Is This the Life We Really Want? [180 Gram Vinyl] [Download Insert]

by Waters,Roger

Overview

Roger Waters may not have made an album of new material between 1992 and 2017, but he was very active during that quarter-century. He toured regularly, wrote an opera, reunited Pink Floyd for the 2005 charity concert Live 8, and revived The Wall several times, turning the self-absorbed rock opera into a political piece. Is This the Life We Really Want?, his fourth song cycle, picks up on this thread, functioning as barbed protest music for the age of Brexit and Trump. Waters doesn't disguise his bile -- there's a lament for "The Last Refugee" and he spits out "picture a leader with no f****** brains," a clear broadside against Trump -- but the album doesn't seethe with rage. With its deliberate tempos, wide soundscapes, operatic guitar solos, and swelling crescendos, it is recognizably a Waters album or, perhaps more accurately, a Floydian one. Where his other solo albums sported productions that tied them to their time -- quite garishly so in the case of 1987's Radio K.A.O.S. -- Is This the Life We Really Want? is warm and supple, thanks in no small part to a band featuring guitarists Jonathan Wilson and Gus Seyffert, drummer Joey Waronker, and keyboardist Roger Manning. The key player, though, is producer Nigel Godrich, who gives this a sonic richness evoking late-period Pink Floyd without specifically nodding toward any particular record. Certainly, Is This the Life We Really Want? lacks the straightforward narrative or melodic thrust of The Wall, but it isn't as somnolent as The Final Cut, and if the songs don't call attention to themselves, they nevertheless form a long suite that works as a sustained mood piece. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	06/02/2017
Label:	Columbia / Sony Music
UPC:	0889854364915
Rank:	76514

Tracks

Disc 1

1. When We Were Young
2. D¿¿j¿¿ Vu
3. The Last Refugee
4. Picture That
5. Broken Bones

Disc 2

6. Is This the Life We Really Want?
7. Bird In A Gale
8. The Most Beautiful Girl
9. Smell The Roses
10. Wait for Her
11. Oceans Apart
12. Part of Me Died

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Roger Waters   Primary Artist,Bass,Vocals,Guitar (Acoustic)
Joey Waronker   Drums
Nigel Godrich   Guitar,Keyboards
Gus Seyffert   Bass,Guitar,Keyboards
Roger Manning   Keyboards
Jonathan Wilson   Guitar,Keyboards
Holly Laessig   Vocals
Jess Wolfe   Vocals
Lee Pardini   Keyboards

Technical Credits

Bob Ludwig   Mastering
Roger Waters   Composer
Darrell Thorp   Engineer
Nigel Godrich   Mixing,Arranger,Engineer,Producer,Sound Collage,String Arrangements
Wesley Seidman   Assistant
David Campbell   String Arrangements
Rachel Agnew   Voice Engineer
Barry Grint   Mastering
Richard Rowley   Photography
Sean Evans   Design,Creative Director
Dan Ichimoto   Design
Mahmoud Darwish   Composer,Inspiration,Translation
Rouble Kapoor   Assistant
Sam Petts-Davies   Engineer
Gosha Usov   Assistant
Monique Evelyn   Assistant
Celia Drummond   Voice Engineer
Danny Kamhaji   Design
Emma Clarke   Voice Engineer
Ingrid Schram   Voice Engineer
Jane Barbe   Voice Engineer
Kathy Somers   Voice Engineer