Pink Floyd – The Final Cut (1983) – Classic Album Review

Now spinning…. Pink Floyd – The Final Cut (1983)
After living with the 2018 Remix of Animals for five days, I thought I’d go back and give The Final Cut another spin.

I remember my expectations for this were sky-high back in ‘1983 when I one day saw it in the window of my local record store. No internet back in those days, so I had no idea that Floyd had another album in the works. But the moment I spotted that album art I knew it was a new album by Pink Floyd.

I remember so well how I struggled my way through 11 tracks (which all moved a at snail’s pace) with Roger Waters whining about his dad, Thatcher and various war issues before David Gilmore finally got a chance at Not Now John.
But The Final Cut proved to be too much in the end. At first, I couldn’t believe that Pink Floyd had released such an un-Floydish album. And where were the elegant keyboard textures of Richard Wright?
Throughout the years I’ve given The Final Cut more chances than I’ve had hot meals (not quite true, but you get the picture), but the album refuses to click with me.

Animals is also a Roger Waters album, but it is being played and recorded as a band where every member not only is very audible but also sets personal marks on the music. The Final Cut sounds very much like a Waters solo album (which it is, only not in name), but with some (very minor ) input from Gilmour and Mason.
I’ve tried so hard to like this album but I think I’m now ready to throw in the towel on it. It is so…whiny. And the songs are hardly songs at all. Except for Not Now John there’s no melody, guitar solo or musical theme for the brain to grab onto.

I know that both A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Endless River was given much flack from fans and critics alike, but I find myself preferring both of those albums before The Final Cut.
And for the record, the only Waters solo album I kinda liked is Amused to Death, but even that doesn’t hold a candle to those two scolded Pink Floyd albums I just mentioned.
What about you? The Final Cut. Yay or nay?

Frode Singsaas | Now Spinning Magazine