Pink Floyd: The Final Cut - 1983

 

This was Pink Floyd's last studio album to feature founder member Roger Waters and it is a trying listen, based around Waters' well-used theme of his father's death in World War Two. 

At times, I admit it is very moving and obviously intensely personal to Waters but, callous as it may sound, I want to hear Waters sing and write about something else. Actually, he does cover other subjects - ranting with unbridled abandon about Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and the Falklands War, all justifiable targets, of course. It all comes across to me as someone howling at the moon. Sorry Roger, I know your sentiments are fine ones, but here, to music, they are ineffective, for me, anyway. My reaction is - maybe incorrectly - "give it a rest, eh, Roger?". For such an old curmudgeon, however, there are some genuinely sensitive lyrics in some of the songs, particularly in relation to his mother. 

The album is largely low-key, melodically and musically, with a few good bits - the searing guitar at the end of both The Fletcher Memorial Home and Not Now John, the hard-hitting power of The Final Cut and the saxophone on Two Suns In The Sunset. The final part of the album is much better than the first. It is an angsty, perhaps way too personal an album, but it does get into your system a bit after a few listens.

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Comments

  1. Pierce Brown07/05/2025, 04:34

    It's an intense listen that I can become fully absorbed by. Noting that it's not really a full Pink Floyd collaborative album. I wonder if you've heard the Roger Waters (in my book) masterpiece The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking. I recall buying that and AMLoR together and balanced things out nicely for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Panther07/05/2025, 11:47

      Listening to both of them now. Enjoying them. Waters' 5.06 am is one hell of a track isn't it?

      Delete

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