New Roger Waters album "Is This The Life We Really Want?" - June 2, 2017

IMHO, the new album is eons beyond Pros, KAOS, and ATD in quality. I would classify Pros as unlistenable.

 

I think Pros And Cons is pretty good from start to finish!

 

I'm loving this album, and I still continue to love The Endless River too.
I'm very pleased to have 2 masterpieces from Roger and Floyd in the space of only 3 years.

 

Agreed. ATD is my favourite RW album.
Both are 10/10 for me though.

 

I definitely need a 180g QUIET sounding vinyl reissue with UNCENSORED cover of P&C !

 

Just sayin', hard to beat the original Sax cuts on that one!

 

True, but clean, quiet copies are hard to come by. I'm sure Bernie can work his magic on this one too!

 

In which better way?

(i) Musically, the new album is rather tedious with little variations, less layers of sounds, less harmonics, and the same G/C/D chord progression (Deja Vu, Wait for Her / Oceans Apart / Part of Me Died). I will describe the final trio suite as a very lazy affair. Musically, that final is the poorest to any of Roger Waters solo albums.

(ii) An aging voice that partially suffers from a poor mix in some parts (on the title track for instance), and sometime out of tune (the singing on The Most Beautiful Girl is horrendous). I think the production should have spent more time to make the whole singing a more attractive side to this album.

(iii) The session musicians on ITTLWRW provide minimal input in the songs, and could have been used way more efficiently, specially Wilson that could have provided a much more attractive guitar style (though I do not consider him as a great lead guitar player)

(iv) I will take the final suite Watching TV - Three Wishes - It's A Miracle - Amused to Death against The Most Beautiful Girl (in the World ) / Smell The Roses / Wait for Her / Oceans Apart / Part of Me Died any day.

(v) I was listening to the last three Cohen's albums the other day, and to me the productions of those albums are good examples in which the voices were well put forward against the music during the mixing stage. In ITTLWRW, voices and music are blended on equal level, which makes it less appealing for a song writer like Roger.

Here is an interesting article about the production/mixing stages.

Inside Track: Leonard Cohen 'Slow' |

 

I started playing the song, ISTLWRW, from midway when I was in the car. During the spoken part. My wife asked what it was...as she expected me to reply "The Lion King"! (Soundtrack, where the bad lion speaks).

 

I'd say it's more varied and layered than his other solo albums. This is especially apparent on headphones.

I'd say it's the finest. The synth pads, the building, moaning drone in the background...the construction is much more subtle and brooding, yet tasteful.

And let me say, thank god the album doesn't feature the brutal, ham-handed overuse of background singers. What a relief.

Like American Idol?

This is a good thing. Roger is the star, not an All Star guitar hero who's best days are the 1970's.

Disagree. His voice was always equal with the music in Pink Floyd, and worked best with more dead-sounding drums. which Nigel thankfully returned to after the All Star Hit-Drums-As-Hard-AsYou-Can nonsense on Pros and ATD.

Actually, Rogr recently trashed that style of production, saying if he could do his solo albums over, he'd make them have less dynamics, and more naturalistic.

 

I'm sure those are nice also in their own way (new Floyd). And in the days of the interwebby, these things are a lot easier!

 

I know this is a Roger Waters thread but just wanted to share this Gilmour video 1981.






Interesting to watch because this was done during or just after The Wall tour.

 

So do I. As with "The Final Cut" I absolutely love the production on it. I wasn't keen at all on "Radio KAOS" but I recently got it on vinyl and I find it far more listenable than the CD, which I always found very harsh sounding. "Amused to Death" is one of my favourite albums, so glad I got the original double vinyl.

 

And for what it's worth, those are my favorite tracks on the album.

 

Funny you mention this. I've never liked Pros and can't understand why people enjoy it so much! I feel like I'm on crazy pills!

That said; Radio KAOS is pretty good in my opinion, so what do I know?! Better than Pros and Amused...though I think 'Is This the Life' is pretty easily RW best post Pink Floyd work.

 

There's an economy of sound that is refreshing compared to the relative bombast of Amused to Death which, despite some nice moments, is a bit overcooked in my opinion. Check this out...

Amused to Death - Personnel

• Roger Waters – vocals (all tracks except 1), bass guitar (tracks 2 and 13), synthesisers (tracks 2 and 4), guitar (tracks 5, 11 and 14)
• Patrick Leonard – keyboards (all tracks except 6 and 7), percussion programming (track 1), choir arrangement (tracks 2, 9-11 and 13), vocals (track 4), acoustic piano (tracks 11 and 13), Hammond organ (track 5), synthesisers (tracks 5 and 13)
• Jeff Beck – guitar (tracks 1, 2, 5 (2015 reissue only), 10-14)
• Randy Jackson – bass guitar (tracks 2 and 9)
• Graham Broad – drums (all tracks except 1, 5, 11 and 13), percussion (tracks 6 and 7)
• Luis Conte – percussion (all tracks except 2, 5, 9, 11, 13 and 14)
• Geoff Whitehorn – guitar (tracks 2, 8, 10 and 14)
• Andy Fairweather Low – guitar (tracks 2, 6-9, 11 and 12), vocals (tracks 6 and 7)
• Tim Pierce – guitar (tracks 2, 5, 9 and 12)
• B.J. Cole – guitar (tracks 3 and 4)
• Steve Lukather – guitar (tracks 3, 4 and 8)
• Rick DiFonso – guitar (tracks 3 and 4)
• Bruce Gaitsch – guitar (tracks 3 and 4)
• Jimmy Johnson – bass (all tracks except 1, 2, 5, 9 and 11)
• Brian Macleod – snare (tracks 3 and 4), hi-hat (tracks 3 and 4)
• John Pierce – saxophone (track 13)
• Denny Fongheiser – drums (track 5)
• Steve Sidwell – cornet (tracks 6 and 7)
• John Patitucci – bass guitar (track 11)
• Guo Yi & the Peking Brothers – dulcimer, lute, zhen, oboe, bass (track 11)
• John "Rabbit" Bundrick – Hammond organ (track 12)
• Jeff Porcaro – drums (track 13)
• Marv Albert – vocals (track 4)
• Katie Kissoon – vocals (tracks 2, 8, 9, 12 and 14)
• Doreen Chanter – vocals (tracks 2, 8, 9, 12 and 14)
• N'Dea Davenport – vocals (track 2)
• Natalie Jackson – vocals (tracks 2 and 5)
• P.P. Arnold – vocals (tracks 2, 3, 4 and 10)
• Lynn Fiddmont-Linsey – vocals (track 5)
• Jessica Leonard – vocals (track 8)
• Jordan Leonard – vocals (track 8)
• Don Henley – vocals (track 11)
• Jon Joyce – vocals (track 13)
• Stan Farber – vocals (track 13) (credited as Stan Laurel)
• Jim Haas – vocals (track 13)
• Rita Coolidge – vocals (track 14)
• Alf Razzell – vocals (tracks 1 and 14)

ITTLWRW Personnel

• Roger Waters – vocals, acoustic guitar, bass guitar
• Nigel Godrich – keyboards, guitar, sound collages, arrangements
• Gus Seyffert – guitar, keyboards, bass guitar
• Jonathan Wilson – guitar, keyboards
• Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. – keyboards
• Lee Pardini – keyboards
• Joey Waronker – drums
• Jessica Wolfe – vocals
• Holly Laessig – vocals
• David Campbell – string arrangements
• Donald Trump - introductory vocals on track 6[18][19][20]

 

I followed a hint on German fan page Pulse and Spirit and got me the Japanese CD version of the album. The sound is indeed very clear, distinct and definitely more fluffy than other digital versions of the album I have listened to. I would say it ranges on comparable level like the vinyl pressing.

 

I find it extremely hard to believe that CD got a unique mastering from all other CDs, can you post DR values or any other info?

 

Know what you mean. I doubted it by myself and all I have up to now is my listenig experience on my home system after staying abroad for a while... I will check for DR as soon as I have found out how it works.

 

I'd also put my money it's the same mix and mastering of all the other digital releases.

 

Question at the end of "Bird in a Gale" is anyone else hearing the lyrics change from "Is there room in this story for me... me... me... me... move... move... move"? Sounds like "me" changes to maybe "move"or something along those lines about half way though. Am I hearing things or is this legit?

 

IMO, the songs on this album are just too anonymous...musically. I've listened to it a couple of times now and just can't imagine listening to it much more. I'm fine with the lyrics/politics but it's pretty musically devoid. Other than Smell The Roses (which I find mediocre at best), nothing stands out...kinda all sounds the same. I think ATD is light years above this album. I don't get it really because RW has written great songs over the years [Hello (I Love You), To Kill The Child, The Tide Is Turning, Each Small Candle , Towers Of Faith, Lost Boys Calling,. etc.] but I don't think there's a single one on this album that measures up. They all sound like demos he recorded.

 

Interesting opinion as I find these 2 in particular at the bottom of the Roger Waters barrel. His singing on Hello... is painful for me to listen to. I love Lost Boys Calling, a great collaboration and beautiful, haunting melody from Moriccone.

 

All of these, bar 'The Tide Is Turning', are dreadful.