FLICKERING FLAME - THE SOLO YEARS 1

Roger Waters's solo material after his time in Pink Floyd... well, not a big deal for two decades. His best effort is no doubt Amused To Death (1992), preceded by only two studio albums, both conceptual and more or less like poorer cousins of Final Cut (1982) - which indeed should have appeared as a Roger Waters album, not Pink Floyd. So, how good a compilation one COULD get in the first place? Surely better than this anyway. Almost everything that can be wrong in a compilation is wrong here.

The tracks taken from concept albums put in a haphazard order lose most of their potential. Here they should make an impression in music, which they don't. To be listened as individual tracks they appear as even more syrupy ('Every Stranger's Eyes'), boring ('Who Needs Information') or banal wannabe-hits ('Radio Waves') than on the original surroundings. Also selections from Amused To Death fail to deliver the strengths of the complete album.

But perhaps the biggest failure is the opening track, totally useless Dylan cover 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' with the very banal female background singing (which appears too often in Waters' output). The closing track 'Lost Boys Calling' appeared in the end credits of the pretty film "The Legend of 1900" about a pianist who never stepped outside the ship where he was born. In that context the wailing ballad is great, but here you already have heard too much of that same sentimental stuff. I can't give more than two stars... make it 1,5.