Roger Waters Albums Ranked
George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English songwriter, singer, bassist, and composer. In 1965, he co-founded the progressive rock band, Pink Floyd. Waters initially served solely as the bassist, but following the departure of singer-songwriter Syd Barrett in 1968, he also became their lyricist, co-lead vocalist, and conceptual leader.
Pink Floyd achieved international success with the concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979). By the early 1980s, they had become one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful groups in popular music; by 2013, they had sold more than 250 million albums worldwide. Amid creative differences, Waters left in 1985 and began a legal dispute over the use of the band’s name and material. They settled out of court in 1987.
Waters’ solo work includes the studio albums The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (1984), Radio K.A.O.S. (1987), Amused to Death (1992), and Is This the Life We Really Want? (2017). In 2005, he released Ça Ira, an opera translated from Étienne and Nadine Roda-Gils’ libretto about the French Revolution. As a member of Pink Floyd, he was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. Here are all of Roger Waters’s albums ranked.
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5. Music from the Body (1970)
“This is a strange group of progressive rock songs set to body noises. This was the soundtrack to the film of this. Which is out there somewhere? One song features Pink Floyd , the rest are roger waters songs. It’s a decent effort but probably for collectors or eclectic music or pink Floyd “completists” like me. The CD sounds very good and it fits into my collection very well.”
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4. Ça Ira (2005)
“”I don’t listen to that much Opera but this particular Opera has one big advantage over other Opera’s…it is very Roger Waters! Listen to the music and you simply think wow what a wonderful performance…so musical…so artistic, so dynamic! Listen to the words and you think, yeap, that’s Waters alright!””
3. Radio K.A.O.S. (1987)
“This was Waters second solo album after leaving Pink Floyd. His first “The Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking” was a big disappointment to me and I did not really care for it. “KAOS” would fare a bit better, but still suffers from Rogers rather maudlin writing style and the lack of his former cohort David Gilmour as a musical partner. “KAOS” is a concept album about a wheelchair bound boy who can receive radio waves through his head. The story unfolds through his correspondence with a DJ at KAOS radio station in Los Angeles. “
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2. The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (1984)
“A mid life crisis mess to trippy success. It took me a few playbacks to grasp Roger Waters loud rants, whispering lows, Eric Clapton’s blues and soulful back-up singers meshing together as one in a dream concept. The un-80s production works as the clock ticks is a desert island find. Whether you like or dislike his songwriting, Roger Waters puts himself out there front and center. The distant nuances would come out better now in 5.1 surround sound. This project should have also been a film and concert with projected screen backdrops.”
1. Amused to Death (1992)
” I think this is Roger’s best solo album. It always had an amazing production. The lyrics are his absolute best. The songs brim with emotion and audio dynamics. Such a well thought out piece of musical art. Jeff Beck does some wonderful guitar playing on the album, particularly on The Ballad of Bill Hubbard, where he pulls licks out of his strings that make the instrument sound like a sentient creature baring its soul. I’ve been able to go back to Amused to Death again and again over the last 24 years and now James Guthrie just injected new life into the old romance.”