redrobin62 wrote:
I'm surprised The Final Cut rates so high on your list. I bought it when it first came out. Yeah, I tried, really tried, to live it. The only track I thought was passably okay was 'f**k All That.' The album sounds like it was written and produced quickly, not that they had anything new to say, but just to satisfy record company contract. .
It's not a popular album because it lacks pretty much all of Pink Floyd's tropes. There's no psychedelic moments, no synthesizer textures, no extended jamming, no lyrical or musical Syd callbacks, and very few guitar solos. There also aren't many traditional "pop hooks" (though the few there are used to great effect). It's not an easy album, and it doesn't try to sell itself as an easy album.
What it does have is some amazing sonic experimentation and use of the full dynamic range. It's an album that pretty much demands a pair of good headphones. It has some of Roger Waters most solid songwriting and lyrical penmanship, and the lack of the other tropes brings this aspect to the forefront. It also has some wonderful orchestration from the musical genius Michael Kamen.
But it isn't a "Roger Waters solo album" like many historians claim. It's a fitting and natural conclusion to the Pink Floyd legacy. Waters actually went in a completely different direction for his solo work, and while I'm fond of some of those albums, none of it really compares. There are very few albums like The Final Cut, which is kind of a shame, but this also adds to it's beauty. All of Pink Floyd's albums were ambitious, but The Final Cut succeeds at being a true work of art.