Post by Helmut83 on Sept 2, 2015 3:50:43 GMT
- Radio Waves: wow, this is nothing like what I would have expected from Roger Waters. It sounds very ‘80s pop, with that drumming sounding semi-artificial, those synthetizers/keyboards in the background and the short refrain. A complete surprise; a decent one though, if only too repetitive at the end.
- Who needs information?: this one instead has a few reminiscences of some Pink Floyd era, even when the sound is pretty different, and, again, quite ‘80s. Good backing vocals, a bit gospel, but the melody is pretty weak for me except for the chorus. Not a big fan of the winds section either.
- Me or him: nice Celtic intro and overall atmosphere, but other than that the song doesn’t do much for me. I found it pretty boring. The vocals sound more to story telling than to singing.
- The powers that be: I guess you could catalogue this as a kind of progressive synth pop, if that genre even existed, because it mixes quite a weird structure with different parts and the sound is quite heavy on synthetizers and synthetic sounds all around. Nice guitar solo. A strange song, although I wouldn’t say it’s bad.
- Sunset strip: well, there was a big gap before this one started. I guess that’s when you turned the cassette around, isn’t it? Quite a festive song, at least for Waters’ standards; very poppy. He seems to go back to the basics on this one (the chords sequence is quite usual) and I like the result. That sax (and even the backing brass) sounds much better than winds in previous songs.
- Home: I’d split this son it two to analyze it because I don’t think verse and chorus form a cohesive unit. Very good chorus, surely what does the song stand out. I’m not a fan of the verse: it hasn’t got any melody at all, the guy just speaks through it. I don’t want to hear storytelling, give me some music. The chorus saves this song from being a complete waste.
- Four minutes: weird song again. Most of the time it has an epic atmosphere, kind of melancholic. Great piano at the beginning, and I like the percussion (are those cymbals?). It has some interesting bits, but a bit disconnected one from another. That clock is annoying.
- The tide is turning: usually I’m not a big fan of this kind of songs, but this one is really good. Great guitar work, I love that clean sound it has. Good melody on the verse and the chorus is a pretty well achieved one, the simple kind but very effective. I can imagine it being great for stadium singalongs. I think if only it would have had a bit more rhythm and energy I think the song could have shined much more, because the composition is excellent.
I’ve always disliked (strongly, I’d say) Pink Floyd’s work, but had been pretty ignorant about Roger Waters’ solo stuff. Maybe because Floyd’s discography was the reference I had, my expectations were really low.
This album has it’s ups and it’s downs. One thing that took me a bit by surprise was how very ‘80s most of it –if not all- sounds; I would have expected it to sound a bit more electric, a bit more rock. As a whole (this is, making an average of the songs), I would’t say I liked it, but it has it’s possitives. “The tide is turning” is an awesome song, one which alone was worth the listen. Then “Four minutes”, “Sunset strip” and to a lesser extent “Radio Waves” were interesting. The rest I didn’t like, but with that already it was better for me than any Pink Floyd album (yes, grab your head, Floyd fundamentalists!).
- Who needs information?: this one instead has a few reminiscences of some Pink Floyd era, even when the sound is pretty different, and, again, quite ‘80s. Good backing vocals, a bit gospel, but the melody is pretty weak for me except for the chorus. Not a big fan of the winds section either.
- Me or him: nice Celtic intro and overall atmosphere, but other than that the song doesn’t do much for me. I found it pretty boring. The vocals sound more to story telling than to singing.
- The powers that be: I guess you could catalogue this as a kind of progressive synth pop, if that genre even existed, because it mixes quite a weird structure with different parts and the sound is quite heavy on synthetizers and synthetic sounds all around. Nice guitar solo. A strange song, although I wouldn’t say it’s bad.
- Sunset strip: well, there was a big gap before this one started. I guess that’s when you turned the cassette around, isn’t it? Quite a festive song, at least for Waters’ standards; very poppy. He seems to go back to the basics on this one (the chords sequence is quite usual) and I like the result. That sax (and even the backing brass) sounds much better than winds in previous songs.
- Home: I’d split this son it two to analyze it because I don’t think verse and chorus form a cohesive unit. Very good chorus, surely what does the song stand out. I’m not a fan of the verse: it hasn’t got any melody at all, the guy just speaks through it. I don’t want to hear storytelling, give me some music. The chorus saves this song from being a complete waste.
- Four minutes: weird song again. Most of the time it has an epic atmosphere, kind of melancholic. Great piano at the beginning, and I like the percussion (are those cymbals?). It has some interesting bits, but a bit disconnected one from another. That clock is annoying.
- The tide is turning: usually I’m not a big fan of this kind of songs, but this one is really good. Great guitar work, I love that clean sound it has. Good melody on the verse and the chorus is a pretty well achieved one, the simple kind but very effective. I can imagine it being great for stadium singalongs. I think if only it would have had a bit more rhythm and energy I think the song could have shined much more, because the composition is excellent.
I’ve always disliked (strongly, I’d say) Pink Floyd’s work, but had been pretty ignorant about Roger Waters’ solo stuff. Maybe because Floyd’s discography was the reference I had, my expectations were really low.
This album has it’s ups and it’s downs. One thing that took me a bit by surprise was how very ‘80s most of it –if not all- sounds; I would have expected it to sound a bit more electric, a bit more rock. As a whole (this is, making an average of the songs), I would’t say I liked it, but it has it’s possitives. “The tide is turning” is an awesome song, one which alone was worth the listen. Then “Four minutes”, “Sunset strip” and to a lesser extent “Radio Waves” were interesting. The rest I didn’t like, but with that already it was better for me than any Pink Floyd album (yes, grab your head, Floyd fundamentalists!).