"Talk about a blockbuster: This is it. A very limited double LP originally released more than 20 years ago, Amused To Death is reborn on 180-gram double LP from Analogue Productions. Amused to Death was mixed by Pink Floyd's producer/engineer James Guthrie, and now, using those same analog tapes, he's mastering the album for SACD. And Doug Sax and Guthrie are working together to master the vinyl, to be pressed to perfection by Quality Record Pressings!
A beautiful album conceptually, lyrically, and musically
For his third solo album, Roger Waters, former bassist/singer/songwriter and founding member of Pink Floyd, takes listeners on a journey through his mind as he examines how human society has been affected through mass media and particularly television. This complex concept album takes its title from a book by author Neil Postman that also explores and alerts us to the dangers of the ways the media shapes our lives. In the title track, aliens arrive on Earth after the extinction of humans - finding merely skeletons gathered around TV sets. The alien anthropologists run every imaginable test to try and determine the reason for this ''sad demise.'' Their conclusion? ''This species has amused itself to death.''
Visually, the concept is depicted by a cover shot of a gorilla watching television - ''just flipping channels, looking for something that interests him,'' Waters says. Like many of us today.
Q magazine describes Amused To Death as sounding more like a Pink Floyd album than any other Waters solo effort to date. It is the brother of The Wall, perhaps even the distant cousin of Dark Side Of The Moon, which should delight fans of those albums.
So rare are original pressings of Amused To Death that copies today sell for more than $800 in like-new condition. For this historic reissue there will be nothing spared. Let us reiterate: This edition is cut from the analog master tapes. James Guthrie is mastering his original stereo mix for SACD and he and Doug Sax are teaming up to master the vinyl version, to be pressed to perfection by Quality Record Pressings!
Amused To Death was originally mixed using QSound, a virtual surround sound, enhancing the spatial feel of the music along with the various sound effects sprinkled throughout the album. The Analogue Productions' reissue will faithfully preserve this three-dimensional experience.
The best post ''Wall'' Floyd-related album to date!
Amused To Death is beautifully recorded, lavish in depth and rich in sound. The 14 tracks flow into each other, meaning the album is best consumed whole. To shuffle tracks is to read random pages from a multi-page essay in no particular order. Waters tackles subjects as varied as capitalism, war, religion, American fast food, television, film director Stanley Kubrick and Broadway composer Andrew Lloyd Weber.
Waters enlists some striking studio partnerships: Don Henley joins him on vocals for ''Watching TV,'' the National Philharmonic Orchestra leaps in for ''Too Much Rope,'' and Rita Coolidge pops up during the title track. Waters also recruited for musical support legendary guitarist Jeff Beck. The quality of production by Waters, Nick Griffiths and Patrick Leonard is simply superb.
Amused To Death is cinema for the ears. Food for the brain. It's an album that Waters says, ''literally unfolds with repeated play. The more you listen, the more you see.''
Originally released: 1992
Tracks
A1 The Ballad Of Bill Hubbard 4:19
A2 What God Wants, Part I 6:00
A3 Perfect Sense, Part I 4:16
A4 Perfect Sense, Part II 2:50
B1 The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range 4:43
B2 Late Home Tonight, Part I 4:00
B3 Late Home Tonight, Part II 2:13
B4 Too Much Rope 5:47
B5 What God Wants, Part II 3:41
C1 What God Wants, Part III 4:08
C2 Watching TV 6:07
C3 Three Wishes 6:50
D1 It's A Miracle 8:30
D2 Amused To Death 9:06
UPC: 888430905818