THE FINAL CUT

After the worldwide success of The Wall, album and film, Roger Waters recalls David Gilmour and Nik Mason (but not Richard Wright) to release what is in fact his first solo album, a requiem on the war, an ideal homage to his father, who died in Italy as an American soldier during the Second World War. Waters wanted to indicate Gilmour and Mason as session men, but in the end he had to accept having them as colleagues in Pink Floyd, a band name that now reflects only himself as the only author of music and singing.

This album is considered a minor work but, in my opinion, it is one of the best of Pink Floyd, when framed as an album of a singer-songwriter. Now I try to explain the reasons.

Side A: 1) Post war dream: 7,75. It's a pity it ends after what could have been a very engaging refrain. The slow start with a majestic background grows and then explodes... all very beautiful but without development. It ends too soon.

2) Your possible pasts: 8. This is a real song, with verse and chorus, and a great Gilmour's solo, which remains perhaps the most powerful guitar solo of the album. Very good song.

3) One of the few: 7. This short piece is basically a connecting fragment, monotonous, acoustic, but which retains the dark and threatening atmosphere of the previous ones.

4) The hero's return: 7.75. Strange piece, short, tense, it is not known whether a link or a complete song, with a good electric guitar to make the rhythm, and then give in to the acoustic one... but it has little development.

5) The gunner's dream: 8.75. After an explosion comes the first masterpiece of the album, a melodic piece, with the piano, and two explosions of orchestral epic rock, the first with the saxophone.

6) Paranoid eyes: 7+. First piece where the tension drops - it's the conclusion of the first side. Melodically discreet, with a majestic instrumental background like the opening piece, but without deflagration, it retains a light character, dictated by the piano, also the protagonist of the instrumental solo.

Side B: 7) Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert (no rating) Intro with noises of war and then violins

8) The Fletcher Memorial Home: 8. Rock opera piece, with baroque orchestration and slightly cloying moments, but then again comes the overflowing solo by Gilmour to raise the quality of the song.

9) Southampton Dock: 6.5. Another gregarious, connecting acoustic piece. Compared to One of the few, there is no tension in the initial part, dictated by the acoustic guitar, which appears a bit loose; then halfway through the piano, with a slow crescendo that reaches...

10) The Final Cut; 8.5. Second masterpiece of the album, similar for the melodic structure on the piano to Gunner's dream, then the orchestral epic rock moment comes in, with strings and a new wonderful guitar solo.

11) Not now John: 8+. The final crescendo of the album, which puts in rows three real thick songs, especially the previous one and this one, which is the most eventful of the album, with great choruses and an almost funky rhythm.

12) Two Suns in the sunset; 7.5. End with another calm song, and the noise of cars on the road, it seems to see cars go by while eating at the motorway restaurant; However, in the middle there is a rhythm broken by a dark section that embellishes the song.

The Final Cut is an album dominated by the voice of Waters, who alone makes the music, the melody and the trend of each piece; Waters whispers in the verses of the songs and connecting pieces, then heaves into a tragic or desperate lament as the pieces reach climax. Minimal music, reduced to accompanying the voice in the verses, often without percussion to beat the rhythm, only background, together with noises and voices; then an orchestral sound explodes in the climax with the drums, the electric guitar and the strings accompanying Waters' excruciating lament, or an excruciating guitar solo explodes, or in two cases of saxophone, in any case by a slow majestic progress in the verses we move on to an epic explosion with voice and orchestra or with an instrumental solo in the climax phases. The two major pieces are basically melodic pieces on the piano, another long piece is orchestral, two pieces have a saxophone solo. The rest is a narration with the voice accompanied by the acoustic guitar, only to be triggered by the drums and the electric guitar in the crescendo that lead to the climax of the pieces that are real songs.

The final Cut isn't a prog album, It is basically a melodic and orchestral folk songwriting, dominated by the voice of Waters who acts as narrator and orchestra director - and he succeeds in a superfine way, thanks also to the wonderful holophonic sound of the album (we hear his vocals as if he were speaking to us with his mouth attached to our ear) and the solos of Gilmour. There are two absolute masterpieces, and two other "almost masterpieces", and short connecting songs, in addition to the two (one for side) final ballads. Everything flows together to form a rock opera for solo voice, a requiem, which has an added value in the writing of the lyrics, political involved. If the final two ballads had been small masterpieces, and not just cute songs, we would be faced with a true 5-star masterpiece, instead I have to stop at four and a half stars, an "almost masterpiece".

Thanks Rogers for this album. Rating 8,5/9. Four and a half stars.