Pink Floyd - The Final Cut

[Floyd]

The Final Cut as a part of Pink Floyd’s discography is simply to acknowledge that some of the band had a hand in ushering the record into being. The album began as a follow-up to The Wall – confronting additional themes and leftover material that Waters wasn’t finished handling. However, the rest of the band was very much done with it. Officially it is “The Final Cut: A Requiem for the Post-War Dream by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd” with all members but Waters merely being players in his grand project. All that said, the record is a powerful artistic statement and remains one of the songwriter’s finest works.Waters perceived the onset of the Falklands War as a betrayal of the soldiers who gave their lives for England in World War II. The Final Cut explores the sacrifice of soldiers, both physically and emotionally, and the cost of perpetuating war: inevitable nuclear holocaust. It’s a haunting, heartfelt record that humanizes the plight of the ex-military in ways seldom represented. Musically, the album embodies the complexity and rage of its subject matter. While “Not Now John” comes off as silly in the grand scheme of the album, tracks like “The Final Cut”, the song cycle of “The Hero’s Return” and “The Gunner’s Dream”, and the revisionist inclusion of The Wall B-side “When the Tigers Broke Free” are powerful and well-crafted songs that build into a profound, if not sobering, listening experience.

Track Listing
1. The Post War Dream
2. Your Possible Pasts
3. One of the Few
4. The Hero's Return
5. The Gunner's Dream
6. Paranoid Eyes
7. Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert
8. The Fletcher Memorial Home
9. Southampton Dock
10. The Final Cut
11. Not Now John
12. Two Suns in the Sunset



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[BeatleMatt]

I really love this album. For me, the early 80's were a time of discovery. Sort of moving away from the music my parents listened to and more of what my friends were listening to and what was being played on FM radio, as opposed to AM radio in America. My closest friend at the time and I were Pink Floyd fans and we could not wait for this album to be released. We had waited anxiously since first hearing they were working on a new album. I started my record collection by buying several Beatles and Cheap Trick albums. Albums that were released in the past and were established. The Final Cut was one of those albums I bought soon after it was released. Pyromania. Subject: Aldo Nova. Next Position Please. The Final Cut. These were albums that in 1983, I was buying soon after they were released. I have not stopped listening to any of these amazing albums.
The Final Cut and Pros And Cons of Hitch-hiking do not get nearly enough good loving, if you ask me. Amazing albums.