The result is a stark, ascetic record that wears its heart on its sleeve to devastating effect. The focus here is on the message, on Waters’ famously incisive lyrics, delivered by the now 73-year old Waters in his usual gruff narrative style. There’s a great deal of space in the arrangements, and the stately, atmospheric music is largely devoid of knowing flourishes: at Godrich’s insistence, for example, there’s not a guitar solo to be heard, a major break with Floydian tradition. Godrich has done a remarkable job with the production of the album.

Is This The Life We Really Want?, produced by Nigel Godrich (most famous perhaps for his work with Radiohead). A two-track EP, consisting of ‘To Kill The Child’ and the lengthy, principally spoken-word track ‘Leaving Beirut’, appeared in the mid 2000s, but the much-anticipated full-length album of new material stubbornly refused to appear, despite Waters making frequent reference to his ongoing work in the studio.įinally, however, an album has arrived. Throughout all this touring activity, new songs would sporadically appear, appended to film soundtracks, tribute albums, or even sometimes performed live. The latter was an enormous creative and critical success, modern technology allowing Waters the chance to put on the kind of audio-visual spectacle he had always wished to present to audiences. Waters has been an almost constant presence on the touring circuit since, undertaking tours that showcased arguably his, and Floyd’s, most notable successes in the shape of The Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall. Significantly, the lengthy tour – essentially three years long, and immortalised by the In The Flesh live release – provided Waters devotees with the chance to experience a sizeable chunk of Amused To Death played live for the first time. Displaying less bitterness towards his ex-colleagues – perhaps partly because Pink Floyd was essentially mothballed as a touring entity after the tour in support of their album The Division Bell that ended in 1995 – Waters dug back into the Floydian back catalogue with relish, delighting fans who flocked to see him play his way through classic Floyd material and his own solo work. When he finally emerged from his self-imposed semi-retirement in 1999, Waters seemed to have turned a page. Aside from an extravagant staging of Pink Floyd’s seminal The Wall in Berlin following the breaching of the Berlin Wall, Waters kept a very low touring profile for over a decade. After struggling to compete with his ex-bandmates in the mid 80s, Waters seemed notably reluctant to go back out on the road. Amused To Death’s treatise on the power of the media to manipulate us, and our seemingly fatal attraction with destroying ourselves, seems more applicable now than it already did over twenty years ago.Īnother possible reason for the lengthy delay in recording a new album is that Waters re-discovered the joys of playing live at the turn of the millennium.

Perhaps this is partly because he so plainly believes that Amused To Death is one of his greatest achievements – something that’s difficult to disagree with, given how prescient its subject matter has proven to be. Many bands are able to fit an entire career within that time frame, but clearly the man who was for many years the creative centre of the legendary Pink Floyd was in no hurry to make another record.

It’s been 25 years now since Roger Waters’ last studio album, 1992’s Amused To Death.

Roger waters new album release date