Is This The Life We Really Want?

Musically, Roger Waters's first album of new material in 25 years, produced by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck etc), is like a compendium of best moments and motifs from Pink Floyd's early- to mid-70s heyday, from the ticking clock and heartbeat that run through opening numbers When We Were Young and Déjà Vu to vintage synths, swelling strings and station platform announcements.

Lyrically, the album finds Waters in pissed-off older man mode and is none the worse for it. Picture That is a litany of modern outrage, from prosthetic limbs in Afghanistan to having an idiot for president. Waters's voice is nicely cracked these days, weathered by the years but unmistakably his, and a pleasing growl on the likes of Is This the Life We Really Want?, a mid-tempo rocker with weird modulations and stabs of cello. The closing suite, starting with Wait for Her, is touchingly honest.