1983 - A Thread for the Final Cut Haters!

[Keith Jordan]

For those of you who cannot say a nice thing about the final cut album, please make all your negative and nasty remarks on this thread. Do not post them in the other threads causing arguments and ruining the threads.

[JackRegan]

LOL, sorry. I hate that album, but i was just trying to be funny on that another thread. Sorry again.

[Keith Jordan]

Yes, your nagativity prompted the creation of this thread!

Note to all: keep your negativity and troll/spam/crap off the other threads please as they will be featured in the next site newsletter in a couple of days. Go and post some constructive things on the threads.

[JackRegan]

Yes, your nagativity prompted the creation of this thread!

Note to all: keep your negativity and troll/spam/crap off the other threads please as they will be featured in the next site newsletter in a couple of days. Go and post some constructive things on the threads.

Ok

[David Smith]

While i do quite like the album (as said in the general discussion of it) i have to say i hate gilmour's guitar playing on it a lot. Every solo sounds exactly the same, totally overblown and pompous, and really take away a lot of the potential emotion in the music. It really feels like Gilmour one day played the comfortably numb solo and has been playing that same one ever since.

[The Gunner's Dream]

I really don't understand how a solo can sound "overblown and pompous", especially in Gilmour's case. Most of his solos consist of quarter notes and arpeggiated chords within the pentatonic scale, which accounts for everything he plays sounding the same. Hardly anything pompous about something as simple as that.

Of course, if it is as simple as disliking his solos on that album, that's fine. I'm just not sure if "overblown and pompous" are valid (or even necessarily negative) musical criticisms.

[JackRegan]

While i do quite like the album (as said in the general discussion of it) i have to say i hate gilmour's guitar playing on it a lot. Every solo sounds exactly the same, totally overblown and pompous, and really take away a lot of the potential emotion in the music. It really feels like Gilmour one day played the comfortably numb solo and has been playing that same one ever since.

Feeling the same with every song that Waters is "sinning". Shouting/whispering.

[mosespa]

I really don't understand how a solo can sound "overblown and pompous", especially in Gilmour's case. Most of his solos consist of quarter notes and arpeggiated chords within the pentatonic scale, which accounts for everything he plays sounding the same. Hardly anything pompous about something as simple as that.

Of course, if it is as simple as disliking his solos on that album, that's fine. I'm just not sure if "overblown and pompous" are valid (or even necessarily negative) musical criticisms.

I feel that they are.

It's all in the phrasing, really; I'd say.

One doesn't necessarily have to engage in impossible fretboard gymnastics to come across as pompous and overblown.

One note can do it, if one does it right...or wrong, depending on how one looks at it. *shrug*

If people with low intellect can come across as pompous and overblown, I don't see why a pentatonic guitar solo couldn't do the same.

[David Smith]

I really don't understand how a solo can sound "overblown and pompous", especially in Gilmour's case. Most of his solos consist of quarter notes and arpeggiated chords within the pentatonic scale, which accounts for everything he plays sounding the same. Hardly anything pompous about something as simple as that.

Of course, if it is as simple as disliking his solos on that album, that's fine. I'm just not sure if "overblown and pompous" are valid (or even necessarily negative) musical criticisms.

Excusing my lack of musical vocabulary, i find when what starts as an almost minimalist or intimate song is suddenly disrupted by an overly bloated/ grand / soaring elecritc guitar solo (again, i'm sure these words will be critiqued, but then i am not musician) then the power of the song is almost completely lost. To me the solos in no way enhance the songs, and rather seem like 'oh let's chuck in another david gilmour guitar solo' rather than being vital parts of the song (much like the horrible use of the saxophone in The Gunner's Dream); simply showing off in the worst sense.

[The Gunner's Dream]

I can see where you and Sean are coming from. I think that "uninspired" suits the solos on that album better, but that's just me. I did not get a sense of "grandioseness" when listening to the solos (listening to ELP may have acclimated me to pretentiousness) but rather a sense of dullness and "going through the motions". The solos do indeed seem to be thrown in purely for the sake of having a solo, and in that sense, they are sort of self-serving.

[JackRegan]

Excusing my lack of musical vocabulary, i find when what starts as an almost minimalist or intimate song is suddenly disrupted by an overly bloated/ grand / soaring elecritc guitar solo (again, i'm sure these words will be critiqued, but then i am not musician) then the power of the song is almost completely lost. To me the solos in no way enhance the songs, and rather seem like 'oh let's chuck in another david gilmour guitar solo' rather than being vital parts of the song (much like the horrible use of the saxophone in The Gunner's Dream); simply showing off in the worst sense.

Oh well, and Gilmour haters are complaining that his On An Island is too "mellow". Guess that only gifted person out there is Waters.

[Idisaffect]

The solos do indeed seem to be thrown in purely for the sake of having a solo

At that point in their career, Gilmour was in the band purely for the sake of having a guitarist. And to sing part of Not Now John.

The solos on TFC are only, like, 30 seconds long. That's not what I call pompous. They are short and precise. That's not what I call overblown. They all seem like they belong. I mean, every floyd album has guitar solos.

(the solos) really take away a lot of the potential emotion in the music

For me, the solo's pack some of the the biggest emotional punches.

It's all in the phrasing, really; I'd say.

You would say that.
Incidentally, the way you phrased it was pompous. If you would have just left out that "really".

[sintrait]

While, yes I agree, this album is not up to par with the five Pink Floyd releases before it... that's doesn't mean there isn't any substance. Hate away, but it's arguably the last true Pink Floyd album.

I think that Gilmour's solo on The Flectcher Memorial Home is one of his best, easily. I also believe that it only adds to the power of the song, and does not take away from it.

Fun Fact number 438,289: Roger featured on the albums back cover with a film reel in his hand and a knife in the back was shot partly due to Waters believing he was 'stabbed in the back' during the filming of The Wall.

Lastly, the use of their "3D Sound" is astonishing (especially when listening to the album with headphones) given the time period it was released. I'm glad this album exists.

[JackRegan]

I'm glad this album exists.

I'm not.

[The Gunner's Dream]

The solos on TFC are only, like, 30 seconds long. That's not what I call pompous. They are short and precise. That's not what I call overblown. They all seem like they belong. I mean, every floyd album has guitar solos.

I just listened to the album again from start to finish for the first time in over a year. There wasn't a single song on the album I didn't like. I felt Not Now John was the weakest song, with the weakest, most generic solo. I really like the solos for both "Fletcher" and the "Final Cut". There was nothing pretentious, or technically wrong with either solo. I had mixed feelings over the "Your possible pasts" solo. Those harmonics were sloppily played!

But again I have to say the best songs on the album are "The Gunner's Dream" and "The Final Cut".