Return to Oz
A 50th anniversary reinvention that’s as necessary as it is timely – says Waters.
By James McNair.
Roger Waters
★★★★
The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux
SGB MUSIC. CD/DL/LP
WHY RE-PAINT your masterpiece? Why violate the sacrosanct, inviting comparisons between original and remake? Roger Waters’ reasoning has at least two strands. Firstly, Dark Side addresses madness, so why not embrace folly? Secondly, he argues that the LP’s ever-pertinent messages have gone unheeded, and thus warrant repeating. The aim, Dark Side’s conceptual architect has said, is not to “supersede or replace” the original version he loves, but rather “to remember it and provide an adjunct.” Fifty years on, after cover versions of the entire album by The Flaming Lips and other devotees, Waters has more right than most to meddle. But what a bomb to lob at the Floyd estate HQ.