Pink Floyd - The Final Cut

[OBYKA]

Definitely one of the weaker outputs...but there is a cult following for this album which baffles me. Final Cut and Possible Pasts are good tracks but the rest are very lacking musically and oversaturated in lyrics. This album does sound very dated as well...as seems to be composed of left over Wall tracks.

[Jimi Dean Barrett]

Only an hour and a bit left according to GMT but Happy Birthday The Final Cut!
Released 33 years ago today!
I'd like to say I was there when it came out. But I clearly wasn't!

[mosespa]

I was there...but all it meant to me was the confusion of "why does 'The Wall' Soundtrack Album--which the movie told me that this was--contain NO songs from 'The Wall?'"

But...having said that, it tends to top my list of "Favorite Pink Floyd Albums" for the same reason that most opponents seem to bitch like pussies about...the lyrics.

AMAZING lyrics.

[The Gunner's Dream]

Still my favorite Pink Floyd album.

The Gunner's Dream is one of the most powerful songs ever. Waters voice is by turns vulnerable and festering with rage throughout the album. No doubt his strongest vocal efforts to date.

[Follix]

Well it's my least favorite PF album, to me it's totally the opposite of WYWH or Animals: short and similar songs it cruelly lacks Rick Wright's ethereal sound and David Gilmour's involvement.

[brell]

Well it's my least favorite PF album, to me it's totally the opposite of WYWH or Animals: short and similar songs it cruelly lacks Rick Wright's ethereal sound and David Gilmour's involvement.

Ditto

[Wolfpack]

I love this album so much!!
(The original version, because I think 'Tigers' doesn't fit.)

I'm glad I heard it before knowing which band member did what.
And I find the holophonics sound a beautiful experience.

Great singing, great vocal lines, great guitar work, great lyrics.

Isn't Wright on this album? Who?
I'm glad I was able to take the album for what it is.

[vizor]

oh-haw. One Pink Floyd album I'll never hear.

[theaussiefloydian]

I love this album so much!!
(The original version, because I think 'Tigers' doesn't fit.)

I'm glad I heard it before knowing which band member did what.
And I find the holophonics sound a beautiful experience.

Great singing, great vocal lines, great guitar work, great lyrics.

Isn't Wright on this album? Who?
I'm glad I was able to take the album for what it is.

Yes, the original version for the win, which I've only been able to hear thanks to the Internet.
That being said, TFC is by no means a favourite of mine. I gave it a 3 because whilst it is in no way a team effort and is a gratuitous whine-fest, it works in that respect and at times actually surpasses the whine-fest and actually has something to say. The composition is nothing groundbreaking really, but I love some of the imagery that Waters calls up with his biting lyrics on this one. To me the entire first side (save for 'Your Possible Pasts' and maybe 'The Gunner's Dream') achieves very little, but it's in the second side that I find what I like about this album the most. 'The Fletcher Memorial Home' is compositionally a high point on the album, truly kicking off the second side. 'Southampton Dock' to me is nothing more than a quick transition point with some neat imagery. The title track is one I really love. Whilst it also doesn't have the greatest composition in history, the music works for what it is and the lyrics can be interpreted in many more ways than the war/veteran setting they are given. 'Not Now John' is revitalizing in a way, as Gilmour reminds us that, hey, this is a Pink Floyd record. 'Two Suns in the Sunset' is a great closer with some eerily beautiful imagery describing the end of days (am I weird because I reckon it's kinda beautiful how he describes the bomb going off in the distance?)
All in all, not the best album ever - probably my least favourite from Pink Floyd - but by no means the worst album ever either.

[Hammer]

I love TFC, 4/5
However it's the only Waters-era album that has skipable tracks for me; Hero's Return, Gunner's Dream and Paranoid Eyes. The rest of the album has a powerful enough of an impact for me to cover for the failures of these three songs though.
The run of songs from Get Your Filthy Hands through The Final Cut are very strong and emotional IMO, a ride of amazing vocal melodies and very touching lyrics.


What original version are you guys talking about? The way I understand it; the music is the same minus Tigers, no?

[twcc]

...
What original version are you guys talking about? The way I understand it; the music is the same minus Tigers, no?

True, insofar my 'original' (AAD) CD has 12 tracks and the 2011 re-master has 13 tracks with Tigers at track No.4

[YetAnother]

Tigers should have been the first track to make it easy to skip.

[twcc]

...
What original version are you guys talking about? The way I understand it; the music is the same minus Tigers, no?

True, insofar my 'original' (AAD) CD has 12 tracks and the 2011 re-master has 13 tracks with Tigers at track No.4

A bit of detail about track lengths -

01. The Post War Dream ... the original CD was 2m56s whereas the re-master is 3m01s
02. Your Possible Pasts ... the original CD was 4m38s whereas the re-master is 4m26s
03. One Of The Few ... both versions are 1m14s
04. When The Tigers Broke Free ... not present on the original CD, the 3m15s version is on the re-master
05. The Hero's Return ... the original CD was 2m35s whereas the re-master is 2m43s
06. The Gunners Dream ... the original CD was 5m29s whereas the re-master is 5m18s
07. Paranoid Eyes ... the original CD was 3m35s whereas the re-master is 3m42s
08. Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert ... the original CD was 1m19s whereas the re-master is 1m17s
09. The Fletcher Memorial Home ... the original CD was 4m10s whereas the re-master is 4m11s
10. Southampton Dock ... the original CD was 2m14s whereas the re-master is 2m12s
11. The Final Cut ... the original CD was 4m43s whereas the re-master is 4m42s
12. Not Now John ... the original CD was 5m02s whereas the re-master is 5m01s
13. Two Suns In The Sunset ... the original CD was 5m16s whereas the re-master is 5m19s

[Vegetable Layne]

Its a fantastic album, I think, but one or two tracks could've been dropped (I never loved Paranoid Eyes as so many seem to do, and I do find it dovetails from the superior The Gunner's Dream rather boringly), and it lacks the bombastic, epic Floyd sound from the '70's. I always felt a lot of the follow-up album was a reaction to this one, making several big, long tracks with huge sounds to sharply differ from the quieter, more desperate tone of this record.

Tigers should have been the first track to make it easy to skip.

While I don't dislike the placement in the remaster, I guess I agree with the above point, too. Especially if they'd kept the original long intro (so far only included in the Echoes collection, I believe) and maybe kept the drum rolls that were present in the single version. It'd still set the mindset for the album just as well.

[theaussiefloydian]

I always felt a lot of the follow-up album was a reaction to this one, making several big, long tracks with huge sounds to sharply differ from the quieter, more desperate tone of this record.

That's actually probably what happened, although a lot of AMLoR's big 80s sound seemed to have more to do with Gilmour experimenting with those sounds and then being told to turn it into a Pink Floyd album.

Tigers should have been the first track to make it easy to skip.

Now I agree with you in one respect, but on the other hand I feel like doing that would ruin the bookend effect that the car radio has in "The Post War Dream" and "Two Suns in the Sunset". I really just wish they hadn't bothered adding "Tigers" at all - the album functioned much better without it in my opinion.