Amused To Death
by Roger Waters

From HyperBully 02/07/2011 22:51 | #18171 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I know I might get a lot of crap for this, but as my chart suggests, this is my very favorite Roger Waters album with or without Pink Floyd. The only exception is The Wall, but even that gap has gotten closer recently. I find it amazing and somewhat sad how relevant the album continues to be today, and probably will be for a very long time. To me, it is the ultimate summation of Waters' songwriting dating as far back as The Dark Side of The Moon. I'm not surprised he hasn't recorded an album since, as he realizes there is simply no way to top this. If he tries, it will lose some of it's impact after Waters becomes just another rock star of the past desperately trying to remain relevant into old age. The album is simply the ultimate way to complete a career spanning decades. This is Waters' third effort to create a solo album on par with his work with Pink Floyd without David Gilmour, and for the first time, he succeeds and then some. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that had David Gilmour appeared on this album, he would only have interfered. Jeff Beck is a much better guitarist anyway, and his solo on "What God Wants, Pt. 3" nearly blows away even the "Comfortably Numb" solo. As for the lyrics, all I'm going to say is that Waters finally got it perfect. He'd been trying for decades to make his "great statement" that this album is. His first attempt, "Dark Side of the Moon," was a musical masterpiece, but was too broad and commercial lyrically. After a sidestep with "Wish You Were Here," his next attempt, "Animals," was great as well, but was too bitter and borrowed too much from stuff like "Animal Farm." The closest he got with Pink Floyd was easily "The Wall," but that was simply too personal, selfish and egotistical, there's no getting around it. "The Final Cut" suffered from the same problems, and was too focused on the single issue of war. His first solo album, "The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking" was another sidestep lyrically, although it was brilliant, and "Radio KAOS" was just an all-around mess. Finally, however, on "Amused to Death," Waters took the various recurring lyrical themes he'd been dealing with for years and brought them together to create his ultimate thesis statement on the nature of the human race. "Amused to Death" is essentially "The Wall, Pt. 2" except Waters applied the themes explored on "The Wall" to the entire human race, so that everyone could relate to them, not just himself. Pink is now just "The Monkey," a metaphor for humanity, and we get to observe what's going on through his mind as he sits around watching TV. The lyrical themes of the album touch on entertainment, war, religion, the media, the economy, and society in general. Waters makes a damning case for his point-of-view throughout the album. Every single track simply destroys its target. Sonically, the album kills as well. I have never heard a standard, domestic CD issue that sounds this good. Whoever was in charge of mastering this album is a genius, and Waters himself clearly cares about sound quality. All of his Pink Floyd and solo albums are among the best-sounding CDs I have in my collection. In short, I could not recommend this album more highly. Sorry for the long ranting review, I'm just enthusiastic about this criminally overlooked album and want all of you to be able to appreciate it as much as I do.

Nobody who listens to the lyrics can't be moved by this. By my opinion this is THE best album of the 90s, and yes I have heard Nirvana and Radiohead. This sets all pop-culture and television in perspective. How we respond to what's shown on TV. We don't cry when we see a kid that has lost his foot by a foot-mine. We just think: aww, pity him! Because we see so much of it every day that even the news s just like any other TV program. And since Television is more or less the only way we receive pictures of situations around the globe, so that is also the only impression we get.

When the the concept is so deep and well written, AND the band members are all A-team musicians(Jeff Beck, Steve Lukather, Randy Jackson, David Paich and Don Henley. This album is so overlooked that it's devastating.

This was maybe written 25 years ago, but this is still just as relevant today as it was then. Now that we'r walking around with computers in our pockets, maybe it's even more relevant?

I like this album but am not as positive as some of the comments. It has some great songs, especially till the end, but also other songs with some interesting lyrics but hardly nothing to highlight in terms of music, and that's something that didn't happen in most of Pink Floyd masterpieces. (Edited)

A good album. A concept played by great musicians like Jeff Beck, Randy Jackson and Steve Lukather.
But there's something missin': the magic touch of others Pink Floyd.

From WrathchildIX 12/01/2015 10:37 | #153756 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

so Underrated album. But Best Roger's album, best any post-floyd album, and best album since The Wall. Also best prog album of 1990. I said SO