THE FINAL CUT

Personally, I love this album. It's not a plethora of credentials the band has earned with its previous albums but it's more on the music per se. If I was not given any information that this is a Pink Floyd album I still love this one. Two reasons that support my opinion: 1. I like the energy the singer sings throughout the album which basically has less music than vocal line. 2. The music is thematic even without knowing what's the story line of the album. In fact, I purchased this album in cassette version but I got trouble with the noise level that became obvious because this album has many silent parts. So, couple of years later I purchased the CD format. The result is remarkably different: now I can hear clearly the sighs and silent sound effects in its subtleties especially if I listen to it using earphones or decent stereo set at home.

The opening track "Post War Dream is a requiem after the war. Eevn if I put off the war context I can still use this track to contemplate for other life issues facing most of us on daily basis. The stream continues nicely with "The Possible Pasts" , "One of The Few" to "The Hero's Return". In "The Gunner's Dream" I like the accentuated vocal by Waters whereby the peak happens when he screams "And hold on to your dreams!" with daunting music that continues with saxophone solo. Oh . what a great part, my friend! Not the sax solo per se but the time when he starts screaming the lyrics, it's really cool.

As I mentioned before, I personally like this album. So, despite bad reviews about this album, I still recommend you to have this album in your collection. If you doubt it, borrow the CD from your neighbor, play the first five tracks only. If it blows you, it definitely the whole album would blow you! Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW