So ... Who liked Pink Floyd's Final Cut?

scrumhalf

My liking for Floyd increased as we got to Meddle, flattened out with Dark Side and fell away with WYWH and slumped with Animals. By the time you get to The Final Cut the Floydiness that i liked had gone.

ICBM

For me, there are four great Floyd albums - Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall and The Final Cut. Everything else is an also-ran, including Animals which I’ve never really been able to get into. Meddle isn’t bad but more because it hints at what was to come, although Echoes is great and admittedly half of it...

I’d put Amused To Death above any Floyd albums other than those four, and I’m beginning to really like Is This The Life We Really Want too. I suppose what this all says is that I really listen to Waters more than Gilmour. I’ve tried to listen to the post-Waters albums several times but the only one I actually like is Pulse.

Grumpyrocker

I've gone off Waters in the last year or two. Mainly things he's said. And the live miming. 

But my favourite Floyd albums are Meddle, Animals, and The Wall. Which I agree is an odd selection. DSOTM I like too, but I've never really got into WYWH. 

richardhomer

I can take or leave Meddle, don’t mind DSOTM and ‘love’ WYWH. After that, I hated Animals and liked two songs in The Wall. The rest of that album put me off exploring anything else by them.

Does this make an a bad person?

Tone71

It's probably my favourite Floyd album, then again I do like melancholy.

I was always firmly in the Gilmour camp but getting older I lean much more to Waters stuff, Amused to Death is excellent and Pros and Cons is another really great album

Whitecat

A few great moments, a fair amount of filler, listen to it occasionally when I'm in the mood for some angry Roger...

Danny1969

Amused to Death is the best Waters album I think, although I do love the rest too. The absolute magnum opus was The Wall IMHO and that is really a Roger waters solo album with some great contributions from the Gilmour, Ezrin and Kamen etc. There's no doubt Waters was the creative genius and the rest of PF should be very thankful he had an entire works written when they needed it the most ...being skint and owing a lot of tax 

Whitecat

Danny1969 said:

Amused to Death is the best Waters album I think

+1000000

axisus

Well, I played through it on the way to work today.

On the plus side: I rather like some of the interesting production elements that they got in, effects, voices etc. The lyrics (some of them) went from being very contemporary at point of writing, to horribly dated, but they have resurfaced again as being historical, so I think that works.
A couple of great DG guitar solos, and a great sax solo

Where it goes wrong for me - definitely not enough DG! Both singing and also guitar solos. I like Rogers singing style on the whole, he's great at manic bits, but I think that Pink Floyd sound much better with both singers. I can just imagine Roger presenting the band with his demos and as each song is cued up he's going "yeah, and I'll be singing this one as well ..."

For me on the whole, it's all a bit to low key on pace, with Not now John as the only track that really changes things up. For me a common theme with people obsessed with lyrics is that they put them before the music (are you listening Neal morse?). The music is still good overall, but this is where it helps when you are in a band and everyone has input in shaping the sound and songs.

guitartango

I still think the best track is Two Suns in the sunset, but as @axisus said, needs more "Dave".

Redlester

I gave it a listen out of interest once or twice a couple of years back. As music it’s not especially startling, but then I don’t listen to Pink Floyd at all. As a political statement I find most of it sound. It can get rather sanctimonious and rather Tony Benn in places however. 

Like Benn I think RW often confuses having a strong conviction about something with being correct. 

Litterick

They lost me when they started going on and on about the Second World War and being English.

mart

Litterick said:

They lost me when they started going on and on about the Second World War and being English.

Do you mean in Saucerful of Secrets, or on Piper?

Kilgore

Litterick said:

They lost me when they started going on and on about the Second World War and being English.

Waters father was a conscientious objector at the start of WW2. He initially drove an ambulance during the blitz. He changed his stance, joined the army and was killed in 1944 when Waters was 5 months old. 

WW2, the loss of his father and his belief that the war time generation have been betrayed by subsequent governments and generations has been central to his musical career and personal political views.

Waters has always been an angry man. It has fuelled his songwriting but you have to wonder at what personal cost to his overall happiness and well being. 

axisus

Ok, so I decided to play the album a fair bit on my commute for a week and .... it is certainly growing on me! There is quite a bit to find interesting once you really get to know it. 

Cirrus

I think the thing I really like about it is that it kind of spotlights the experience of a certain generation. It's an experience that doesn't quite reach down the years because it seems like a lot of our popular culture is founded on what started in the '60s - ie, the children of the people who experienced World War 2. And instead of actually thinking about what it was like to live the late 30s and 40s, we mostly just romanticise it.

Imagine what it would have been like to spend your early 20s actually fighting for something a fundamental as the survival of your country, against fascism. Rationing doesn't end until you're in your mid 30s, then your kids become teenagers and build a cultural world that leaves you behind.

They dismiss or just never think about your experiences, and you stand there thinking "when I was their age, all the lights went out..."

axisus

Just resurrecting this thread as I found an interesting article: 

How Pink Floyd made The Final Cut and learned to hate each other

https://www.loudersound.com/amp/features/how-pink-floyd-made-the-final-cut-and-learned-to-hate-each-other?fbclid=IwAR0ZLnFHYTpQ_7laif-W1Gwec0O8Zk2wvfapyr2vhzRomqikhRvbGb7Mxswv

ICBM

axisus said:

Just resurrecting this thread as I found an interesting article: 

How Pink Floyd made The Final Cut and learned to hate each other

Some interesting points and perceptive observations in there.

I actually think the fact that there are still such strong and divergent opinions about it after 35 years does show that it’s a great album, despite what Gilmour thinks - it clearly just doesn’t work for everyone.

I’m not sure it’s my favourite Floyd album - I’d pick DSOTM probably - but it might be next.

Logie

I hate The Final Cut. Unremittingly bleak and should probably have been released as a Waters solo album, which it is really in my view.
He’s not a happy chappy.

pintspiller

I tried to like Pink Floyd output because I believed I was supposed to. There's a higher portion of "likes" up to Wish You Were Here (though Ummagumma is well dodgy) and a low portion after.