There's no denying that this album is a heavy trip, man. If you thought Roger Waters might have mellowed with age ... well, friend, you were greatly mistaken.
His first studio record in 25 years shows Waters to be gruff, grizzled, and f***ed off. It's not without its softer moments, but mainly he remains preoccupied with the world's weightier topics: war, casualties, rigged elections and people's indifference to it all.
This is the concept of the album, most notably on its title track, which cuts straight to the chase, offering a powerful summation of the current sad state of the world.
"Fear keeps us all in line. Fear of all those foreigners," he sings before dropping a diss he can barely be bothered to hide, "every time a nincompoop becomes the president".
Lyrically, the record is not exactly easy listening. But musically, it's hugely reminiscent of his former band Pink Floyd, much more so than his previous solo records. The Floyd sound is most present on the grooving rock chug of Smell the Roses, the spacey jam of Picture That or the acoustic strum of Oceans Apart, for example.
