Roger Waters is returning to The Dark Side Of The Moon.
Fifty years on from the release of the classic Pink Floyd album, the former band member has confirmed plans for the release of The Dark Side of the Moon Redux.
In a statement, the project is described as “an epically ambitious reinterpretation of one of the most famous and acclaimed albums in history”.
The new version of Dark Side Of The Moon is released on October 6 on digital, CD and vinyl via Waters’ label SGB Music. He has partnered with Cooking Vinyl for the worldwide distribution and marketing of The Dark Side of the Moon Redux.
The album’s lead single, Waters’ reinterpretation of Money, is out today (July 21) with an accompanying lyric video.
The reinterpretation of Dark Side Of The Moon does not – unsurprisingly – feature any of the other members of Pink Floyd. A mooted $500 million catalogue sale for the band’s recordings has so far failed to materialise, amid a long-running feud between Waters and David Gilmour.
According to the Redux album announcement, Waters will “reinterpret and embellish his original creations with a new perspective gleaned from his own life experience, philosophy, and the wisdom of age, with added emphasis on the philosophical, social and political themes of the original.”
“Waters’ extraordinary vocal performance adds fresh layers of profundity to his classic lyrics, and gravelly wisdom to his philosophical new creations,” added the statement. “Waters’ and Gus Seyffert’s production strips back Pink Floyd’s psychedelic orchestrations into something rawer and more delicate, but no less experimentally inventive, exquisitely textured, and rich in musical intertext.”
In addition to reimagining each of the original 10 tracks, The Dark Side of the Moon Redux vinyl LP format will feature a bonus 13-minute original composition inspired by the re-recording as a final track taking up the whole of side four. Like the original, the album will run seamlessly together to create one epic composition.
Roger Waters said: “The original Dark Side of the Moon feels in some ways like the lament of an elder being on the human condition. But Dave, Rick, Nick 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 reimagined version.
“When I first mentioned the idea of re-recording The Dark Side of the Moon to Gus and Sean [Evans, art direction and design] we all thought I was mad, but the more we considered it, the more we thought, ‘Isn’t that the whole point?’
“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.”
A deluxe box set featuring the newly remastered Pink Floyd album was released earlier this year for the 50th anniversary. It helped the classic record move 100-17 in March to achieve its highest chart position since October 2011. In the same anniversary week, there was a standalone release of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon - Live At Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974 on CD and the first ever vinyl issue. The live album, which was also included in the box set, charted at No.4 with sales of 13,001.
Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of The Moon (Rhino) has spent 560 non-consecutive weeks in the Top 100 UK albums chart. It is certified 15-times platinum for sales over 4.5 million. According to Official Charts Company data, it has sold 1,900,667 since 1994.
So far this year, Dark Side Of The Moon has 41,169 sales (19,732 physical, 2,005 downloads and 19,432 from streams).
Despite its achievements, it has never reached No.1 in the UK (it did in the US), peaking at No.2 upon release in March 1973. So Waters could potentially take Dark Side Of The Moon to the summit for the first time.
Hipgnosis, the design studio behind the iconic sleeve of the 1973 album, are the subject of a new cinema documentary this month.
PHOTO: Kate Izor
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