Is This the Life We Really Want?
by Roger Waters
  • Record Label: Columbia
  • Release Date: Jun 2, 2017
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
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  1. PopMatters
    Aug 15, 2017
    60
    While the solo work of Gilmour and Waters improves with each release and suggests that each is getting more comfortable working on his own and figuring out how to work without the other, their solo albums are also a painful and tantalizing reminder of just how good the music they made together once was.
  2. The Observer (UK)
    Jun 5, 2017
    60
    Lyrically, the album finds Waters in pissed-off older man mode and is none the worse for it.
  3. The Independent (UK)
    Jun 1, 2017
    40
    He just sounds like a grumpy geriatric for whom age has brought little of the reflective wisdom of Leonard Cohen.
  5. Mojo
    May 23, 2017
    40
    Too often, though, a combination of slight songcraft and waters' awkward tendency to sound simultaneously angry and platitudinous starts to wear thin. [Jul 2017, p.89]
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Awards & Rankings

50
#50 Most Discussed Album of 2017
55
#55 Most Shared Album of 2017

User Reviews

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User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 75 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 59 out of 75
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 75
  3. Negative: 11 out of 75
  1. samharaz1985
    Jun 2, 2017
    10
    This Album Is a Masterpiece. Roger is Still Angry and When He's Angry He Can Write Good Songs and Good Lyrics.in My Opinion The World NeededThis Album Is a Masterpiece. Roger is Still Angry and When He's Angry He Can Write Good Songs and Good Lyrics.in My Opinion The World Needed To This Album Because There Are Numerous Problems In The Whole of World.… Full Review »
  2. andreydelorenzo
    Jun 2, 2017
    10
    This is the best Pink Floyd's album since The Wall. Just this.
    By far (with Gilmour's Rattle That Lock) the best solo record from a Floyd's    This is the best Pink Floyd's album since The Wall. Just this.
    By far (with Gilmour's Rattle That Lock) the best solo record from a Floyd's member.
    Good lyrics, good songs, with a mix of sounds which remembers Bob Dylan, Bowie and Radiohead.
    And of course, one or two songs remembers Floyd too, but this is different, this is something more personal from Roger, with a really stunning production.
    Godrich's production have taken the best ideas from Roger since the 80's, and that record is a pleasure to hear.

    Long live to Roger!    … Full Review »
  3. alb123
    Jun 4, 2017
    10
    This album contains some of the finest songs Roger Waters has ever written. It's possible to call this another "concept album", however, IThis album contains some of the finest songs Roger Waters has ever written. It's possible to call this another "concept album", however, I don't believe that it follows a steadfast linear path the way most of his previous concept albums have. There is definitely a theme to be found with most of the songs, some which I found to be refreshingly different from typical Waters subjects.

    The album opens with a familiar Waters/Floyd opening track technique. "Speak to Me" from Dark Side of the Moon wasn't so much of a song either, but an intro into the journey your about to take with Mr. Waters. He did a similar thing with "The Ballad of Bill Hubbard" on Amused to Death. The revolving, repeating lines that you hear from Waters is a smooth, safe way to begin the journey the listener is about to go on.

    Deja Vu & The Last Refugee are two of the stronger tracks on this record. The first shows Roger lamenting on what he might do if he were God to make the world a better, safer world for us all. Next we find a beautiful piece about a refugees journey - a short video was made for this song which shows a gorgeous woman dancing in a beautiful hall, dressed immaculately and then cuts to the same woman dancing the same dance in a dirty, dingy loft wearing ragged clothes, hair unbrushed. Here we have a woman who once was used to a life of opulence reduced to the status of "refugee".

    The next track, "Picture That", is pure old school Roger. This is a song that could have easily fit on the Pink Floyd album "Animals". Venomous as anything Roger has ever written, the lyrics repeat throughout the song asking the listener to picture various scenarios - some seem innocent enough, others may fill you with rage. Musically, this is a very rockin' song...As I said, it could easily fit onto a Pink Floyd record - it is absolutely worthy.

    Rather than go through every song on the record, I'll skip to the final three songs that are married to each other. "Wait for Her" is absolutely beautiful. If Pigs on the Wing (from Animals) was supposed to be a love song Roger wrote for his wife, then Wait For Her is a gushing flood of romance lyrically. It moves into "Oceans Apart", almost in the vein of "The Bravery of Being Out of Range", however this is a one minute reflection of being separated from one's love by the width of an ocean instead of America's enemies as "The Bravery..." reported.

    When "A Part of Me Died" begins we are catapulted back to the piano tune tapped out during "Wait For Her" and we find Roger singing how love can overcome all. It's a man getting rid of a lot of baggage and finding true love, or does it?

    A brilliant record from start to finish. A couple of moments of the album could have used some work, but it's not enough of a distraction to bring this album down from being a 10.    … Full Review »
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