FLICKERING FLAME - THE SOLO YEARS 1

"Flickering Flame" is ROGER WATERS' now out-of-print(?) misplaced attempt at a 'Greatest Hits/Compilation' and misses the mark entirely. (Think of PINK FLOYD's "Works" and you get the idea: so much potential, so little satisfaction.) How or why he chose the songs that he did for this album is beyond me. WATERS has plenty of hard, edgy solo material that would have and could have fit well on this release, but instead a number of pop-hits ('Radio Waves', 'Who Needs Information') and slow, introspective and moody ballads ('The Tide is Turning', 'Each Small Candle') are offered up. If I had to choose what songs NOT to include in a ROGER WATERS compilation, many of these would have been on that list.

For the most part, the 'rare' or 'demo' songs are at best...hard-to-find. 'Towers of Faith' (from the OST "When The Wind Blows") is quite good however and contains some nice acoustic work, reminiscent of FLOYD's "WYWH". 'Flickering Flame' (the song) and 'Lost Boys Calling' (another soundtrack song) are merely average attempts at the continued ROGER WATERS patronistic formula. In a tribute to one of his idols, BOB DYLAN, ROGER has also decided to provide us with a poor rendition of 'Knockin On Heaven's Door'. WATERS is a premiere progressive music songWRITER, but we all know just how poor a singer he is, and it definitely shows on this cover tune. :(

On the CD version that I have, the liner/notes was printed/inserted upside-down.

For collectors only! I never actually listen to this record, but purchased it nonetheless (like all the other completists) so that I could own some of the rarities it includes. 2/5 stars, barely.