Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” is widely regarded (by me) as one of the greatest albums of all time. Penned mostly by Roger Waters, it is an exploration of lunacy and how people go mad. This year on Oct. 6, Waters decided to remake it as a redux for its 50th anniversary. Unfortunately, this album is extremely disappointing, and it’s a sheer drop in quality from the original. The first thing you’ll notice about this album is that Roger Waters does a lot of talking. Wherever there’s a guitar solo or instrumental section in the original album, Waters instead monologues about his thoughts. This would be interesting if it was executed in a way that was listenable. However, he fails to accomplish this. In fact, it makes the originally instrumental songs feel extremely painful to listen to. The album sounds like he’s preaching while boring instrumentals play in the background.

Undoubtedly, the thing that makes “Dark Side of the Moon” so amazing is the instrumentals: David Gilmour’s soaring guitars and Richard Wright’s inventive synthesizers envelop and captivate the listener into a state of bliss. However, these elements are gone in the redux. They’re replaced with stripped-back instruments playing at lethargic speeds. This isn’t a bad thing; I actually think the instrumentals are pretty good every now and then. However, it just doesn’t work most of the time. The worst offender in this album is “Money.” In most of the album, Waters tries to sing, with somewhat decent results. However, in “Money,” he gives up and decides to whisper-snarl-ish, with all of the issues of the album in full force. I kind of get it: he’s trying to convey the predatory nature of capitalism. However, it really doesn’t work, and it makes one of the best songs of all time into a shockingly painful experience.