Released only on vinyl in the U.S. when the film first cameout in 1986 (and deleted shortly thereafter), this is theCD edition of the soundtrack to Raymond Briggs' anti-nuclearsci-fi cartoon about the fate of an ill-prepar... more »ed retiredEnglish couple when nuclear Armageddon strikes. 15 tracks,including many especially recorded for the film by DavidBowie, Squeeze, Hugh Cornwell, Genesis, Paul Hardcastle andPink Floyd's Roger Waters with the Bleeding Heart Band. 1986Virgin Records release.« less
Released only on vinyl in the U.S. when the film first cameout in 1986 (and deleted shortly thereafter), this is theCD edition of the soundtrack to Raymond Briggs' anti-nuclearsci-fi cartoon about the fate of an ill-prepared retiredEnglish couple when nuclear Armageddon strikes. 15 tracks,including many especially recorded for the film by DavidBowie, Squeeze, Hugh Cornwell, Genesis, Paul Hardcastle andPink Floyd's Roger Waters with the Bleeding Heart Band. 1986Virgin Records release.
CD Reviews
Excellent Roger Waters Track
Bill R. Moore | Oklahoma, USA | 11/13/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The only song I have heard off this cd is the 24 minute Roger Waters composition. But I will go ahead and review the album based on that song, because that is the main (only?) reason anyone still cares about this album.As for the Roger track, I must say it is very good indeed. It starts out slowly but builds and eventually goes into the vocal part where we get some characteristically good and biting lyrics from Roger. This leads into an excellent guitar solo, and then to an equally excellent saxophone solo from Mel Collins. Then, the song goes into 10+ minutes of dialogue and noise, which isn't of much interest in itself, but syncs with the movie. Eventually, it leads to Folded Flags, the second "real" Waters song on this album. It features some nice acoustic guitar playing backed with an orchestra (or synth) and once again has another set of excellent lyrics as only Roger can deliver them. If you are a Roger Waters fan, my advice for you is to pick this extremely rare album up, it is worth it, because the track on here is better than anything Rog has done since leaving Pink Floyd, with the exception of Amused To Death. Like I said, I haven't heard the other songs, but they can't be anything more than icing on the cake."
Good atmospheric music, 2 excellent roger waters songs
peddlerofdeath84 | Gaithersburg, MD USA | 10/02/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The Roger Waters music (23 minutes) is great even though it was mostly atmospheric music. If that was all that was on the CD, I'd give it 5 stars. However, the other music was not as good. The Genesis song was really good, the Bowie song was okay, and the other songs...were bad.So, I took off 1 star for them. But, if you want this CD because of Roger Waters, its worth it if you can find it..."
Awesome but Depressing
Ken Bailey | Ypsilanti, MI United States | 11/05/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"A friend of mine found this one in a used record store a few years ago. I listened to it and enjoyed the Roger Waters part. After some searching, I found the album for myself. Again I enjoyed it. The best part is of course the Roger Waters part (especially the first and last songs). The other songs are a good 80's retrospective but not as good as the Waters stuff.It's a good album, albeit a bit depressing especially with the vocals from the movie interspersed. It's a very depressing subject.My only wish is that a couple more of the Waters songs were included on the album, namely the one from the movie where all the different agencies were flying across the screen and the other one where the characters were waxing about WWII.Anyways, after much more searching, I found it on CD which made me a happy camper."
More Nukes for Waters
Russell Diederich | Littleton, CO United States | 06/12/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I bought this album being a big Floyd fan ten years ago, and I spin it occasionally but not often. "When the Wind Blows" is a solid album, but not amazing by any stretch of the means. David Bowie's title track is decent and sung in his signature voice. The drum sound is pretty cool, almost tinny. I agree with everyone here that the Hugh Cornwell song is...well, corny. "The Brazilian" is a pretty cool instrumental found on Genesis' "Invisible Touch" album. The drum fills are pretty cool, and when the song comes together it's a powerful orchestration. Squeeze's contribution is okay, and Paul Hardcastle's funky smooth jazz instrumental sounds out of place on this album. Now, for Roger Waters' contribution to this album. Still having not lived down nuclear holocaust scares from "Final Cut" and "Radio K.A.O.S." he continues here waiting for the button to be pushed. This makes him a great match for this project. Waters' provides half of the material for this soundtrack, but most of it is filler and samples. Nothing to really complement the man on. Again, I agree with everyone here that his best two tracks are "Russian Missile" and "Folded Flags." These cuts sound as if they belong on "Radio K.A.O.S.", but didn't make the final cut. This is a hard album to find, and probably isn't worth finding unless you're a big Waters fan. His sound is still very Floydish, but for the amount of Waters on this album it may just be better to skip the effort of finding this disc. I mean, there is a reason they aren't pressing it anymore, and that it was never released in the US on anything but vinyl."
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1