Roger Waters Announces 'The Dark Side of the Moon Redux' Release

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Roger Waters Announces ‘The Dark Side of the Moon Redux’ Release

Published: July 21, 2023
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Roger Waters will release The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, a reinterpretation of his former band Pink Floyd's famous 1973 album, on Oct. 6.

"I’m immensely proud of what we have created, a work that can sit proudly alongside the original, hand-in-hand across a half-century of time," Waters said in a press release announcing the album.

"The original Dark Side of the Moon feels in some ways like the lament of an elder being on the human condition," he noted. "But Dave [Gilmour], Rick [Wright], Nick [Mason] and I were so young when we made it, and when you look at the world around us, clearly the message hasn’t stuck. That’s why I started to consider what the wisdom of an 80-year-old could bring to a re-imagined version."

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The vinyl edition of The Dark Side of the Moon Redux will conclude with a new 13-minute original composition inspired by the Dark Side rerecording process.

You can hear the new version of "Money" below.

The project first came to light in February when Waters gave The Telegraph a preview of the reworked songs. In the accompanying interview, Waters was preemptively defensive of the project, understanding that some would question his desire to rerecord such a timeless album.

"I wrote The Dark Side of the Moon. Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ crap!" Waters declared. "Of course, we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed – but it’s my project and I wrote it. So … blah!"

A month later, he was more candid regarding the project.

"It's not a replacement for the original, which, obviously, is irreplaceable," Waters explained on Facebook. "But it is a way for the 79-year-old man to look back across the intervening 50 years into the eyes of the 29-year[-old] and say, to quote a poem of mine about my father, ‘We did our best, we kept his trust, our dad would have been proud of us.’ And also it is a way for me to honor a recording that Nick and Rick and Dave and I have every right to be very proud of."

Mason, for his part, was impressed with Waters’ new version of The Dark Side of the Moon. The drummer was sent a copy of the re-imagined album and liked what he heard. "I [wrote] to [Waters] and said, 'Annoyingly, it's absolutely brilliant!' It was and is," Mason admitted. "It's not anything that would be a spoiler for the original at all, it's an interesting add-on to the thing."

Roger Waters, 'The Dark Side of the Moon Redux' Track Listing
1. "Speak to Me"
2. "Breathe"
3. "On the Run"
4. "Time"
5. "Great Gig in the Sky"
6. "Money"
7. "Us and Them"
8. "Any Colour You'd Like"
9. "Brain Damage"
10. "Eclipse"
11. An Original Composition

Pink Floyd Albums Ranked

Three different eras, one great band.

Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso

15. 'Ummagumma' (1969)

Columbia

15. 'Ummagumma' (1969)

Pink Floyd wasn't quick to discover a post-Syd Barrett direction, trying and discarding a number of musical ideas after their original frontman disappeared. Here, they settled on presenting solo material – and that only served to illustrate the concept of a sum being greater than its parts. Richard Wright offered a four-part avant-garde keyboard suite, Roger Waters endlessly dabbled with sound effects, and Nick Mason unleashed nearly nine minutes of percussive noodling. David Gilmour later admitted he "just bullshitted" through his piece. Really, they all did.
14. 'More' (1969)

Columbia

14. 'More' (1969)

'More' represented a turning point more than a success story for the group, as Pink Floyd took its very first steps without both Barrett and producer Norman Smith. We hear Waters begin to move to the fore as a songwriter, even as Gilmour handles all of the vocals for what would be the first of just two Pink Floyd albums (the other is our next entry, 1987's transitional 'Momentary Lapse of Reason'). The results, unfortunately, are more experimental than they are focused. 'More' simultaneously makes a rare foray into folk, even while (on the thundering 'Ibiza Bar') unleashing some of the band's heaviest sounds ever.
13. 'A Momentary Lapse of Reason' (1987)

Columbia

13. 'A Momentary Lapse of Reason' (1987)

The now-departed Waters tried to sue to stop this guest-star-laden comeback album from happening, saying Pink Floyd was a "spent force creatively." 'Momentary Lapse of Reason,' with its too-poppy hit single 'Learning to Fly,' too-draggy 'Sorrow' and too-familiar 'Dogs of War,' nearly proved it, too. But the dream-like 'Yet Another Movie/Round and Round' represented the best of what the remaining Floyds still had to offer, even as it provided a glimpse into the smaller successes that the reconstituted trio of Gilmour, Wright and Mason would muster for 'The Division Bell.'
12. 'Obscured By Clouds' (1972)

EMI

12. 'Obscured By Clouds' (1972)

This was originally conceived as a soundtrack to the French film 'La Vallée,' and – with its series of short, incidental pieces of music – too often plays like that, rather than as a full-fledged album effort. Still, there were important pointers to what lay ahead: 'Free Four' was one of the first songs in which Roger Waters dealt with the death of his father, while 'Childhood's End' found David Gilmour trying his hand at lyric writing for the first time. 'Wot's ... Uh, the Deal?' later became part of Gilmour's solo setlists, too.
11. 'The Endless River' (2014)

Columbia

11. 'The Endless River' (2014)

Determinedly uncommercial, 'The Endless River' was aimed directly at those still riveted by Pink Floyd’s often-forgotten period between the Syd Barrett years and the career-defining supernova that was 'Dark Side of the Moon.' This era, from 1969’s 'More' to 1972’s 'Obscured by Clouds,' saw David Gilmour’s arrival spark a wave of rangy, largely instrumental experimentation. Same with 'The Endless River.' Constructed from the late Richard Wright’s final recordings with the group, it revived that sense of dizzying interplay and adventure.
10. 'The Final Cut' (1983)

EMI

10. 'The Final Cut' (1983)

Originally envisioned as a soundtrack to 'The Wall' film, this didactic project transformed into a stand-alone effort when Waters became outraged over England's involvement in the early-'80s Falkland Islands conflict. By this point, Wright was already out the door, and Gilmour clearly didn't feel like fighting anymore. He had only one vocal, and a few bursts of guitar brilliance. The rest was Waters, who unleashes a series of searing diatribes on the kind of conflicts that tore his family apart – but without the magisterial musical accompaniment that used to give them flight.
9. 'A Saucerful of Secrets' (1968)

Columbia

9. 'A Saucerful of Secrets' (1968)

David Gilmour's first Pink Floyd album was also Syd Barrett's last, though the five-man edition of the group only appears on Roger Waters' darkly mysterious "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun." Elsewhere, Barrett's eerie 'Jugband Blues' was included, but only to close things out. By then, Pink Floyd had begun to frame the sound and scope of their own myth – in particular on the expansive four-part title track. Unfortunately, that greatness is more often hinted at than achieved.
8. 'The Division Bell' (1994)

Columbia

8. 'The Division Bell' (1994)

This one plays like a long, slow exhale after the novelization of Pink Floyd on 'The Wall' and 'The Final Cut.' Sure, the songs, written without the Waters, often weren't as narratively strong. (And some, quite frankly, went absolutely nowhere.) But with Gilmour, Wright and Mason each making important contributions, 'Division Bell' nonetheless emerged as Pink Floyd's clearest group effort since perhaps 'Wish You Were Here.' And it sounded like that too, as they crafted something that recalls that album's sweeping, at times almost free-jazzy, triumphs.
7. 'Atom Heart Mother' (1970)

EMI

7. 'Atom Heart Mother' (1970)

Mason and Waters played the entire 23-minute, side-one-encompassing, fascinatingly episodic title track in a one-take burst of rhythm brilliance. Compositionally, 'Atom Heart Mother' was even more important – illustrating where the band could take earlier more compact instrumental successes. It's becoming clear that 'Dark Side of the Moon' and 'Wish You Were Here' were nearly within Pink Floyd's grasp. Too often-overlooked gems 'If' and 'Fat Old Sun,' both from Side 2, were also subsequently resurrected on solo tours by Waters and Gilmour, respectively.
6. 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' (1967)

Columbia

6. 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' (1967)

The title – taken from a chapter in Syd Barrett’s favorite children’s book, 'The Wind in the Willows' – underscores the kind of whimsical, very British humor that Floyd's doomed and soon-departed frontman once possessed. (See the positively poppy 'Astronomy Domine,' a song which the reconstituted band opened shows with during a 1994 tour.) But, make no mistake, it isn't cutesy. Instead, 'Piper' is balanced by this friction between Syd and the band, as his hallucinogenic lyricism is met by the spacey gloom of the instrumentation, in particular in the keyboard work of Richard Wright.
5. 'Meddle' (1971)

EMI

5. 'Meddle' (1971)

'Meddle' didn't have a very auspicious start, having evolved out of a series of experiments in music making with everyday objects titled 'Nothings,' 'Son of Nothings' and then 'Return of the Son of Nothings.' Yet, in exploring so far outside of the realm of the every day, they were clearly onto something. 'One of These Days' and 'Echoes' (both featuring weirdly involving instrumental elements) became signature favorites, while an unused song evolved into 'Brain Damage' for 'The Dark Side of the Moon.' They were mere steps away from greatness.
4. 'Animals' (1977)

EMI

4. 'Animals' (1977)

A bracing reinvention of the theme from 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell, 'Animals' found Pink Floyd pushing back – and hard – against the looming, punk-driven idea that they had grown soft into middle age. At the time, this searing commentary on societal decay in the late-'70s couldn't have seemed more different from its predecessors. Today, it's clear that 'Animals' represents the first stirrings of Waters' more political bent (one that would dominate his recordings past his association with the group he co-founded), even as it finds Richard Wright making his last important contributions of the Waters era.
3. 'The Wall' (1979)

EMI

3. 'The Wall' (1979)

A torrent of emotion over issues of abandonment, sudden fame and isolation, 'The Wall' is Roger Waters' most personal album, his greatest individual triumph, and the stone that dragged Pink Floyd down. The early free-form psychedelic influences had sadly disappeared by '79. Floyd albums, once a series of trippy vignettes and (later on) trippy long-form themes, would transform through his exit into word-bound explorations of Waters' obsessions. That said, no rock opera has ever been more celebrated – and rightly so. 'The Wall' remains a towering achievement.
2. 'Wish You Were Here' (1975)

EMI

2. 'Wish You Were Here' (1975)

It debuted at No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic, and has been tabbed by both Gilmour and Wright as their favorite Pink Floyd album. Still, 'Wish You Were Here' was no 'Dark Side of the Moon'; it never could be. And that – as much as anything – seems to have relegated this 1975 follow-up to a life of perpetual underrated status. It’s a pity. There isn't a more conceptually concise Pink Floyd album, nor one as musically inviting. Even as Gilmour and, in particular, Wright pushed the work into deeper, more progressive musical themes, they helped fashion the last truly collaborative studio project between Waters and his increasingly disgruntled bandmates.
1. 'The Dark Side of the Moon' (1973)

EMI

1. 'The Dark Side of the Moon' (1973)

A choice as inevitable as it is necessary, 'Dark Side' holds a talismanic importance to this band, their era and all of rock. Its endless invention – musically, conceptually, technically – has been dissected with the attention previous generations gave to great novels and paintings, resulting in a rainbow of conclusions echoing its bold, contemporary cover image. And for good reason. Countless listens continue to reveal new layers, as every element of the Floyd legend is crystallized in one place – the outsized explorations of 'Meddle,' the razored commentary of 'Animals,' the fizzy instrumental flourishes of 'Wish You Were Here.' Ultimately, whether it's Pink Floyd's best or not isn't the point. 'The Dark Side of the Moon' remains definitive.
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