THE FINAL CUT

All band infighting and comments about this being a Roger-solo-album aside, "The Final Cut" is...an acquired taste.

Apart from the obvious difficult lyrical content and historical references that must be navigated through (not an easy feat for anyone born after this album was released!), this album is significantly impressive on the technical level. This album incorporates some of the latest cutting-edge technology available in 1982, in that it utilized 'Holophonics'. Listen again to this album in quad sound if you are at all able, it might change your opinion of it. The music itself is structured quite dynamically, and is very layered, with lots of things going on. Sounds of rain, cars passing, bombs whizzing overhead and exploding behind you are utilized not as 'special effects', but as actually a kind of 'musical effect'.

"The Final Cut" means more to Brits than others, if only because a lot of the conceptual material is quintessentially British. References to: Dame (Former Prime Minister) Margaret Thatcher; the shipyards closing on the River Clyde; the docks at Southampton (where soldiers waved goodbye on their way to campaigns on the continent) and the Falkland Islands' War resonate still with those in GB. Not to mention the use of the poppy flower image, the symbol of remembrance of those who died serving their country, like Roger's father.

My favourite song on the album, 'Two Suns In the Sunset' is quite possibly the darkest piece of music ever written by Roger Waters. "As the windshield melts, and my tears evaporate. Leaving only charcoal to defend." Uplifting stuff about a car crash!

Gilmour's contribution to this record is quite small. But where he does appear, his solos convey an awful lot of emotion considering how limited the input Waters allocated to him. "The Final Cut" barely deserves 3/5 stars. Definitely not essential.