THE FINAL CUT

I love The Wall. That albums is among my 10 or 15 favorite recordings of all time. When I learned, years ago, that there was another album that pretty much was a collection of outtakes from The Wall assembled together by Roger Waters, I was clearly interested. I thought the bad press and reviews were exaggerated.

But they weren't. The album is one of the weakest in the whole PINK FLOYD catalogue. At times it gets difficult even to include in the PF catalogue as it's more of a Roger Waters' solo project than a true collaboration with his soon-to-be (at that time) ex-bandmates. The music is similar to that of The Wall but completely devoid of the energy, the impulse, the melodies, the story-telling, and the brilliance of the tracks in the double-disc masterpiece. Here, in The Final Cut, the music sounds repetitive, all songs seem to play in the same time, at the same speed, with the same themes. Roger Waters steals the show but not in a good way: he just obliterates Gilmour's presence, thus killing one of PINK FLOYD's most magical elements, his solos and his outstanding guitar-work. To add insult to injury, Rick Wright was left out of the band so even the keyboard has lost any distinctive touch.

A disappointing follow-up to the masterpiece. The Final Cut by PINK FLOYD was actually one cut too many.