Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Discussions about Pink Floyd and Solo Official Album CDs and DVDs.

Rate this Album

5 - Best
7
23%
4
11
37%
3
8
27%
2
3
10%
1 - Worst
1
3%
 
Total votes: 30

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drafsack
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Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by drafsack »

Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

This thread is to discuss Roger Waters - Is This the Life We Really Want?

It is available in Vinyl and CD versions

Feel free to discuss any of the formats!

Image

Track listing

When We Were Young
Déjà Vu
The Last Refugee
Picture That
Broken Bones
Is This the Life We Really Want?
Bird in a Gale
The Most Beautiful Girl
Smell the Roses
Wait for Her
Oceans Apart
Part of Me Died
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by Jimi Dean Barrett »

When We Were Young- Although as experimental as anything from Music For The Body, this is a weak start compared to the Roger Waters songs that opened PF albums. 2.

Déjà Vu- Although it's the biggest Floyd sound smash and grab, the update from the drone backs Roger singing as an early highlight. 3

The Last Refugee- This is the best thing Roger has done solo. Even tops Fletcher Memorial Home for bringing unnamed people from today with their i-Phones. 5

Picture That- Like The Wall covering Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, but the other Beatles were too terrified on a bad trip to play their instruments. Great lyrics apart from "No fucking brains!" 4

Broken Bones- Do you think Roger got pissed off with movies and TV shows using half of the wolf sound in their shows? I love how he steps away from his late 60's psychedelia to the present. That said, the song taking me the longest to win me over! 2

Is This The Life We Really Want?- The third best song on the album. Love how he goes all cockney near the end. 5.

Bird In A Gale- The most experimental the album gets and it works. Speak To Me thrown through Don't Leave Me Now if Mason had a rocket up his arse when he used to drum for Roger! 5

The Most Beautiful Girl- Washed over at first, but now see it as a great bit of foreshadowing for the end of the album. 3

Smell The Roses- Shine On You Crazy Diamond later parts smashed into Watching T.V., but without the passiveness of watching. Sounds like it got it's fingers dirty writing it. The biggest Rock of the album and would be a highlight for decades for any other band. Maybe it's too late in the tracklist? It's got more of a stomp than the title track of Gilmour's RTL. But... 4

Wait For Her- First interpretation of poetry on a Floyd solo album since Barrett's "Golden Hair". The Final Cut but used for Love and guidance, instead of misery and suicidal. 5

Oceans Apart- Seamless blend but feels like it could of gone further. 3

Part Of Me Died- Fusion of the last two tracks on this album. Roger singing softly, as if lying in bed with you if you listen to it on headphones in the dark! A more wordy Eclipse but paced slower than Pigs On The Wing 4.

It's a shame Roger's voice wasn't given the filter processes as the instrumentation behind him. Although I think some of the swearing is used more to fill the metre rather than necessity the album is claiming to contain. Clearly the greatest Roger Waters solo album.
More concise than Amused To Death. More grounded than Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking. Although on paper it sounds close to the ideas on Radio KAOS, the music is more music combo as opposed to programming.

For all it's flaws it has better positives.
5
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by theaussiefloydian »

I gave this album a 4 overall, but that still comes with its criticism.
'When We Were Young' is kinda creepy, and a great way to introduce the dark atmosphere that surrounds the album. 4/5
'Deja Vu' does contain a lot of Floydian hints and pieces (see: the 'Mother' reference at the end), but it is nonetheless a good track to really get the album underway. Something about the tone (I guess?) of the guitar reminded me of 'Desert Island Disk' by Radiohead, a neat indicator of the fact that the album is produced by Godrich. 4/5
'The Last Refugee' is beautiful in its tragedy, and contains what my brother says is the first time he's seen the word 'iPhone' appear in a lyric. Sad, great arrangements, all in all great track. 4/5
'Picture That' is a track that is more or less 'One of These Days' repackaged with an angry view on today's society, but damn, is it good. Waters is as tactless as ever on this track, and the vocal arrangement make the whole thing just to much better. Note: the guitar FX in the quitter moments are sampled from the end of Radiohead's 'Pyramid Song'. All in all, again, 4/5
'Broken Bones' is one I don't like. The cough at the beginning is just insufferable (the reference to 'Wish You Were Here' in the previous track was much better, thank you), and from there it succeeds in holding my attention, just not to the same extent as the past few tracks. 3/5
'Is This the Life We Really Want?' begins with an obvious sample (and the amusing groan of frustration that can be heard when Trump opens his mouth), but from there it becomes 'Decks Dark' by Radiohead, with a hint of Bowie's 'Blackstar' thrown in there in the beginning. 3.5/5
'Bird in a Gale' at first plays with some new musical ideas, and that's pretty neat. Then it descends into the 'Dogs' rip-off at the end, which initially annoyed me but it's good in its own right. 3.5/5
'The Most Beautiful Girl'... Jimi Dean wrote that there is something there of interest, but I honestly can't find it. This track simply doesn't have enough to it to allow me to try and think of it as anything more than ambient music (and I do like people like Brian Eno, but they are ambient musicians. Waters is not.) 2/5
'Smell the Roses' gets my attention back pretty quickly. Just a few different Floyd sounds in this one (jussst a few...) but it rocks, and the biting lyrics are, I think, some of the harsher ones on this record. 4/5
'Wait for Her' is the beginning of the final three, and has a pretty feeling about it. Not much else to say about it. 3.5/5
'Oceans Apart' sounds like a glorified transition, but in that respect it works. If I'm nitpicking I can say that it mirrors 'Southampton Dock' by ending with a thought from the next track, but that's me digging too far. 3/5
'A Part of Me Died' would have been a perfect ending track, had it not been for the odd note it ended on (literally - the last chord change had me expecting more, but then it was like 'Oh, I guess it's over now?') The reprisal of the loop from the beginning of the album was a neat little move. 3.5/5
In my imaginary cut of this album, 'The Most Beautiful Girl' would not be there, and the last three tracks would have become one. But other than that it's a pretty good record. Only other note is that the transition between 'Is This the Life We Really Want?' and 'Bird in a Gale' is really abrupt and kind of threw me off - I imagine the experience is a little different on record (because Side 2 ends with IStLWRW).
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by The Stone »

This is definitely Waters' most concise album. Every song feels finished, and he brings a style he left behind with Floyd.
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by Hammer »

I love this album, I dare say better than Amused to Death.
Lots of great Floyd moments here.
Anybody know where I can find an official source for the lyrics? I got the mp3 download from amazon and they didn't offer a pdf of the booklet, would appreciate the help.
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by twcc »

Hammer wrote:...
Anybody know where I can find an official source for the lyrics? I got the mp3 download from amazon and they didn't offer a pdf of the booklet, would appreciate the help.
Here you go -

https://genius.com/albums/Roger-waters/ ... eally-want

Click on individual tracks as required, I guess you could grab and create your own booklet if required
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by Hammer »

Thanks
I need to pick up a physical copy of this.
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by A Syd Casualty »

Its a lot better than I was expecting.
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by Peter Beasley »

Makes 'The Final Cut' sound even more like a Pink Floyd album.
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by Annoying Twit »

Hammer wrote:I love this album, I dare say better than Amused to Death.
Lots of great Floyd moments here.
Exactly my thoughts too. I gave it a 4 as it would have to match TW, WYWH, and DSotM to get a 5, but this is a great album.
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by Rooster1 »

I really enjoy this album. I have it on vinyl and do find the overall mastering / mixing of it to be quite thin (when compared to something like ATD or even TFC). It's a shame as I know the effort Roger put into re-mastering ATD recently which sounds amazing.

Despite this it's a good release and I still think Smell The Roses is the best post TFC track by any member of Pink Floyd.
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

The drumbeat on "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" seems to be an intentional tribute to David Bowie, who died a year before ITTLWRW was finished. It's not unique to that song, or something that can even be "stolen" - but there's no way Nigel Godrich wasn't at least aware that many people would associate it with that song. Bowie himself even referenced it at the end of "You Feel So Lonely You Could Die" in 2013.

https://youtu.be/MCxD-neHy_0
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by rockfenris2005 »

Never heard a single song from this. How does it fare next to Amused to Death?
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by Jimi Dean Barrett »

rockfenris2005 wrote: Mon Mar 01, 2021 5:47 pm Never heard a single song from this. How does it fare next to Amused to Death?
Amused To Death was more... Spacial compared to the direct musicianship on this album. It at least has the best singing Roger's done on his solo albums. Nearer the end of the album.
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Re: Roger Waters Is This the Life We Really Want?

Post by rockfenris2005 »

Yup. Thanks.