The Dark Side of the Moon Redux is an album by the English musician Roger Waters, released on 6 October 2023. Produced by Waters and Gus Seyffert, Redux is a new version of The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) by Waters' former band, Pink Floyd, released for its 50th anniversary. It received mixed reviews; some critics praised the artistic exercise and renewed focus on lyrics, while others criticised its slow pace or saw it as indulgent.
Waters co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon, with lyrics by Waters, spent 736 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart and sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.[2] In 1985, Waters left Pink Floyd and began a solo career.[3]
In 2022, Waters released The Lockdown Sessions, comprising stripped-back rerecordings of several of his solo tracks and tracks with Pink Floyd. During the recording, it occurred to him that he could make a similar rerecording of The Dark Side of the Moon for its 50th anniversary.[4] In a press release, Waters wrote: "[We] were so young when we made [the original], and when you look at the world around us, clearly the message hasn't stuck. That's why I started to consider what the wisdom of an 80-year-old could bring to a reimagined version."[5]
Content
The Dark Side of the Moon Redux features no other members of Pink Floyd, and was recorded with musicians including Gus Seyffert, Joey Waronker, Jonathan Wilson, Jon Carin, Johnny Shepherd, Azniv Korkejian (Bedouine), Via Mardot, Gabe Noel, and Robert Walter.[6][7] It features spoken-word sections and no guitar solos, to "bring out the heart and soul of the album musically and spiritually".[8][9] The new version of "Speak to Me" includes Waters' recitation of his lyrics from the 1972 Pink Floyd track "Free Four".[10]
Waters did not intend Redux to replace The Dark Side of the Moon, and instead intended it as a tribute and a way to readdress its political statements.[11] He said: "The new recording is more reflective I think, and it's more indicative of what the concept of the record was."[12] The Pink Floyd drummer, Nick Mason, said Redux was "absolutely brilliant ... It's not anything that would be a spoiler for the original at all, it's an interesting add-on to the thing."[13] He supported the concept of revisiting and developing existing work.[13]
Release
Waters announced The Dark Side of the Moon Redux on 21 July 2023, alongside a digital single, "Money".[7] On 24 August, he released the second single, "Time", followed by the double A-side single "Speak to Me" / "Breathe" on 21 September.[14][15] In October, Waters held two concerts at the London Palladium, where he performed The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, spoke on topics such as Julian Assange and read from his unpublished memoir.[16]
On 30 January 2025, a super deluxe edition box set of the record was announced, released on 14 March 2025.[17] It contains the original album, vinyls for the three singles that were released in promotion of the record, as well as a new single (Us and Them), and a live performance of the entire album on vinyl and CD.[18][19]
On the review aggregator Metacritic, The Dark Side of the Moon Redux has a score of 59 out of 100, indicating a "mixed or average" reception based on nine reviews.[20]
In a positive review, David Quantick of Classic Rock called Redux "neither a massive gutting of the original nor a slavish copy". He wrote that "Time" sounded like a "boulder rolled up a hill, weary and aged", and described it and "Brain Damage" as "half-crooned" and effective.[22]Uncut called Redux "interesting enough" for "an artistic exercise",[27] while Mojo felt that "the new focus on these songs' lyrics proves deeply powerful, a different and profound kind of high", which makes the album "wholly valid, the unnerving, stirring adjunct Waters was aiming for".[23]
In Ultimate Classic Rock, Nick DeRiso gave Redux a negative review, criticising the replacement of the other Pink Floyd members with "more words". He found much of the emotion of the original record was missing, and described Waters' additional lyrics as "Waters talking again, yet somehow not saying much".[28] Jonah Krueger of Consequence argued that Redux existed only so Waters could "take the opportunity to re-write history, framing himself as the sole creative force behind The Dark Side of the Moon and using the Redux as some form of indulgent fodder to do so". He felt that many of Waters' changes make the album worse, though he complimented the overall production quality.[29] Christian Kriticos of Paste had similar views, criticising its slow pace and spoken-word passages.[24]
On the 2LP Vinyl releases, Side One spans "Speak to Me" through "Time", Side Two spans "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Money", and Side Three spans "Us and Them" through "Eclipse". Side Four contains an untitled original composition.
The cassette release splits the album the traditional way, between "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Money".
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