Before diving into the content of former Pink Floyd bassist and songwriter Roger Waters’ “The Dark Side of the Moon Redux,” it’s important to figure out why this album exists in the first place.

In 2022, Waters released an album titled “The Lockdown Sessions,” consisting of newly arranged and recorded stripped-down versions of Pink Floyd classics like “Mother” and “Comfortably Numb.” After landmark masterpieces like “The Dark Side of the Moon” and “Wish You Were Here,” the new album wasn’t exactly the most exciting or unique release one might hope to hear from one of the most significant and influential musicians of the last 50 years.

However, Waters said he was inspired by these sessions and found himself wanting more. In a statement released on his official website, the artist explained his choice to further delve into these reimaginings of his work with a brand new version of “The Dark Side of the Moon.”

“It occurred to me that ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ could well be a candidate for a similar re-working, partly as a tribute to the original work, but also to re-address the political and emotional message of the whole album,” Waters said.

Waters also saw value in being able to reevaluate one of his career highlights at an advanced age.

“It is a way for the 79-year-old man to look back across the intervening 50 years into the eyes of a 29-year-old,” Waters said.

Waters is not the most beloved figure in the classic rock pantheon, to say the absolute least. The New York Times obituary of keyboardist Richard Wright characterized Waters’ behavior as domineering and controlling, causing significant strain on Pink Floyd for much of its tenure. Following the completion of “The Wall,” Waters forced Wright out of the band, as tensions among members reached an all-time high.

Waters himself finally departed from the band in 1985 following the release of “The Final Cut,” an inconsistent but occasionally brilliant album pieced together from leftover tracks from “The Wall” in addition to new Waters compositions. 

After leaving the band, Waters then proceeded to sue remaining members David Gilmour and Nick Mason in an attempt to prevent them from continuing to record and tour under the Pink Floyd name, according to Rolling Stone. Waters lost the suit, Wright returned and the band went on to release some of its best work as a trio without Waters.

Beyond the fraught, chaotic inner-workings of Pink Floyd through the years, Waters has garnered significant controversy in his solo career. His live shows have been overwhelmingly infused with Waters’ personal politics and views on current events, presumably to the disdain of fans who simply hoped to see performances of beloved albums like “The Wall.”

With the vast context and inspiration behind the new album established, it’s time to acknowledge the difficult question: Is “The Dark Side of the Moon Redux” successful? 

Going into “The Dark Side of the Moon Redux,” I tried not to allow my unwavering appreciation of Gilmour and Wright’s genius contributions to the original “The Dark Side of the Moon” to bias my opinion of Waters’ new album. However, it immediately became clear that the album is for die-hard Waters fans, and any die-hard Pink Floyd fans are likely to leave this album cold, disappointed and completely and utterly confused.

The album’s opening track, “Speak to Me,” served the original “The Dark Side of the Moon” as a brief cacophony of strange audio and disorienting modular synth work by Richard Wright. Whereas this short opener effectively set the stage for Pink Floyd’s album, Waters’ recreation is a lethargic spoken word track that has little, if anything to do with the original.

Unfortunately, the rest of “The Dark Side of the Moon Redux” follows this pattern. The new version of “Time,” one of Pink Floyd’s most beloved and revered songs, is hardly recognizable. An unrecognizable version of a classic song should, in theory, be ideal for a re-imaginative album like this. An entirely faithful re-recording of the original album would be futile and pointless.

However, Waters somehow manages to suck the life out of “Time,” an atmospheric and emotional song, turning it into a lifeless, dragging cover that is nearly impossible to listen to in its entirety. While Waters stated his intention behind the album is an attempt to approach his past work with a new, deeper perspective, all I can hear in these tracks is an aging rockstar on his last legs. 

The most disturbing track on “The Dark Side of the Redux” is “Great Gig in the Sky.” While Waters has adamantly spent years attempting to take credit for the vast majority of compositions written during his time with Pink Floyd, this particular track was solely composed by Wright, along with session singer Clare Torry who immortalized the song with her haunting improvised vocals.

With the sheer amount of disrespect Waters bombarded Wright with in the press over the years, even following his death, Waters’ appropriation of the late keyboardist’s composition feels inappropriate. There is hardly any resemblance to Wright’s composition on this new version. Instead, Waters inexplicably uses a barebones rendition of “The Great Gig In the Sky” to deliver a baffling spoken word eulogy to his friend, poet Donald Hall.

This mangled manipulation of Wright’s composition feels borderline unethical. With Wright, who died in 2008, unable to consent to whatever Waters is attempting to do to this track, it’s difficult to interpret it as anything other than a desecration of his memory and his work.

“The Dark Side of the Moon Redux” is not the swansong of a legend going out with a bang, but rather a much-maligned musician who has alienated a great deal of his fanbase going out with a sleepy whimper.