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139 of 157 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Give It a Chance, February 23, 2005
The 12th studio album that was done by Pink Floyd is also the most polarizing one - it is one that is either loved or hated.
I remember when I first got into Floyd; I was absolutely mesmerized by the whole package - lyrics, sound effects, guitar solos, the whole 9 yards. Of course, I consider myself a firm Gilmour man and don't get me wrong - Dave is still my all-time favorite guitarist. However, the more I listened to the Roger dominated albums like "Animals", "The Wall", and "The Final Cut" compared to what came out after this album, it is no contest to me - Roger was TRULY Pink Floyd. Yea, Gilmour is the better musician and the better singer, but he can't write songs like Roger can and he definitely does not have the creative vision of a Waters.
People are right in that "The Final Cut" is essentially more of a solo album for Roger than an actual Floyd album but what about "A Momentary Lapse of Reason"? That album didn't even have Rick Wright or Waters and Nick Mason appears on only half that album - so, if "The Final Cut" is indeed Roger's first solo album, then AMLOR is Gilmour's 3rd solo album. The point of mentioning this is to simply say that Roger Waters is not the only person in Floyd who tried to pass off a solo album as a "Floyd album" - so it gets tiresome to read when people complain about that with "The Final Cut" but never mention the next "Floyd album".
The point is that no one truly knows what was going on with Roger at that time in his life - the dude was having some serious issues, but he was still able to put together some amazing stuff. Sure the lack of guitar solos is disappointing, but when they do appear in songs like "The Post War Dream", "The Fletcher Memorial Home", and "Not Now John", they are simply outstanding. It is like their infrequent use makes them that more powerful when they do appear. But some of the other tracks are just amazing to me, especially after repeated listens like "The Gunner's Dream", "The Final Cut", and especially "When the Tigers Broke Free" (one of the saddest Floyd songs ever).
If you enjoyed "Animals" and "The Wall" more than the other Floyd stuff, I feel that you will enjoy "The Final Cut". If "Animals" and "The Wall" were your least-favored Floyd albums, you will probably have a tough time with "The Final Cut", but just go into it with an open mind and give it a chance. If you happen to enjoy "The Final Cut", you must buy Roger's solo stuff, especially "Amused to Death" (the best solo album by any member of Floyd although Gillmour's first solo album is pretty damn good) and "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking".
Personally, "The Final Cut" is just behind "Meddle" for me in terms of favorite Floyd albums and #6 overall - "Animals", "Dark Side of the Moon", "The Wall", "Wish You Were Here", and "Meddle" then "The Final Cut".
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57 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unfairly criticized., July 11, 2005
An album with a perhaps somewhat-undeserved reputation, Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut" is listed on the back cover as "A Requiem for the Post-War Dream by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd". This is probably the most accurate way to look at the record, it is a Roger Waters album, with David Gilmour and Nick Mason part of the backing band (keyboardist Richard Wright had been ejected from the band and even Mason's contributions were limited, with a percussionist added and another drummer on the closing track).
The album, like all the Floyd records prior, follows a concept-- intermingling reflections on the then-current world political climate (notably Thatcher's attack on the Falkland Islands) with the story of a soldier coming back from war to find the world quite changed (evidentally parts of this were originally written for "The Wall" to provide backstory for the teacher, who was also a veteran like the protagonist's father). Several themes are reprised a couple times throughout the album, most notably the "what have we done" vocal, which reappears sung or hummed (per suggestion of Nick Mason) throughout the record.
The result is a dense, lyrically-driven album that, like "The Wall" before it, largely abandons the open structures found on previous Floyd records. With Waters firmly in control and pushing his lyrical message, Gilmour's guitar is largely restrained and there's little of the openness and expansive structures of the previous albums. But this isn't necessarily a criticism-- Waters delivers his lyrics with a passion and intensity he rarely reached in the past, and a number of the pieces are superb, particularly when the backgrounds are at their sparsest, letting the lyrics breathe-- "Paranoid Eyes", "Southampton Dock", "The Final Cut" and "Two Suns in the Sunset" are all quite notable. The latter in particular is one of the best lyrics Waters has ever composed.
A couple notes about the remaster-- they've finally corrected the track split between "Southampton Dock" and "The Final Cut" (the last note of the former ended up on the latter) and added to the album is "When the Tigers Broke Free". Originally recorded for "The Wall" movie, it matches the mood and intensity of the record well, Waters is filled with venom, but the orchestration sounds out of place.
Ths is really a record that needs to be listened to for opinions-- I find it to be very rewarding in its own way. If you enjoyed "The Wall" and Waters' solo material (particularly "The Pros and Cons of Hitchiking", which is very similar to this), you should definitely check out this record.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Singular and revealing, both of Waters and yourself, October 12, 2005
The Final Cut is one of those works that reveals as much about the listener as the composer.
The album is first and foremost an intellectual and emotional journey full of angst, fear, sarcasm, and despair, and how one reacts to it is based more on one's internal makeup than one's musical ear.
The album's songs are intense and laconic, and framed by an elegant but sparse musical structure that relies more on subtle details than lush melodies to communicate the eccentric concept at the heart of the album - that the dreams of peace and tranquility people had after the end of WWII have been torn apart by the continuing greed, ambition and paranoia of world leaders.
Waters feels a sense of personal betrayal at the fraying of what he calls "the post-war dream" because he father died creating it by fighting in WWII, the war meant to end all wars. So this is a very intimate album in the Leonard Cohen style, and one that makes unapologetic and unnervingly frank revelations of the Waters' personal and political life.
Some people say that with the other members of Pink Floyd relegated to being sessions musicians on this album, there was no one to foil sone of Waters' more eclectic tastes when The Final Cut was recorded. But I think the absence of the others, who lack Waters' inner drive and vision, allowed Waters to create a truly distinctive work that will stand alone in the annals of rock (with perhaps only his solo album, the Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, for company).
That Waters sewed The Final Cut together with songs left over from The Wall speaks to how creative (but troubled) he was between 1978, when he began working on The Wall and Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, and 1983, when The Final Cut was released. For example, album was initially named The Final Cut, as in the final version of an edit, because it was meant to contain new music written by Waters for the 1982 film version of The Wall. But as the albums concept grew, Waters deftly transformed that title to refer to a failed suicide attempt by the central protagonist in his concept, as also to the idea that the 1982 Falklands war was the final cut, as in fatal stab, into the heart of the post-war dream.
The Final Cut's delicate music and literate lyrics will disappoint space rockers longing for the sonic landscapes of Wish You Were Here or the edgy menace of Animals. Waters' oblique references to people such as war poet Rupert Brooke, and some of the imagery he conjures might also be lost on more than a few listeners. For example, the touching song Southampton Dock loses much of its meaning if you don't realize that's the place from where the British navy departed to fight the Falklands war in 1982.
True, elements like that can make The Final Cut seem pompous, and at first listen the album sounds stilted and lacking in melody. But no piece of music can be everything and the genuine artist chooses his place, his style, and his message, and embraces them unapologetically. For example, an exquisite padded leather chair cannot be rustic at the same time.
The beauty of this album is that Waters doesn't try to do everything for everybody. He takes a stand. If The Final Cut sounds pompous it's because Waters feels he has a right to comment on the human condition and the price leaders make unwitting citizens pay in the pursuit of greatness and power. If the album sounds stilted it's the album's song-cycle aren't designed to give listeners a comfortable, predicable ride. Instead, the album shifts dynamics sharply between a fiery intensity and a wounded melancholy, initially alienating all but the dedicated listener. And if The Final Cut sounds unmelodic, well, melody has never been Waters' forte. But someone once said that music is the space between the notes, and the Final Cut illustrates this perfectly with its subtle musical texture that is the musical equivalent of blank verse.
Though David Gilmour said he couldn't abide the The Final Cut, probably because his own musical tastes are more conventional and the shabby way Waters treated him and the others Floyd members during the time the album was made, he did contribute some indelible guitar work to it. Gilmour's few but moving guitar solos perfectly complement the searing emotions that tumble out of Waters throughout the album. Nick Mason's under-stated behind-the-beat drumming is perfect for deliberate pace at which the Final Cut moves, and even though Rick Wright does not play on the album his absence haunts this tremulous and unsettling work (though only die-hard Floyd fans might feel that!).
Waters, and co-producers James Guthrie and Michael Kamen, who conducts the National Philharmonic Orchestra for the album and who also adds some elegant piano work to it, also extract some stellar performances from the backup musicians. The overall sound of the album, particularly on the recently issued re-master, is also superb.
For the fullest experience The Final Cut needs to be heard with full concentration, lyrics in hand. And it takes many listens to understand and appreciate the album. But if you perceive you will be rewarded with a rare nugget of music that will exhilarate and enrapture, and in the end reveal something of yourself to you.
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by Pink Floyd 
