THE FINAL CUT

Pink Floyd was turned into a one man show in 1983. The man in charge was Roger Waters. Some of the other Floyd members were still around but didn't got any input. Only the splendid guitar solos of Dave Gilmour does remind you you're listening to a Floyd album. Unlike on their previous work, Water does all the vocals, leaving only "Not now John" for Gilmour. On some moments the voice is the only thing that's on the front besides the piano and the wonderful orchestrations of Michael Kamen. MK could be considered as the non official replacement for Richard Wright. But I like the voice of Water as well, during several excerpts on this album he seems to be more whispering than singing. On the quiet song "the gunners dream" he sounds truly fantastic, a bit similar to the voice of Loyd Cole. This beautiful song is on par to "nobody home" from the Wall. Being a fan of Floyd, I miss the atmospheric moments and the albums lacks some up-tempo songs and harmony vocals which are a trademark of the sound of this band. Let's be honest, this shouldn't be called progressive rock.

On the final cut Waters digs deep into the subject of the second world war. I always considered this album as an epilogue to The Wall where the absence of the father was presented as one of the bricks between the main character and his audience. It seems that the message is more important than the music. As a Waters album, it stands better than "The Pros and cons of." but worse than "Amused to death". Just like on the quoted albums, you should listen from start to finish. The separate tracks don't make any sense without hearing all of the album especially concerning the lyrics. To my humble opinion, "Your possible pasts" , "the gunner's dream", "get you filthy. and "Two suns in the sunsets" are the best tracks this album has to offer. Especially "Two suns in the sunset" shows the best side of Waters. His excellent song writing is unquestionable. Overall there're no major flaws, only "not now John" sounds like a fish out of water as it is the only up-tempo track and not a very good one. On the remaster there's a bonus track added. "Where the tigers broke free" would have been more suitable as a bonus for "The Wall" to my opinion. Here it also doesn't really fit in musically.

Overall the final cut isn't a bad album but there 're not many moments I like to listen to this kind of memorials. Rarely I'm in the mood for this kind of pessimism in my spare time. In an interview Waters told once of an old lady who thanked him because this album gave her the chance to get over the loss of her husband who was killed in the war. He quoted her to convince the press that this was a good album. From a lyrical pint of view it is and I can sympathise to Waters views on the matter. Musically there's so little Floyd in here. The cover art gives you a clue what you can expect from "The Final Cut". A sober, modest affair.