Sometimes, you come across a record that you never expected to exist. A record that you never imagined someone would take the time to make, from a concert you would never expect someone to bootleg in the first place. For me, this latest release by Andy Capp Records is just that: unexpected. Unexpected, yet delightful for many reasons. Since the inception of this website, I had thought about doing a review of sorts for Roger Water’s Redux version of The Dark Side of the Moon, but had not yet gotten around to doing it. Therefore, this article will kill two birds with one stone by being a sort of mini content-based review and an album review for this particular release from Andy Capp Records.
This performance by Roger Waters occurred on 8 October 2023 at the London Palladium, where he debuted the live performance for his re-make album, The Dark Side of the Moon Redux. If you are wondering… yes, this is the show where Roger flipped out on a fan who did not want to hear him read from his forthcoming book. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), this recording does not contain this outburst. I will confess my slight disappointment now, and we can move on.
So, what to say about this actual release? Lately, I think, Andy Capp have been outdoing themselves with increasingly cool artwork, and better looking and better sounding pressings. All of their pressings are still small run and limited, but each one has a variety of different color variants you can choose from, provided you can find any of them for sale in the first place. According to Roger is pressed on four different colors of vinyl, and it was difficult to choose just one. The one I ultimately ended up with that you see here is the red and black splash version, which is limited to 120 copies worldwide. It is a beautiful, heavy weight record, and I find the colors to be quite stunning.
As you can see, the sleeve artwork itself is very striking. It features an eyeball, prism, and rainbow heartbeat on the obi. I would love to be able to buy this cover artwork as a poster. As usual, the sleeve is heavy and of high quality. The printing is great, and the colors are rich and vibrant. Each copy comes with a numbered sticker on the back in the bottom left corner, with each variant color having its own numbering. All copies of The Dark Side… According To Roger also come with a very cool sticker, and a CD containing the full show. The CD is also extremely high quality and comes in a cardboard sleeve of its own, featuring full artwork. The disc itself is not a CD-R or burned copy, but rather a silver, pressed CD. It will last a lifetime.
The recording quality we have here is superb. To me, this sounds like a soundboard recording, rather than coming from underneath somebody’s chair. The pressing itself is a tiny bit crackly in parts but is hardly noticeable on my copy. If anything, a small bit of vinyl noise actually adds to the ambiance of this particular recording. I never thought I would say something like that, but here we are. I do not see how anyone could be disappointed with the audio quality of this performance. The actual performance itself though, is another story and is going to be highly subjective and polarizing.
Just to be clear, I am going to try not to judge the content of this show too much. It is what it is, and I am sort of just reporting to you what I hear. This is a bit unusual compared to my other reviews, but I figure many Pink Floyd and Roger Waters fans may not have heard this album yet for various reasons. Fewer people still will have heard this particular live recording. If you are wondering, it is very similar to the recorded, officially released version, and the lyrics and such are 99% identical. With all this being said, let us take a look song by song…
The first two tracks on this album, “The Bar” and “Mother”, are available exclusively on the CD portion. Andy Capp has (wisely) isolated only the Dark Side performance to the vinyl itself, probably to keep things more cohesive. Roger’s voice throughout this album is channeling Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and of course, himself. In certain parts, it sounds like he is “making a voice,” but not quite. It’s difficult to explain.
The Bar – Clocking in at over ten minutes long, this is a Water’s song I had not heard before. It’s got a few cool Bob Dylan references, and he performs it with what sounds like two other people. This is Roger being very angry, and he drops a lot of “F-Bombs” and such that feel unnecessary, forced and out of place. Thankfully, this is mostly isolated to this track.
Mother – The audience goes crazy when they hear that “Mother” is starting. Probably because they don’t have to sit through “The Bar” anymore. This is a pretty standard and nice sounding version of the original song, but has what sounds like someone singing an A-Cappella version of the guitar solo, which is kind of weird. At two different points, the lady singing duet with Roger either cuts out, or forgets some of the words. I’m pretty sure it was forgetting the words. You could tell that the audience really liked this song and were hoping that the rest of the evening would sound just like this.
Breathe – It becomes apparent that the rest of the evening will not sound like “Mother.” Roger begins reciting some spoken word over a subdued rendition of “Breathe”. For dedicated fans, we will all recognize these lyrics from the song “Free Four” off the Obscured by Clouds record. “The memories of a man in his old age are the deeds of a man in his prime…” song about getting old and dying. I feel like this really sets the tone for the rest of the performance.
On The Run – This piece now contains lyrics, specially written for the Redux version of the album. It sounded to me like Roger reading a “dream journal,” of sorts, and the story has him fighting Evil itself for the duration. At this point, I really began to wonder whether he had memorized all these new spoken lyrics, or if he was reading them out of a notebook or something. I imagine he has got to be reading them, but if he actually memorized them all, color me extremely impressed. Overall, this track sounds like a fever-dream. Some spots are really heavy in strings, and overall, the piece sounds a bit like chamber music in quite a cool way.
Time – This one sounds pretty much like the song we have come to know and love. The main difference here, besides the sparse music, is that the guitar parts are being hummed/sung once again. The strings are a real standout on this track as they are any time they pop up during the performance.
Great Gig in the Sky – Far from being the instrumental piece it was originally conceived as, this version of “Great Gig” has Roger reading a letter he received from a friend about another friend who was in hospital dying of cancer. If you think this sounds depressing, you would be correct. He says that “sometimes” at the end of his shows, he likes to “wax political.” “Sometimes”.
“Great Gig” then concludes with Roger telling about how he went to the dying man’s estate sale and picked up some hooks and bailers twine from a barn. No one knows where or if to applaud at the end of this one.
Money – This track starts with the standard lyrics, but they are delivered in an unexpected, beatnik sounding way. There are no cash register sound effects (they certainly would not have fit), and most of the music is gone. In the middle, the old lyrics are replaced by “welcome to hell.” Roger then proceeds to tell a story about a boxing match between some guy and the devil. It’s a bit esoteric, what with the discussion of Faustian Pacts and the like. Really, the phrasing Roger uses here is very cool and interesting. If someone wanted to turn “Money” into beat poetry about the devil, I challenge them to find a better way to do it.
Us and Them – From this point on, I feel like even people who have been really uncomfortable hearing their favorite album changed, and haven’t liked the record so far, might be won over. “Us and Them,” as well as everything that lies ahead, is probably what people were expecting to hear when they went to see this show or decided to listen to this album. Even though the organ sounds a bit lobotomized here compared with the original, this is still a cool take on the original version. It’s a bit sadder sounding, if you can imagine that, and I think I can see what Roger was going for here.
Any Colour You Like – This one, of course, didn’t originally have any lyrics either, but the ones Roger has added here really fit. They are simple and add to the song, at least in the context of Redux. This is probably my favorite track on this version of the album. It really keeps the feeling going that was established one track back during “Us and Them.”
Brain Damage – This song is true to the original version for the most part, but still fits in with the sadder Redux feel. It’s almost like Roger gave up on the spoken word thing about halfway through the album, which I think works out great. He gets across the point he was trying to make (I think) and then brings us all back in with something that’s still a bit different, but that also manages to feel familiar.
Eclipse – This one falls right in with “Brain Damage”. It’s exactly what you would expect and is a really excellent rendition. A great version of this song to finish off the Redux album with.
Outro – Once again, this track is only available on the CD. At the conclusion of the performance, people had a really nice response. Maybe because it was over, but it was still a good reaction nonetheless. In his concluding speech, Roger says that he is proud of what he and the band have accomplished here, and that this is a “great night in his life”. He is very gracious in his thanks, which was great to hear.
In Conclusion…
After reading some of my thoughts here, you might very well be thinking that I did not like Dark Side of the Moon Redux, or the real album in question here, The Dark Side… According to Roger. This is not the case. It has been said in other reviews and in various online forums that people fall into one of two categories when they hear this remake. They either love it or hate it. I would argue with that and say most people either hate it or are indifferent about it. A very few people seem to love it. Before hearing The Dark Side… According to Roger by Andy Capp Records, I fell into the “indifference” camp. After hearing it live on this version, I like it a lot better than I did the first time around. No matter how you feel, it is important to remember that Redux is not an attempt to erase the original album. It isn’t going anywhere. If you can see Roger’s solo version for what it is, it’s a good listen… at least once.
When I originally heard the album, I listened to it on Spotify. The fact that digital music sounds lifeless and dull to me didn’t help matters. I bought the double album on vinyl and cassette, but never listened to it again. After hearing this live version, I feel a bit inspired to revisit the official recorded version again. I did not expect that to happen. However, I still think I am going to prefer this version over the studio one. Like most live performances, it’s much more honest and because it’s Roger Water’s, it is, of course, well done.
Even if you didn’t particularly care for the Redux album, I think The Dark Side… According to Roger is worth picking up for the Waters or Floyd fan, simply for its historical value, cool packaging and extras. It was a bold choice by Andy Capp, but I believe they have hit a home run with this one. Myself, I will be picking up yet another copy of it to add to my collection, just because it’s such a cool physical piece. As far as I’m concerned, this release is a solid 10/10 on all accounts.
So how much should you expect to spend on this one? Well, if you discount international shipping, you are looking at between 55.00 USD and 105.00 USD depending on where you manage to find it, and what color you choose. The price does vary by color and the number of copies available of that variant. As always, this release is limited, so if you want one, don’t sleep on it and track one down!