Roger Waters – Amused to Death Review

Seemingly influenced by the words and warning of Neil Postman in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Pink Floyd member Roger Waters gets carried away with fear of new media. Amused to Death is a fascinating take on an always-connected world. Where there is silence there must be noise. This is the attitude culture has taken for some time and only in recent years, with the rise of these always-online moments. The internet and television are not a place but in your back pocket. They turn from follower to leader. An album like Amused to Death offers an incredible foresight, an awakening of the worries Waters had for the world – which he displayed on Is This the Life We Really Want? decades later. That project, like this, is hampered by the replication of Pink Floyd sounds and a relatively dull understanding of wider socio-political issues.  

Waters continually finds interest in painting with sound, a welcome break from the straight-shooting this could have, and does, become. The Ballad of Bill Hubbard is an instrumental success which feeds in the barking dogs and chatting people, all coming before the calm of television as an altar. Croaked and crackling, Waters punches through on What God Wants, Pt. I with a slick lyrical achievement and a rough voice which, surprisingly, works. Conviction is half the battle here and in dedicating himself to some gruff vocals, those desires for juxtaposing states of the world reflect the television as a unit of aggression. Grasping the ever-changing want of media literacy is an impossible task yet Waters manages to soothe the beast on Amused to Death. Waters may be rallying against the eye-watering horrors of capitalism and the cool grasp of television as a disgrace, but he is not the first, nor the last, to hone this poisoned spear.  

Credit to him for attacking the horrors of television but Amused to Death feels relatively futile when it is all part of the same programming. It does not have to be one or the other. Television has its benefits, like most forms of communication and art, in moderation. Amused to Death is better in moderation, the form of critique feeling relatively light on Perfect Sense yet so poised and well-written on The Bravery of Being Out of Range. There are moments where the lyrical power, still as strong as Waters and a listener would hope for, is overshadowed by some lush brilliance from the strings and backing vocals. Late Home Tonight hits out at the crime and action seen on television, fiction or not. On into Too Much Rope and Waters manages to keep the flame burning, a riotous piece which cements the intent, the message, as well as can be.  

A storytelling triumph which, over the course an hour and ten minutes, convinces of its message. There may be those who tell this tale better, and warn of these detrimental television fears better, but Waters blurs the line between entertainment and enlightenment. At times remarkable, other spots relatively tame. What cannot be questioned is the conviction of Waters’ work here. Formidable attempts at making sense of a world gone wrong, dragged down a muddy path by the effects of being in the loop on every matter. Television was what TikTok and the social media boom is now. There are reasons to be suspicious of its use, that is for certain, though not everything about it is wrong. Amused to Death still falls short when Waters bashes the capitalist system he is very much benefitting from, but even the hypocrites have a point when the wider picture is shown.