THE FINAL CUT

"The Final Cut" is actually a great album in my opinion; one of Floyd's most underrated (yet not one of their best). It does however disappoint in some ways: it isn't very progressive (doesn't necessarily make it bad, but I'm reviewing it as a prog album) and it is in several ways, as frequently described, a Roger Waters solo album supported by Pink Floyd; Waters sings the lyrics on all songs but on the title track (where vocals are by David Gilmour). Additionally, all songs on this one has been composed by Waters, and Richard Wright was completely absent from the recording sessions.

Now, none of this actually makes this a bad album, but it is a lot weaker than all of the albums released by Pink Floyd recently before this ("Dark Side of the Moon", "Wish You Were Here", "Animals" and "The Wall"). It is still stronger than the one the band came out with after this and the departure of Waters ("A Momentary Lapse of Reason"), which is an album that I never quite got into.

Even though Waters' presence is the strongest one on this album, Gilmour and Nick Mason do play very well; their technical musicianship does not disappoint. The lyrics are great; some of my favorite lyrics by Floyd can be found on this record.

There are however, some quite weak songs ("Southampton Dock", "Get Your Filthy Hands of My Desert", "Paranoid Eyes"), and none of the songs are epics in class with what we have seen on most albums by the band before this (such as "Echoes", "Time", "Wish You Were Here", "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", "Dogs", "Comfortably Numb"), yet "The Final Cut", "The Fletcher Memorial Home" and the last track, "Two Suns in the Sunset" are very good, but not quite at that level.

The album still has a strong concept; this was something Waters always succeeded with, and Pink Floyd wasn't quite able to create an album with a concept as strong as this one when Waters had left (in fact, "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" wasn't even a concept album at all).

It is probably a bit disappointing seeing what Pink Floyd had created before this, but it still gets more hate than it deserves. The fact that it isn't very progressive leaves it with a rating of 3, not 4 stars. Also, I miss Wright's keyboard parts, which were a very important part of the Floyd sound; many songs here don't sound very Floydian, partly because of this, I think.