Roger Waters
begins his reinterpretation of
Dark Side of the Moon
-- the 1973
Pink Floyd
album that became so big it eclipsed the band itself, as well as its author -- by reciting the lyrics to "Free Four," a song from
Floyd
's 1972 LP
Obscured by Clouds
, a record released while they were working on
Dark Side
. "Free Four" is loose, even shambling, its jauntiness countering the gloom of
Waters
' obsession with creeping death. Here, it's heard in favor of the table-setting instrumental "Speak to Me," one of many instances on
The Dark Side of the Moon Redux
where
relies on words, not music. Such a shift in emphasis is correlated with
' shift in perspective. Revisiting his meditation on mortality as he nears 80,
isn't interested in masking his meaning: He wants his words to be heard clearly and correctly, unencumbered by such frills as guitar solos, wordless vocals, rumbling rhythms, shifting tempos, or excursions into the ether fueled by sound effects and aural snippets.
doesn't offer uninterrupted talk but the stress is placed firmly on the words, to the point that "The Great Gig in the Sky" doesn't float weightlessly: It's now about a letter
wrote to the assistant of Donald Hall when the poet was in his last days. It's a subtle change but it's a substantial one, turning
into a voyage inward, not outward. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine