There's a new Pink Floyd album coming out next week. This bitching has already begun. "It ain't Pink Floyd without Roger Waters," y'all scream in your thick southern accents. "There ain't no Floyd without Roger." Well, that's just bullshit, I replied.
But first, let's talk about the new album, The Endless River. The album should be seen as it was intended, as a tribute to unheard music composed by late Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright (who passed away in 2008). The music comes mostly from pieces recorded by Wright during the 1993 sessions for The Division Bell, the last Floyd album (1994). (There are some bits of music included that he recorded back in the late 60s too, but not nearly as prevalent in the mix.) De facto leader Dave Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason got together and recorded some tracks to go with Wright's music, and this is basically what The Endless River is all about.
And oh my, the haters are gonna hate.
Those people in the "There's no Floyd without Roger" camp are going to hate it out of habit. Most of them won't even listen to it. Many "I Dig Pink Floyd Regardless of Roger's Participation" fans won't care for it either, because it won't be what they expect: it's mostly an instrumental record; there's only one vocal track to speak of. But when taken for what it is, it's not too bad at all. If you use it while you're laying back and relaxing after a long day, maybe drifting in and out of a nice nap on the davenport, I think you'll like it just fine.
And as far as the "Roger or Bust!" crowd goes, just fucking chill already. First of all, the guy's a dick. He unceremoniously kicked fellow founding member Wright out of the band during the recording sessions for The Wall (although hired him back just to play keyboards on the following tour), and refused to have him back for The Final Cut, the last Waters-inclusive Floyd release (1983). His megalomaniacal behavior goes back long before that (stories of him spitting on a fan during the Animals tour are legendary, and he was quite a jerk to the rest of the fellows in the band dating back long before Dark Side of the Moon). Let's face it, those boys put up with his shit for way too long. However, they saw the band for what it was: a collaborative success. It's only when Roger started taking over that the albums started to decline. Hey, I love The Wall, but you cannot put it on the same shelf as Animals, Wish You Were Here, or DSotM, can you? No way. And that's because Roger made it all about him, this big concept album about his youth and later success and how it corrupted him.
And so after The Final Cut, which was even more about Roger than The Wall if that's possible, Roger decided he was leaving the band and thus it should be broken up. Now, he was more than welcome to leave, but he had no leg to stand on, insisting the band break up. It wasn't his band. It was a group, founded by three other people, one long before gone bonkers and departed into his mother's basement, and another forced to quit because Roger wasn't getting along with him. The fucking ego on some people, I tell you.
So when Dave Gilmour and Nick Mason decided to hire Rick back and move forward, Roger sued them, said they weren't Pink Floyd. But they were, and a judge agreed, after a long and very ugly series of legal proceedings.
Now, let's take a minute and calculate just how talented Roger is. He released three albums in the time since he left the band. A solid, yet dated album called The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, the forgettable Radio KAOS, and the mostly mundane Amused to Death. There was one single off Radio KAOS that did fairly well and you might have heard it (Radio Waves), and there was one single from Amused to Death (What God Wants) that got some radio play too. But that's it. Nothing special. Nothing brilliant. If he was so amazing, Roger-lovers, where, to coin a phrase, is the beef?
And let me be very clear: I LIKE Roger Waters. A lot. I think he's a pretty awesome songwriter. Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking is a huge favorite of mine, and a lot of the songs on the Final Cut I think are really amazingly good. But I also think post-Waters Floyd is pretty sharp too, and I think they aren't given a chance by too many people because, let's face it, most of you people are jerks.
So briefly, their post-Waters career includes three studio albums: A Momentary Lapse of Reason, The Division Bell, and the latest (and almost certainly final Pink Floyd release) The Endless River. Momentary Lapse featured three radio hits: Learning to Fly, On the Turning Away, and The Dogs of War. None of these are particularly great on their own, and there are IMO better tunes on the album (One Slip, and Sorrow are two of my favorites), but they were each individually bigger than any of Roger's solo cuts. The Division Bell had a hit with Keep Talking, featuring Stephen Hawking on vocals. It's a pretty solid album too, and like most of their catalogue (and certainly like all Roger Waters' solo albums) is a concept album that requires you to consume whole rather than in pieces, and thus hearing a single track doesn't really capture how good the album is as a whole. In fact, the Division Bell track What Do You Want From Me? is a smoker, but even that works better when taken with the rest of the album.
And the new album is the same: a bunch of instrumentals this time, but all strung together so they work like a suite, and it's really quite beautiful, a swan song for the band and a salute to their late keyboardist, who was really unappreciated.
I know this little essay of sorts won't change anyone's mind, and I'm also aware that it's unlikely more than two people who actually give a crap about any of this will actually read it, but it makes me feel better saying it, and isn't that what blogs are all about?
But seriously, just because there's no Roger doesn't mean it sucks. Pink Floyd was at its best when Rog was in the band, no question, but c'mon, don't be a dick about it. And you people who claim Syd Barrett was the true genius? No. That's all I say to you.
No.
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