The Final Cut, Pink Floyd’s twelfth collection, last record with Roger Waters and sorta spin-off of The Wall, is numerous things.
It’s an idea collection, a deserted soundtrack to The Wall motion picture and the issue that is finally too much to bear between the inexorably controlling Waters and his bandmates. It’s likewise a wreck of a record, a sprawling prosecution of war that plays like sections of dissatisfaction worked over years by Waters and uncorked in a confounding showcase of untethered feelings. More than anything, however, The Final Cut is basically Waters’ first solo collection.
In any case, is it any great? Discharged on March 21, 1983, Waters’ last Pink Floyd collection sounds like the record Waters, who left the band not long after The Final Cut turned out, expected to make to make his total separation. David Gilmour sings on one and only track and keyboardist Richard Wright had as of now stopped. The story is Waters’ and he’s the person who lets it know. The remaining individuals from Pink Floyd, in addition to different studio artists, are only curious to see what happens.
Also, to the extent antiwar idea collections that scaffold World War II and the Falklands Crisis of the mid ’80s go, The Final Cut has its minutes, yet each of the 12 tunes must be devoured without a moment’s delay. A story creates about dependability, double-crossing and fallen World War II British warriors, including Waters’ dad, who was executed in fight and whose apparition frequents each note of the record. This isn’t a collection for best-of ravaging.
That is the reason it’s so effectively rejected among Floyd fans. A modest bunch of tunes figured out how to get some airplay in 1983: “Not Now John,” “Your Possible Pasts” and “The Hero’s Return.” But these tracks look bad outside of the collection’s idea and even less wedged between exemplary rock staples. The tunes are slight; the music is unpredictable. Still, The Final Cut made it to No. 6 and inevitably sold more than two million duplicates. Yet, it’s an entangled record with a prickly history. Is it Pink Floyd’s most exceedingly awful collection or Roger Waters’ best solo LP? Likely yes on both checks.
Nope, it’s not even Waters’ best solo album. That would be “Amused to Death”.
I used to feel the same way about this, I realized it just needed more time to grow on you, and then it becomes sort of an experience, and you feel what Waters felt about all this. There is some pretty solid guitaring on this album too like the solo on Fletcher’s Memorial and Waters’ soft vocals on Your Possible Pasts are pretty sweet.
Not now John on its own is classic prog rock!
If DSOM is a 10, I’d give this album a 5, but still a good piece.
This commentary isn’t worth the electrons with which it was published. It’s a belated reprosecution of Roger-As-Egotist. It’s amazing to me that any Pink Floyd fan still needs to find a villain in the disintegration of the band, and vilify one band member’s talent in tribute to the others’.
If the author of this commentary wants to think of ‘The Final Cut’ as Roger’s first solo effort, I’m not going to argue. He did minimize the contribution of his band mates for this effort, and purposely so. There was a lot of baggage between Waters and the others at that point, which I’ll also concede.
The author can’t, however, be serious in his assessment that ‘The Final Cut’ is Roger’s best solo endeavor. ‘Amused To Death’ is behind only ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ and ‘The Wall’ as Roger’s greatest compositions. I think any careful listener and devoted follower would place it on par with ‘Wish You Were Here’ or ‘Animals’.
I won’t try to compare Roger’s voice to Gilmour’s, but his vocals were a signature Floydian element when it was important to convey angst, sacasm, depravity, anger, etc. His range was very limited, but his voice had and has a lot of character, and I didn’t find his solo work lacking for want of Gilmore’s vocals.
It’s impossible not to miss Gilmour’s guitar playing on Roger’s solo work, but in signing up Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck to fill the void, he did his compositions proud.
Lest I be dismissed as a Waters fanboy, I do buy and devour Gimour’s solo work. No one can play like Gilmour. No one! And no one can write like Roger. No one!
I wasn’t a fan of this article either. I also really like The Final Cut. Some great writing.
the pros and cons of radio kaos ensue
I totally understand Roger’s fans, but the truth is, he was a mediocre bass player, sung out of tune a lot of times and Final Cut was very representative of his sense of partnership that a band really represents. It is almost too late to discuss this matter, Wright is gone, Sid as well and the others are above 70 now…. Let’s just enjoy the music and the combination of a great musician that Gilmour undoubtedly was and Roger’s lyrics, yes he was a great lyricist… He had to, in order to withstand with the music quality of the rest of the band, mainly Gilmour and Wright, let’s not forget those amazing keyboard parts!!!
it is reqired in the collection, IMHO, soley due to the guitar solo on ‘The Fletcher Memorial Home’. A much underrated and simply stunning “Very Gilmour” guitar solo about 2 and a half minutes in.
I still belive this to be a masterful work even if the dand thrmselves trash it. Title track is beautiful and cathartic. The gunners dream is a haunting melody. I dont skip a single track. Its beautifully depressing