Radio Kaos-1987

For many Floyd fans, Roger was pushing its musical limit too far with this outing. Songs like Sunset Strip, Powers that Be and Radio Waves have an 80's popish flavour that many old Floyd fans have a hard time to deal with. But in fact, what is ironic, is that the album is totally Floydian conceptually and lyrically. The songs are coherently linked together. There is definitely a more electronic feel but the album is surprisingly highly melodic. DJ voice of Jim Ladd, simulated computer voice and all kind of electronic sounds are meticulously wed together to create a great effect. Also, Roger got another surprise up his sleeve in bringing us his first hopeful song in many years with The Tide is Turning, which he had the fantastic idea to use later in 1990 to close his Wall concert in Berlin. Other highlights include Me or Him, soft and beautiful; Who needs Information, melodic and ironic; and Four Minutes, intense and fearful. Again, like many of Roger works there is a solid atmosphere construction, as we can imagine easily the L.A. summer backgrounds throughout this listening experience. A lot of strong messages and thoughtful lyrics complete this ambitious project which got mixed reactions. Charts ranking: UK: 25, US 50. US Sales: Unknown.

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Songs

• 1-Radio Waves (Waters)
• 2-Who Needs Information(Waters)
• 3-Me or Him (Waters)
• 4-The Powers That Be (Waters)
• 5-Sunset Strip (Waters)
• 6-Home (Waters)
• 7-Four Minutes (Waters)
• 8-The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid) (Waters)

Singles

• -Radio Waves; Going to Live in L.A., Chart Position: UK: 74
• -Sunset Strip; Money (live)
• -Who Needs Information; Molly's Song (live)
• -The Tide is Turning; Money (live), Chart Position: UK: 54.

Miscellaneous

• Clare Torry who sang on Great Gig in the Sky in 1973, was invited to do back vocals on this album, she appears on Four Minutes and The Tide is Turning.
• Jim Ladd who appears on this album as the radio announcer, works for a real radio station in Los Angeles called KLOS.
• 3 other songs were written for this album but didn't appear on it. They're called Get Back to Radio, Molly's Song and Going to Live in L.A. Apparently, they are all included on the Japanese import of the disc. Two of the songs made side-B of singles and were played in the concerts.
• Apparently, it was Nick Griffith, who co-produced the album with Ian Ritchie, that encouraged Roger to provide some glimmers of optimism, which he did with The Tide Is Turning, a song based on the positive use of global communication technology through 1985's Live Aid. (from REG MAgazine website)
• Bob Ezrin had talked with Roger about producing the album, but finally changed his mind and turned to David Gilmour and Nick Mason, to work on 'A Momentary Lapse of Reason'.