Why did Roger Waters never get beyond The Wall?

Amused to Death is - in my book - the best solo album by any Pink Floyd Member. His other albums are decent, but far from great. The PA ratings of Pros and Cons and Radio KAOS reflect my humble opinion accurately.

^I have heard this one recently and I just gave it another listen. To be honest, I am not impressed by this track. It sounds like a David Gilmour interpretation of a mainstream pop song. It doesn't make more sense to me than just an announcement on a French railway station.

dr wu23 wrote: someone_else wrote: ^I have heard this one recently and I just gave it another listen. To be honest, I am not impressed by this track. It sounds like a David Gilmour interpretation of a mainstream pop song. It doesn't make more sense to me than just an announcement on a French railway station. The voice and the guitar sound familiar, trusted, and I still like them, though. But this amuse gives me the same sense of disappointment as when I had when 10CC turned up with "Dreadlock Holiday" some 37 years ago. Still this song has one virtue: it gives me more patience to wait for the rest of the album.    I agree with you...I was not that impressed but I thought I would post it for you in case you hadn't heard it yet. Even as it is...it's a lot easier for me to listen to than Waters music which annoys me for some reason.

(First take on this subject)

I agree with the idea had "Amused To Death" been a Floyd album, it could've been right up there with the best of them, but to me it seems like an album Waters made as if he thought he could rival the collective efforts of Pink Floyd and do it all by himself. It sounds to me like he tries way to hard to be Pink Floyd here, and it's just missing that extra something.

I've always loved Floyd for that signature sounds that both Gilmore and Waters contributed to, that laid-back style with soothing vocals and piercing, echoing guitar solos. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to "Great Gig In The Sky" in the car (and how many times I've tried singing that falsetto), and they've always made such great jams and very relaxing tunes. Maybe that's why I've fallen slightly more in the Gilmore camp than the Waters camp. The angst and sting of his voice was crucial to the effect it portrayed in The Wall. That angst and sting though just don't work all the time, and especially on "Amused To Death", it almost sounds like Waters is in pain singing half the time. It's actually kind of upsetting.

That's personally why I liked Gilmore over Waters. Sure, the post-Wall albums aren't on par with pre-Wall albums, Floyd was split between the calm of Gilmore and the angst of Waters. It was this combination that made Floyd so successful, and why neither's solo careers interest me. One could never create the same Floyd effect without the other, and both of them suffered for it.