Roger Waters - Amused to Death

Amused to Death is perfectly titled; it conveys its maker's mordant humor and underlying pessimism. Roger Waters's third solo album allowed a faint but perceptible return to the sound of his estranged former band, Pink Floyd. There are moments here ("What God Wants," "Three Wishes") that recall nothing so much as the densely textured sound of Animals and The Wall. And like those works, this is a concept album--the concept (as ever with Waters) being the crappy nature of modern life. Fair enough, but as usual, his satire is blunt and the targets of his scorn obvious. Former Eagle Don Henley duets on "Watching TV," while Jeff Beck contributes taut, lyrical solos to a number of tracks, notably "It's a Miracle." Waters's voice, however, remains the same: a weary whisper, positively dripping with contempt. --Andrew McGuire Amazon.com

Roger Waters - His Best Solo Album

This is Waters best solo album and although it has some flaws is probably the closest he has come to the glory days of Pink Floyd. Guitar god Jeff Beck guests on this one and helps to bridge the guitar gap missing on Waters albums ever since he split with David Gilmour. The album is another concept piece mainly revolving around war, politics, and more war. The themes of the album are as relevant today as when they were written in 92. Waters tends to be a bit wordy at times and has a tendency to drive his points home probably more than needed, but for the most part this is a solid effective disc. As with his other solo efforts the album failed to generate a lot of interest at the cash registers. 15 years later he has yet to do another solo album. It's a pity because I think with each solo release Waters was producing better material. June 27, 2008

Let it grow on you....

I don't know what it is about Roger's work since 1977, but as much as I love the guy with Floyd and without and as much as I expect to like his work, I almost never do when I first hear it. The Wall is probably the exception as I'd heard enough of that on radio to have some familiarity with it before I heard the whole thing, so the songs I knew and the overall theatrical nature of it pulled me in right away.

But the Final Cut (which is actually "Pink Floyd," but many consider to be something of a Waters solo album since he wrote and sang pretty much all of it), The Pros and Cons of Hitchiking, Radio KAOS and now Amused To Death all didn't appeal to me on first listen, probably because there aren't many "catchy" songs that have immediate appeal. But that's not what Pink Floyd was about (they rarely released singles), and it's certainly not what Waters' solo career has been about either. He creates ALBUMS that tell a story or touch on concepts, so to evaluate it song-by-song is to miss the point. One really has to listen to the whole thing, and more than once, before forming an opinion.

Plus, did you ever notice how the immediately catchy/appealing songs are usually the ones you tire of most quickly and the ones that grow on you are the ones you love for life? Well, so it is for Waters.

Songs like the single "What God Wants" grabbed me right away as well as a couple of others early on in this one ("Perfect Sense," "The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range"), but then the lengthy sound effects between songs and just the overall length of the cd made me lose some interest. It wasn't as appealing to me as the previous album (Radio KAOS), which grew on me tremendously after repeated listenings and seeing the concert, so I wanted and expected to immediately love Amused To Death. When I didn't, I just set it aside and said "Oh well....".

So there this cd sat for years with my opinion of it as being "so-so" until Waters went on tour in 1999. When I found he was doing the song "Amused To Death" and "It's A Miracle" as part of his set (the two last songs on the cd), I figured I should give them a listen to familiarize myself with them, and when I did.... wow. Those are two really great songs!! So naturally, I went back and listened to the whole cd to let more of the album's concepts sink in and find out how these two final songs fit in with the earlier songs I had liked. Then I listened again. Then again. And again. And again and again and again until it was quite obvious that this was indeed a(nother) Waters masterpiece.

So I can actually understand the reviews here that are luke-warm or even downright negative, but I will say that those posters would probalby like this album a lot more if they listened to it thoroughly at least 2-3 times in its entirety with special attention paid to the lyrics. The music is solid too, particularly with Jeff Beck on guitar, but not so strong or catchy that much of it will grab you without the extra emotion that the lyrics deliver.

At the end of the day though, I agree with Roger that if you're going to have just 1 of his solo albums, this is the one to have, and that the holy trinity of Waters' albums is definitely Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall and this one, AMUSED TO DEATH.

Now if he would just put out ANOTHER one!! June 25, 2008

overly long

imo, theres only about 1 lp worth of good music which is about 40min.

i get bored halfway through and his voice is shot. my fav track is 3 wishes i think.

i recommend pros and cons and radio kaos over this. June 8, 2008

Bored to Death

This very lackluster effort by Roger Waters is not even close to being in the same league with his earlier solo efforts: Pros and Cons of Hitchiking and Radio K.A.O.S. Those albums are much more substantive, creative and original than ATD, which borrows every sound effect from them and earlier Waters/Floyd. I love PACOH and KAOS so much, was sure I'd love ATD, and after listening too many times, I have to say I'm done with anything new by Waters (Live in the Flesh DVD was horrible), and I'm going to check out the Gilmour side of things... March 29, 2008

Prophetic Later Career Album

Waters displays a view consistant with William Blake's in this album, which is that the Church is corrupt (what God wants, God gets), yet he makes references to the bible: "They bought the front row seats on Calvary".

He makes an allusion to Blake on the track "Watching TV": "dark satanic mills". Interestingly, his latest album, "Ciara", is based on the French Revolution.

It is a remarkable work, a tremendous achievement. There are many classic lines on it: "An honest man finally reaped what he has sown," "History is short", etc. March 22, 2008

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