Roger Waters-The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking (1984)

Roger Waters' second album is clearly a sequel to Pink Floyd's 1970s concept albums, this time focusing on certain aspects of the human condition. For this work, Waters didn't enlist any of his former Floyd bandmates, instead recruiting musicians such as guitarist Eric Clapton, keyboardist Andy Bown, saxophonists David Sanborn and Raphael Ravenscroft, percussionists Ray Cooper and Andy Newmark, and arranger Michael Kamen, among other prominent figures in the British rock scene. Although at first glance it seems an obvious successor to Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut", due to its oscillation between the general malaise of the world's population and Waters' own purging of inner demons, it actually differs considerably, driven by the album's intriguing compositional and musical construction, which doesn't adhere to a clear and concise stylistic pattern. Even so, there are some truly outstanding tracks here, with Eric Clapton delivering a brilliant performance on the six strings, lending an intense blues feel with his riffs and solos. Despite being rather fragmented and rejected by a good portion of the more orthodox Floyd fans, the album itself contains a repertoire of high-quality art-rock songs, with subtle references to enigmatic works like "The Wall" or the aforementioned "The Final Cut".