On the heels of the phenomenon that is
\nThe Wall<\/i>, Pink Floyd released their most controversial, and
\nfor many fans the most inaccessible album of their careers. One
\nthing that has to be considered about the band at this juncture is
\nthat at this point the two de-facto leaders, Roger Waters and David
\nGilmour, had fallen apart for both artistic and business reasons.
\nFollowing this album Waters would leave the band for good.<\/p>\n
Essentially,
\nThe Final Cut<\/i> is a Roger Waters album. Gilmour plays, as
\ndoes original member Nick Mason, though minimally and augmented by
\na number of outside musicians. Rick Wright, also an original
\nmember, does not appear on the album and had been fired from the
\nband, or left, depending on whom you talk to.<\/p>\n
Big chunks of the album use minimal arrangement, in some cases
\njust a solo piano. In other places the sound is extremely thick and
\ndrenched with atmosphere and mood. Waters’ flair for coloring his
\ncompositions with voices and odd sound clips is used extensively.
\nThe rich sonic textures you’d come to expect from The Floyd are
\nhere, but in a much different fashion than previous albums. The
\nmajority of the album consists of either minimalist arrangements or
\nlush orchestrations provided by the full London Philharmonic
\nconducted by the legendary Michael Kaman. In fact, the orchestrated
\nparts make up a huge part of the album, and it works. The dense
\nlayers of orchestral sound create a dark ambience that is unlike
\nany other Floyd record, but fits in perfectly with Water’s often
\nheavy-handed compositions.<\/p>\n
If people were expecting more of what they got on
\nThe Wall<\/i>, or any other previous Floyd album, they were in
\nfor a surprise.
\nThe Final Cut<\/i> is a somber affair; completely devoid of any
\nbright moments and with no groove whatsoever to be found — without
\nquestion, the most radio-unfriendly album of their career. No big
\nstretch for Floyd really, almost every thing they did was dark, if
\nnot downright depressing, and they certainly never cared about
\nsingles. The thematic elements need to be dark anyway, for the
\nsubject of the album is abut as dark as it gets. A concept album
\nabout the futility and aftermath of war. This is not new territory
\nfor Waters, as he has covered it many times before, from “Corporal
\nClegg” off
\nA Saucerful Of Secrets<\/i> to a good chunk of
\nThe Wall<\/i>, it’s been an obsession of Waters’ his entire
\nlife.<\/p>\n
In this case, he gives in and creates and entire album about it,
\nspanning the length of his own life in the telling. He has a much
\nmore mature voice by this time, at times making
\nThe Wall<\/i> seem a bit juvenile. And as far as concepts go,
\nthis is by far his most structured and cohesive work, outshining
\neven
\nDark Side Of The Moon<\/i> in that respect. Partly personal
\nreflection, and part the voices of others, Waters’ narrators jump
\nfrom child to old veteran, to post-war teen, to war widow, blurring
\nthe lines between whose particular recollections we’re experiencing
\nat the time. Waters’ story covers WWII, the event with the greatest
\nimpact and effect on the last three generations, through the Cold
\nWar and Viet Nam, to the comparatively paltry affairs in Grenada
\nwhich were just a blip on the radar of the collective consciousness
\nof most of the world.<\/p>\n
Though as different sounding as can you can imagine, coming from
\nthe same source,
\nThe Final Cut<\/i> certainly dovetails with
\nThe Wall<\/i>, at least in the personal recollection of Waters’
\nyouth and the death of his father at Anzio in WWII. It also
\nincorporates elements of
\nThe Wall<\/i> that were left out of the album for one reason or
\nanother, mainly the excellent song “When The Tigers Broke Free,”
\nwhich was sadly cut from
\nThe Wall<\/i> but appears in the film version, and was included
\nin the re-mastered reissue of
\nThe Final Cut<\/i>. The only real rocker in this set, “Not Now
\nJohn,” is a clone of the extended “Empty Spaces” also recorded for
\nThe Wall<\/i> film but left off the original album. Another link
\nto
\nThe Wall<\/i> is the song “Southampton Dock”: “They disembarked
\nin ’45 \/ And no-one spoke and no-one smiled \/ There were too many
\nspaces in the line”; which reflects “Bring The Boys Back Home” from<\/p>\n
The Wall<\/i> where young Pink searches in vain for his father
\namong groups of returning soldiers.<\/p>\n
Water’s compositions waver up and down the emotional scale, from
\nquite reflection to intense anger, sometimes with startling
\nabruptness. The melancholy quality of “The Gunner’s Dream” is so
\nplaintive (and so futilely hopeful); it’s hard to believe this is
\nthe same voice of “The Fletcher Memorial Home” who suggests that
\nthe answer to world peace is to have all the world’s leaders
\ngassed.<\/p>\n
Part of the appeal of
\nThe Final Cut<\/i> is the contrast between this album and any
\nother by Floyd. Secondly, the rich lyrical content leaves a lot of
\nterritory to be explored. Subsequent listens to this album reveal
\nmore and more layers of complexity and depth. Personally I find it
\na fascinating and richly detailed look into Waters’ dark psyche,
\nalbeit a bit emotionally exhausting.<\/p>\n
After all the ups and downs, the album closes with the quiet”Two
\nSuns In The Sunset,” which pulls together what really is the crux
\nof the album, the culmination of all the wars of the past and our
\ncurrent volatile global situation, the thing Waters fears more than
\nhis own losses or damaged psyche, the impending threat of nuclear
\nholocaust:<\/p>\n
“The wire that holds the cork That keeps the anger in Gives way
\nAnd suddenly it’s day again. The sun is in the east Even though the
\nday is done Two suns in the sunset”<\/p>\n
\n[Authors note: This review covers the 2004 reissue of the album
\nwhich this writer feels is far superior to the original release,
\npartly because of the inclusion of the excellent track “When The
\nTigers Broke Free” which tells the back story of the death of
\nWaters’ father. It was included in the film version of<\/i> The Wall<\/p>\n
but appears here for the first time on a studio album.
\n-BR]<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":27110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5677],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38447","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pink-floyd","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38447"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}