Is this the Roger Waters We Really Want?

Is this the Roger Waters We Really Want?

By: Erreh Svaia

Caprine Dispersion

Musically, it is impossible for me to deny the enormous weight of Roger Waters in the vision of the legendary band Pink Floyd and the obvious influence of these in contemporary music, his mastery in the conception of conceptual recordings lacks a close rival, starting with the departure of the founding member, Syd Barrett, Waters took the baton and from the emotional decay of Barrett, turned the band into a sort of explorers of the human subconscious through music, and arose albums like the classic and popular Dark Side of the Moon, from the year 1973, in which from its cover the dark vision of the subconscious fragmentation is approached, Waters goes deep into psychonaut to explore the devastating circumstances that were undermining Barrett's mind, two years later would come, which for my taste is one of the best records of the band, Wish You Were Here, moving away from the megalomaniac tendencies of the same Waters, Wish You Were Here is an ode to melancholy and the absence of, again, Syd Barrett, besides the overflowing human emotions always close to the edge of madness, but for Animals of 1977, the conceptual framework of Waters takes a turn, and through the use of animals as a metaphor for social classes is close to George Orwell's Animal Farm, and from this point on he becomes the undisputed leader of the group.

For the next classic, The Wall of 1979, Waters comes closest to theories such as social alienation, tangentially touching theories that seem close to those of Karl Marx, a concept that speaks of emotional barriers, megalomania, addictions, fascism and if more madness caused by modern life, by 1985, Waters had left Pink Floyd, and would embark on a mediocre solo career without many outstanding points, we could say that after The Final Cut of 1983, the inspirational muse left Waters, and from there, Waters would become a parody of himself, a character who toured in "tribute" to Pink Floyd, creating new music without relevance and reviewing over and over again his old songs of the discs Pink Floyd classics, in large part, their themes with the classic band were an introspective and obscure personal vision of the world around, but interestingly in recent years, in addition of the musical irrelevance of his solo career and the blatant exploitation over and over again of his old classics, Waters has sought to print a strong dose of politics in his live performances, Waters has understood well the phenomenon of recent times within the musical world , creating albums no longer seems of great interest to him, live shows have become his way of subsistence and obviously he has sought to link his old themes to a current context in order to keep them relatively and to be able to exploit them again before the new generations.

Of course there are bands that nowadays are immersed in the dark and icy ocean of the line-up discovered by Pink Floyd with Waters, it is not by chance the musical concepts deployed by people like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Tool or Muse that they speak at the same level of cryptic social criticism at the level of Waters, perhaps what is out of place are the strident statements recently made on tours of Waters against Israel, Donald Trump, Neoliberalism or Jair Bolsonaro, of course, I do not doubt that as anyone, Waters has his opinion about it, but from my point of view it is degrading and desperately opportunistic to use a show based on the classics of the band to connect it so directly with the political situation in the world, Waters falls easily into a dynamic "Faux" and is at the mercy of the conspiracy theories so in vogue these days, Waters sounds forced in these diatribes, Rage Against The Machine, or Ministry, certainly is not, could not be, despite the fact that we must admit that he dealt with his most recent Is This The Life We Really Want? recording that tries to connect the old spirit of the Pink Floyd with the current incendiary vision of Roger Waters, although without much success, or maybe it is an attempt to capture that "irony" that Bono talked about so much when they abandoned their initial sobriety for the Postmodern stridency, I do not doubt that Waters was a pioneer in addressing issues such as the loss of power (currently in effect without doubt), the loss of meaning or purpose, the "asphyxiating normality", personal relationships, loss of identity , social isolation and political alienation itself, there would not be a better time for Waters to create a contemporary masterpiece, but apparently he prefers to stay in his comfort zone, hide behind his old music, giant projectors and light shows, and that is, letting go of the occasional strident declaration to feel that it can influence in some way the global dynamics of today.