condition,” Waters said in a statement. “But Dave, Rick, Nick, and I were so young when we made it, and when you look at the world around us, clearly the message hasn’t stuck. That’s why I started to consider what the wisdom of an 80 year old could bring to a reimagined version.”

On the surface, it’s a compelling enough argument. The subject matter of Dark Side is existential and often comes across like a warning, as if a regretful man at the end of his life is cautioning the next generation not to repeat the same mistakes. Dark Side of the Moon (Redux), in many respects, aims to double-down on this aspect of the album, with Waters willingly showing his age in both his newly-added lyrics and vocal performance. For better or worse (unfortunately, mostly worse), the sonics are then tempered down and stripped back, aiding in giving the redux a more weary and aged feel.

Tonally, the new versions of the tracks bear little resemblance to their 1973 counterparts. Gone is the blues-tinged progressive rock bite. Instead, they’re now slow and sparse, often feeling more like a score for a nondescript apocalyptic film than a batch of compelling rock tunes.

Sometimes, the new ambient, dramatic vibe does result in interesting textures, like in the intro of “Time,” which almost echos Animals with its organ-like ambiance and acoustic guitar, or “Eclipse,” which reframes the original’s climatic explosion into a swaying and bittersweet epilogue. Elsewhere, though, it can feel as if the tunes are barren landscapes with a little too much empty space. This, in no small part, is thanks to Waters’ complete removal of Gilmour’s guitar work.

Which, dear Pink Floyd fans, might help point to the true motivation for Dark Side of the Moon (Redux). Dig up more and more quotes from Waters, and the idea that he’s doing this purely as an artistic exercise sounds increasingly like well-crafted PR speech rather than an honest reflection of the project. Considering the original stands as one of the most iconic works of rock and pop music half a century after its initial release, the sentiment of “the message hasn’t stuck” seems a little silly, and Waters, for his part, is less “regretful, wise, empathetic elder” and more “old man yells at cloud.”

In reality, it seems more likely that Waters is taking the opportunity to re-write history, framing himself as the sole creative force behind the original Dark Side of the Moon and using the redux as some form of indulgent fodder to do so.

“I wrote The Dark Side of the Moon. Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ crap! Of course we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed – but it’s my project and I wrote it,” he said in an interview with The Telegraph. “Gilmour and Rick? They can’t write songs,” he continued “They’ve nothing to say. They are not artists! They have no ideas, not a single one between them. They never have had, and that drives them crazy.”

A prime example against the idea that everyone mellows with age, Waters has seemingly only grown more antagonistic towards his former collaborators with each passing year. On top of social media fights and always ensuring to take jabs in interviews, the reissue of Animals was famously delayed for years due to a Waters-led dispute over the minute details in the liner notes, resulting in the “2018 Remix” only seeing the light of day in 2022.

This “Waters and only Waters” perspective swallows the entirety of the project. Waters and his team don’t even attempt to recreate Gilmour’s iconic solos on tracks like “Time” or “Money,” instead substituting in strings or extended passages of spoken word. As much as attempting to get away from the rockism of the original recordings sounds like a progressive idea, the record is clearly worse off for it. The decision is a primary reason why the redux feels like slowed and highly-orchestrated versions of popular songs that have plagued movie trailers for the past decade.

But that sparseness gives Waters the room to include what was almost definitely the reason he followed through on the project in the first place: his spoken word. Waters’ poetry is all over the damn thing, with only a single cut (“Us and Them”) going without it.

Which, if you’ve kept up with the many, many headliners featuring Waters’ name, might have you understandably worried. His extremely outspoken politics have gotten the songwriter in increasingly hot water over the past two years or so.  Waters has planted his flag in various international conflicts, most notably taking a hard line against Israel and defending Russia for their invasion of Ukraine. Such stances have resulted in canceled and uncanceled shows, legal investigations, and enough allegations of anti-Semitism to warrant a documentary.

Fortunately, Waters’ words avoid being overtly offensive, both in terms of their politics and artistic quality. More often than not, they’re somewhat abstract phrases and stories with a vague notion of edginess or subversion. This impression is only heightened by Waters’ delivery, which cranks the drama up to a strong 11.

The best example comes at the opening of the record, as Waters’ interpolates the Obscured by Clouds track “Free Four.” The lyrics of the original are humorously morbid, juxtaposing plain descriptions of death with a cheery, jaunty instrumental and lead vocal. When Waters recites the same words for “Breathe,” however, the irony is lost, and what once worked as a fun and thought-provoking verse now reads as a high schooler’s angsty poetry.

Such is the primary issue of Dark Side of the Moon (Redux) as a whole. The record sounds excellent — Waters has far too many resources for it not to — and there are even some nuggets of interesting new ideas. For the most part, however, Waters’ ego and desperation to put himself front and center drag the project down by the stone. There’s a world where rerecording Dark Side of the Moon works, but this redux is too misguided, too indulgent, and too up Waters’ behind to take all that seriously.

A charitable reading of Dark Side of the Moon (Redux) would frame it similar to Taylor Swift’s recent efforts with her string of “Taylor’s Version” re-recorded albums. For Swift, her decision to recreate her classic material came as a result of predatory contracts, seven-figure deals, and an infamous figure in the music business. You know the story; in short, Swift got screwed out of quite a bit of cash and the opportunity to own her work. As I’m sure Waters would argue, he is similarly attempting to reclaim his power and his art. Frankly, that’s hard to buy. Unlike Swift, the new version of Dark Side doesn’t come as a defiant, artist-first rebellion against the vampires of the music industry. Instead, it seems the reason for the redux comes down to two simple words: petty ego.

Roger Waters’ Dark Side of the Moon (Redux) Attempts to Erase Pink Floyd
Jonah Krueger

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