Andrew Atcheson

Well, this is going to be a very divisive release amongst PF fans. For context, DSOTM is one of my most favourite albums of all time and I have worn out 1 vinyl and 2 CD copies of it to date. So my 1st copy, (an orange vinyl double album with limited print nonetheless - I will come back to this) arrived today and I eagerly put it on the turntable, not exactly sure what to expect. So what I get is a very stripped back version, almost acoustic in parts. Roger sings like he is afraid to awake the kids upstairs. Roger can sing passionately but doesn't. He takes on a narrative role with prose and stories with a quiet occasionally dystopian feeling behind them. Like a film soundtrack, the focus is on Roger's voice rather than the combined force of a band. I do like this take on DSOTM, but without the original I doubt I would pay this much attention. It almost feels a closure for Roger, in that he finally gets his way without protest from the rest of PF. Its nice to have this luxury I would imagine. Something he needed to get out of his system before he dies, is another thought, as the subject of death features heavily in the narrative. Yes death is a large part of the original version but so is life and hope. Gone are the flares of briliance in the music, no Gilmour, Mason or Wright putting their stamp on proceedings. Oh, and what is the point of side 4? If I want to hear the birds, i open the window. It will be the first and I daresay the last time I listen to a dog sniffing a microphone. Somebody has given Roger a heroic dose of MMs and a portable voice recorder methinks. This release has a variety of different formats, some of them marketed as highly collectible and priced accordingly, appealing to a certain demographic of PF fans. At this point I would like to add that there was no free digital download card included in the format I purchased. The cynic in me thought that a redux version was already cashing in on the historic success of the original. All this marketing of special versions reinforces this opinion. it all seems a little hypocritical of Roger's values of which he has been occasionally known to speak about. But this is supposed to be about the music right?