Pink Floyd: 'The Final Cut' - is it really that bad?

Pink Floyd's 'The Final Cut' is a divisive album. In this video I discuss if it really deserves the drubbing it has recieved.

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[brusselssprouts]

WTF has the Falklands war have to do with the musical death nell? The Wall was Waters obsession with himself, and the Final Cut was exactly more than that, That is why he was rejected. A band isn't one or two people, because it is all in the band.

[TheMickvee]

"The rusty wire that holds the cork, that keeps the anger in, gives way, and suddenly it's day again." Roger's genius lyrics abound in this epic album. Been listening to it since 1983, and it is still relevant today.

[PetraKann]

"Two Suns in the Sunset"
A lyrical and musical masterpiece - still reverberates today.

[deanmccaskill]

The way that “ Hold on to the dream”….. fades away and the sax comes in
Chefs Kiss

[jonglassmusic]

When the Tigers Broke Free…chokes me every time. Love him or hate him, Waters lyrical genius is surely undeniable.

[shawnminnier]

I loved it the day it was released and I still love it. I don't care about magazine critics because none of them have ever written an album.

[dorianlollobrigida]

I must admit I was in total shock at the title of this excellently probing video essay: the critical reception of this album was negative? I purchased it as soon as it came out and I don't think I listened to anything else for an entire terms of lyrics alone this is a masterpiece. Only Lou Reed, Sheena Ringo (in Japan) and a handful of others rise to such levels:

Through the fish-eyed lens of tear stained eyes
I can barely define the shape of this moment in time
And far from flying high in clear blue skies
I'm spiraling down to the hole in the ground where I hide
If you negotiate the minefield in the drive
And beat the dogs and cheat the cold electronic eyes
And if you make it past the shotguns in the hall
Dial the combination, open the priesthole
And if I'm in I'll tell you (what's behind the wall)

[cingi]

I have never read or seen any discussion/commentary on this album, to the extent of this deep and unbiased articulation of yours. Nothing left to add. Thank you for your work and effort man.

[grantwallace]

The Final Cut is to me, the most emotional Pink Floyd album. It is best thought of as a Roger Waters album. I have always liked it very much.

[ugadawgs]

It has some solid contributions to the Floyd catalog. It is only considered so bad because the preceding albums were some of the best in rock history.

[RupertEnglanderTheMAMIL]

As a 13 year old child who was listening to the likes of The Thomson Twins (actually not much wrong with that) this was the album that made me realise that music could move you. I was utterly mesmerised by it and still remember vividly the first time I heard this album and the emotional response I had to it.
It turned my music world upside down and me on to Pink Floyd and Roger Waters and remains to this day one of my very favourite albums.

[mikevieira]

It's possible that I've listened to this record more than any other PF or RW album. It touches me in a way the others seldom do. Amused to Death comes close though...

[saulcaldwell]

When I first heard it, I thought it was awful and didn't relisten for years. Now it's my most listened to Pink Floyd album. It also seems very relevant today with the subject matter.

[Weaponofmassins]

Super underrated album. I've used it as a study in lyrical imagery in several different classes over the years. Growing up in the Cold War Era and during the Falklands Conflict, (I was 14 in 1983), this album was topical, current, and cannot, in my opinion, be viewed as a collection of independent tracks, but more closely resembles one 43 minute long track.

High quality headphones turned up to 11, a darkened, comfortable room, a bottle of Cab-Sauv.... Perfect.

That or turned up to 11 on an overnight highway drive where there isn't another town of person to be found for 100+ kms.

If I'm on a road trip and don't have a copy with me, I just sing the whole album to myself from start to finish. Yes.... We know each other that well, this album and I.

[spottedinsuffolk]

The final cut is a next level album, .
Admittedly it has to be listened to a few times to grab you but once it takes hold it doesn't let go.

[ambientideas]

It’s one of my favourite PF albums, and I never understood the widespread criticism. Two Suns is one of the greatest dystopian songs ever written.

[carloc]

Fantastic review. I personally loved the album since my first listening. I do not have a problem with those who consider this RW's first solo work, followed up by Pros and Cons. Again, I am absolutely fine. I immensely love anything that PF, RW and DG have recorded, as a band or solo artist. And this is for me no less masterpiece, both musically and politically.

[authordavidabare]

Have always said this album is criminally underrated. Animals is my Desert Island Disk, essentially flawless IMHO, however Final Cut is also brilliant in the way it blends mellow, flowing sounds with bombastic, often unexpected stabs of sonic dissonance. Of course, it’s basically a Waters solo album, but there’s an undercurrent of PF that still resonates with the listener, and why does it matter anyway? Whether one labels this a PF album or a Waters album, denying its beauty is still ridiculous. According to me at least lol. Love it 🤘🏻😍🎧

[blatherskite]

There are few albums that I've had such a radical reassessment of. I was about 12 years old when it was released. My Pink Floyd-loving dad bought it, and I thought it was bloody awful - painful, even - with only one track ("Not Now John") that got any kind of positive reaction out of me. I never listened to it again - until about a year ago, when I thought I'd give it another chance. With about 40 more years on the clock (I hesitate to say "maturity"!) I found I understood all of the lyrics, and got all of the historical references. It was a very different kettle of fish.

You do need a working knowledge of that early 80s period in UK history to really get the album, with Margaret Thatcher still in the ascendent; the decimation of our manufacturing industries, the fact we were going to war again (the lessons of WW2 seemingly forgotten already), and whatever "good" had come out of the post-WW2 period seemingly being dismantled before our eyes.

The overall message of the album, i.e. that the common people who had fought and died in WW2 had been betrayed - stabbed in the back, as per the rather on the nose sleeve artwork - is a powerful one, and no less relevant today, even if some of the references to specifc events (e.g. the IRA "blowing up bandstands by remote control") might be lost on younger listeners who don't recall those events and were born into a world in which our manufacturing industries were already long gone and terrorism has a different face.

There's no denying that it's an album which places the lyrics first and foremost, with "choons" a distant second consideration - a criticism often levelled at Waters' solo albums, and it could indeed be argued that "The Final Cut" _is_ a Roger Waters solo album, just with some guest Floyds contributing - but when the lyrics are this damn good, they can almost carry the thing.

[ministerofdarkness]

I love The Final Cut! It's a headphone classic! True Masterpiece. PLAY LOUD