December 7 - 14 , 1 9 9 5

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* Various Artists

THE MOON REVISITED

(Magna Carta)
This is a Pink Floyd tribute that features new artists covering Floyd's masterpiece The Dark Side of the Moon. The appeal of a good tribute album lies in the way contemporary artists have been touched by a groundbreaking stylist and have fused that into their own style (e.g., the Leadbelly or Jimi Hendrix tributes). But it was the artistic vision and lyrics of Roger Waters and David Gilmour, not their musical style, that made Dark Side a masterpiece. And whatever minuscule changes there are in The Moon Revisited's covers are usually for the worse.

"Great Gig in the Sky" can't fly without the stratospheric climaxes of Claire Torry, whose vocal exploration of the border between soaring and screaming mirrored the songs' exploration of life and death. The rest of Dark Side has easier vocal ground to cover, but there's no voice on Revisited as expressive as Gilmour's or Waters's. Enchant's "Us and Them" completely misses Gilmour's placid innocence and the terrifying chaos of the battle-like choruses. With the original album still printed by the millions, and even a gold-master edition available, this tribute is inspired by the Moon only in that it's a mystery.

-- Jason Demerjian


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