Roger Waters

| Is This The Life We Really Want?

Is this the album we really want? First impressions are of a Floyd compilation, so many sonic soundalikes does it contain, not just Roger’s trademark sneer and potty-mouth sarcasm but beats and arrangements conjuring Mother, Money or, on Smell the Roses, the hook from Have a Cigar and middle eight from Dogs. It must be deliberate (he puts dog barks on the Dogs crib)—but hey, if anyone has the right to sound Floydian it’s Roger, and there’s plenty to enjoy as he applies his dark frustrated humour to a world 25 years on from the apocalyptic predecessor ‘ Amused To Death’. The title track offers fresh atonal emphasis and new century themes—a moment of forward momentum on an album which musically faces his past so squarely, though that includes impeccable production wriggling with acoustic chatter and audiophilia that will make your system sizzle.