Roger Waters has never found a war he hasn’t felt the need to write about. The former Pink Floyd songwriter has written about World War II on The Wall, the Falklands Conflict on The Final Cut, the first Gulf War on Amused To Death, the Yugoslavian conflict of the late 1990’s on “Each Small Candle” and even the Cold War on Radio KAOS. And now, Waters turns his attention to the current war in Iraq with two tracks available from a variety of online digital music sources including SonyConnect, iTunes, BuyMusic, MusicMatch, MusicNet, MusicNow, Napster, Real/Rhapsody and Walmart.com.

Waters, whose father was killed during World War II, has always penned some very poignant songs about the tragedies of war and he has always surrounded himself with excellent instrumentalists who could pull off his musical visions. But here, Waters handles a lot of the instruments himself, playing bass, guitar and keyboards in addition to singing. He is joined by long time musical companions Andy Fairweather Low on guitar; Graham Broad on drums; and Katie Kissoon, Carol Kenyon and P.P. Arnold on vocals. And while each of these musicians are talented supporting players, the songs cry out for a Jeff Beck (who played on Amused To Death), Eric Clapton (who graced Waters Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking album with his solos) or, dare I say, David Gilmour.

Gilmour once said that Waters was content to make the music secondary as a vehicle for his lyrics, and nowhere is that more evident than on these two songs. “Leaving Beirut” clocks in at over 12 minutes and virtually every second of that is Waters spoken vocals alternating with a sung chorus by Waters and the backing vocalists, then repeated ad nauseam. The song contains over 1,300 words and absolutely no instrumental breaks. While Waters obviously has a lot to say lyrically about the Iraqi invasion, he has virtually nothing to say musically.

“To Kill The Child” sounds like it could have been lifted from Radio KAOS. It even contains the lyric “Donald Duck light,” which first appeared on “The Tide Is Turning” from that 1987 disc. Lyrically, Waters uses his tried-and-true method of lists, used before on songs like “Dogs,” “It’s A Miracle” and “What God Wants.”  Here, he sings of what he believes are the reasons for the invasion of Iraq, “Nike, Adidas, Lacoste and cheaper brands/Cadillac, Amtrak, gasoline, diesel/Our standard of living, could this be a reason?” The song is much better than “Leaving Beirut,” but again, it could have used some stronger music to drive home his points.Before paying to obtain these tracks from the sources listed above, I’d recommend going to Waters website, www.roger-waters.com, to play Real Audio, QuickTime or Windows Media streams of the songs as they may not be to everyone’s liking. As for me, I’m really hoping that the new disc that Waters has been working on for the past five years has more to offer musically than these tracks indicate. Otherwise, it will be a great disappointment as a follow-up to one of the best releases of the last 15 years, Amused To Death.