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9 Comments

  1. Nick
    November 3, 2014 @ 12:22 pm

    This was his best solo album. I disagree with the lack of vision statement. The Internet is just another screen we entertain ourselves with. In fact even more so given social media and the ever growing flow of superficial information.

    I think after this album there was nothing left for him to say, as he’s said it all.

    Waters has always been dark and cynical. Why would that come as a surprise now?

    Anyway, nice review

    Nick

    Reply

    • mark
      August 7, 2015 @ 5:35 pm

      Nick, this is as near to a floyd album as we will ever get, doubt gilmours will be this close

      Reply

    • Rob Ford
      January 15, 2022 @ 8:25 am

      Exactly. Waters’ points continue to be relevant and prescient in the Internet age.

      Reply

  2. Mark G
    September 4, 2015 @ 7:15 pm

    It’s amazing how this reviewer can so completely miss the point of Waters’ lyrics, and also, so long after the album’s 1992 release, miss how relevant they still are in 2015. The misunderstanding is so great, that I suspect Albano’s politics differs from Waters’ and that’s what prevents him from grasping the meaning.

    Just as one example – in the title track, a species extinct through its own pointless amusement, juxtaposed with Alf Razell relating how he had been haunted all his life by his experiences as a young man in the First World War. This is described by Albano as ‘a tinge of hope at the end’. No.

    What it is, is Waters’ final comment on our culture of reducing everything (death, wars, revolutions) to light entertainment; that all that suffering happened so that we could sit and watch TV.

    Remember that bit at the start, “I don’t mind about the war. That’s one of the things I like to watch; if it’s a war going on. Then I know if our side’s winning… if our side’s losing.”? Or the man in the bar in ‘Bravery’ – ‘Sir, turn up the TV sound, the war has started on the ground.’? Or the Yellow Rose who in dying on TV became ‘half superstar, half victim… she’s a victimstar; conceptually new.’ Or the TV program about the US soldier returning to Vietnam and meeting an ex-North Vietnamese soldier… ‘What does it mean, this tear-jerking scene beamed into my home?’

    Far from Albano’s ‘it is worth a careful listen or two’, I think this album is worth settling down and getting to know thoroughly and intimately. It’s quite possibly the strongest album Waters’ will ever make. Which is saying something.

    Reply

    • Seán
      July 2, 2020 @ 10:46 pm

      Touched……think you hit the nail on the head. The review is flawed and typical of the bias due to lack of understanding or trying to.
      Some of these idiots who review classical qorks such as thia should be flogged lol

      Reply

  3. Paddy Donaghy
    November 4, 2015 @ 7:13 am

    Well said Mark G – I couldn’t agree more!

    Reply

  4. CHUCK
    August 3, 2017 @ 9:43 am

    IS THAT PETER BOYLE AS THE GENIE IN THREE WISHES.??

    Reply

  5. Phillip Chaplygin
    September 7, 2018 @ 9:28 pm

    This is an excellent album by Roger. “The pros and cons” was an excellent album as well, but “Radio KAOS” did not do so well. “KAOS” had so much potential with its concept, but with the damn music industry, the radio industry, etc., got in the damn way with his musical expression since they needed the album to SELL, SELL, and SELL. Thus leaving “KAOS” with only 8 tracks with an unfortunate vague concept; great songs though! Dont get me wrong, but you cant get a solid story just from listening to the album, you’ll need to conduct a fairly extensive study session on the album to fully grasp the idea.

    With “Pros and cons”, you just need to sit your ass down alone in a closed-off room with a turn-table and just FEEL IT. The concept of “pros” is much simpler compared to “Amused to death”, but it doesnt mean that it wont be as good. Referring back to the old saying “Simpler, the better”, this can be very true in the music world, sadly. “Pros” was a simple story with a complex musical composition about an ordinary man who was going through a mid-life crisis and was experiencing a rather “bad dream” that was musically/visually expressive about his thoughts and emotions on monogamy. The music is absolutely beautiful, in so many different ways, and it had a very simple concept to grasp (fyi, it is a Roger Waters concept, so you will need time to comprehend his lyrical style, but it is still an easy listen for a Roger Waters composition).

    With “Amused”, the concept IS sophisticated, it IS musically enjoyable, and it IS comprehensible. That what makes this album heavily favored by Pink Floyd and Roger Waters fans. It is definitely one of Roger’s best as a solo album. But having it’s complex concept, it is not widely appreciated in the music world. Again, “simpler, the better” That is why there are so many people who appreciate The Beatles, they are easy, fun, and happy to listen to. Most do not like to think when they listen to music, and that is so not right what-so-ever. “Is this the life we really want” is a whole different story.

    Overall, yes, this album is good.

    … and the wind cried mary, thank you…

    Reply

  6. Bunyip
    June 21, 2023 @ 10:24 am

    I have a lot of Jeff Becks recordings and I don’t think that comparisons with David Gilmour are fair at all, apart from them both being brilliant soloists on their instruments. Personally I think that Beck is by far the more technically superior musician and implying that he is in some way a pale imitation of Gilmore is entirely incorrect.

    Reply

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