THE FINAL CUT

I wouldn't call this a terrible album, but it's not a great album either, especially considering the fact that it is Pink Floyd. They have done so much better, even after Roger Water's removed his ego from the room. The problem is not the fact that he had the most say over this album and it's not the fact that the band had lost any vision or anything like that. The problem was that everyone was having a hard time working together as a cohesive unit because there were so many disagreements. Water's got his way for the most part with this album. He wanted to use the songs that were rejected from "The Wall" album for this album and Gilmour couldn't figure out how the songs would work now when they wouldn't work before.

But the album got put together and released, and at least they did a good job of making a consistent album, probably a little too consistent. Waters wrote the music this time and, even though there is evidence of genius here, it's missing a certain something. I think a lot of people could agree with this. What was missing was Gilmour's talent for developing melodies which is what is missing on this album. There is not a lot of development in the songs. I mean, I've listened to this album a lot and there are still only a few parts that stand out or that are recognizable. The music just isn't memorable enough because of the lack of development here. The band only works best when all parts of it are working, and they weren't working well together during the recording of this album.

As I said, there are memorable songs on the album, namely "Fletcher Memorial Home", "Not Now John", and "The Gunner's Dream". These songs would have been better on "The Wall" which had a lot more variety and better use of dynamic, both of which are lacking here. Of course, there is a lot of dynamic here, but it's not used very well like on their previous albums. Regarding variety, most of the songs here follow the same structure and are sometimes quite lifeless and forgettable. There may be other bands that would be praised for music like this, but so much more was expected from the likes of Pink Floyd, so yes they do get judged harshly for this album.

All I know is this album doesn't really do a lot for me because there is so much more that could have gone into it. Except for a few parts, there just isn't the sincerity and heart that was evident in other albums. Even though it is well polished and well produced, I still consider it one of their lesser efforts which I can only consider one other Pink Floyd album that is a lesser effort which is the soundtrack from "More", but at least that one has variety. So, I can only call this one good, but not essential. There are so many other PF albums that are worlds better than this and I can think of a lot of 4 star albums that outshine this one, so I have to stick with 3 stars here.