Roger Waters Releases Brooding ‘The Dark Side of the Moon Redux’
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Roger Waters in a publicity photo for The Dark Side of the Moon Redux
Roger Waters has released The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, an ambitious reinterpretation of one of the most famous and acclaimed albums in history, fifty years on from recording the original with Pink Floyd. The album arrived October 6, 2023, via Cooking Vinyl. Listen to Waters’ reinterpretation of many of the classic cuts below.
Recorded by Pink Floyd when Waters was just 29, The Dark Side of the Moon was an extraordinary multidimensional meditation on the human experience, the passage of time, descent into madness, and the abyss.
From the original July 21 announcement: As foretold by its opening line, The Dark Side of the Moon Redux sees Waters transcend this half-century void to reinterpret and embellish his original creations with a new perspective gleaned from his own life experience, philosophy, and the wisdom of age, with added emphasis on the philosophical, social and political themes of the original.
Watch Waters talk about the project
Waters’ vocal performance adds fresh layers of profundity to his classic lyrics, and gravelly wisdom to his philosophical new creations. Waters‘ and Gus Seyffert’s production strips back Pink Floyd’s psychedelic orchestrations into something rawer and more delicate, but no-less experimentally inventive, exquisitely textured, and rich in musical intertext.
Waters shared the lyric video for the album’s lead tracks, “Speak to Me” / “Breathe” on Sept. 21.
Listen to the Pink Floyd original of “Money,” followed by Waters’ new version
The new album’s credits are Waters: Vocals, Bass on Any Colour, VSC3 / Gus Seyffert: Bass, Guitar, Percussion, Keys, Synth, Backing Vocals / Joey Waronker: Drums, Percussion / Jonathan Wilson: Guitars, Synth, Organ / Johnny Shepherd: Organ, Piano / Via Mardot: Theremin / Azniv Korkejian: Vocals / Gabe Noel: String Arrangements, Strings, Sarangi / Jon Carin: Keyboards, Lap Steel, Synth, Organ / Robert Walter: Piano on Great Gig // Produced by Gus Seyffert and Roger Waters.
In the announcement, Waters said: “The original Dark Side of the Moon feels in some ways like the lament of an elder being on the human condition. 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.
“When I first mentioned the idea of re-recording The Dark Side of the Moon to Gus and [art director and designer Sean Evans] we all thought I was mad, but the more we considered it, the more we thought ‘isn’t that the whole point?’.
“I’m immensely proud of what we have created, a work that can sit proudly alongside the original, hand-in-hand across a half-century of time.”
Speaking of “time,” on August 24, Waters shared a lyric video for the song of the same name. He also posted the following:
Ticking away…….
The voice had been there all along
Hidden in the stones in the rivers
Hidden in all the books
Hidden in plain sight
It was the voice of reason
Thought I’d something more to say………
Listen to the Pink Floyd original, followed by Waters’ new version
On the day the new album was released, Waters shared a lyric video for “Us and Them.”
Listen to the new versions of the original’s closing tracks
In addition to reimagining each of TDOSTM‘s original ten tracks – which, like the original, run seamlessly together to create one epic composition—The Dark Side of the Moon Redux LP format features a bonus 13-minute original composition inspired by the re-recording as a final track. (We don’t know its name and can’t find it on YouTube.)
Pink Floyd’s original album received an expanded 50th anniversary edition earlier in 2023. A standalone edition of the album arrives on Oct. 13.
11 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationI like Rogers Waters, he’s a musical genius but why redux a classic album? “Dark side of the Moon” is one of the greatest albums of all time. Try working on another solo album or even better, call up Dave and tour together as Pink Floyd Redux.
You can’t improve on perfection.
I thought it was a little creepy. Felt like Pennywise should have been in the video instead of a dog
Roger knows who the real driver of Floyd was and it wasn’t him. Spoiled sport for years. Give it up. This track sounds like a scary lounge act..
I will give it a listen, but hope it’s not “ Give My Regards To Broadstreet”
I looked up the meaning of Hubris: describes a personality quality of extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence, often in combination with arrogance. The term arrogance comes from the Latin adrogare, meaning “to feel that one has a right to demand certain attitudes and behaviors from other people”.
Roger thinks we need HIS version of the well known album. That new “Money” does sound creepy and quite boring. No thanks.
Because Roger’s ego wants to strip away any contributions that David, Rick and Nick every made. The Redux will be only HIS point of view. All Roger. And somehow he thinks this will improve DSOTM. Sadly he is wrong. As you said – you can not improve perfection. The reason it is perfection IS the contributions of all 4 of them. Rick’s keyboard idea here, David’s chord change there, Nick’s tweak to the timing and Roger’s ever evolving lyrics.(and Davids smoother vocals are what make Roger’s ideas sound more palatable and thought provoking.
It was magic in a bottle and unfortunately can never be re-created, especially with Rick gone. So, I may give it a listen once, but it won’t hold a candle to the masterpiece.
Totalmente de acuerdo, éste tipo es el colmo de la arrogancia!
No, gracias!
When I told my wife about this story, she said, “That guy is a nutter,” which is exactly what I was thinking about him. He may have been brilliant once, and do monumental live shows, but something about Roger Waters isn’t right. His bitterness about Pink Floyd is constantly battling with his need to continue feeding off it.
Maybe the other Floyd survivors should each try their hand at a DSOM solo effort and see what they can come up with.
just came across best classic bands great stuff 64 years on so this is up my alley. i agree with the comments can’t improve on perfection. glad paul rodgers is ok. paul has a great girl there. seen bad company twice back in the day