I decided to launch a new series to imagine myself as a critic at the end of the 70s and start of the 80s, and to rectify certain reviews from Rolling Stone magazine and Creem. This not meant to be contrarian, but to offer a more balanced perspective. All the albums reviewed are indeed classic albums.
Pink
Floyd – The Final Cut
(1983)
**
Producers:
Roger Waters, James Guthrie, Michael Kamen
Musicians:
Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Andy Newmark, Michael Kamen, Ray
Cooper, Andy Bown, Raphael Ravenscroff, Doreen Chanter, Irine Chanter
Songs: The
Post War Dream, Your Possible Pasts, One Of The Few, The Hero’s Return, The
Gunner’s Dream, Paranoid Eyes, Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert, The
Fletcher Memorial Home. Southhampton Dock, The Final Cut, Not Now John, Two
Suns In The Sunset
Reviewed
By Matthew Anthony Allair
This is
probably one of the most frustrating albums to have had to access. This is an
album seems to be 'in name only' as far as the band’s namesake. If it’s viewed as
Roger Water’s solo effort then one can view it as a success as far as evoking
the emotional goals, but if it’s accessed as a Pink Floyd release, then it
feels like a forgery. The absence of Richard Wright is palpable on the album.
Nick Mason only plays drums on seven of the twelve tracks, and this means that
David Gilmour acts as the emotional glue as a player, when he is given free
rein to showcase himself, but that becomes infrequent as it evolves. This
feels like Roger is using the flatform to exorcise demons that could be more
appropriate with therapy sessions. David, the best singer in the outfit, is
only allowed to co-lead one vocal with “Not Now John”, the one song released as
a single that manages to sabotage itself with profanity, the use of language I
don’t mind, but it does seem like a bizarre choice. Michael Kamen’s keyboard and arrangements have
practically supplanted Gilmour’s role for the band.
While Roger has moments of being effective as a vocalist, he is simply not a great singer, and it sabotages some of the songs would have been served better from Gilmour, or for them to have brought in outside singers, gone are the days of bringing in Roy Harper as a guest, or Clare Torry, the use of such singers could have helped bring differing perspectives on the themes explored. The album also feels too self-conscious about referencing their prior album The Wall, or the tone of Animals. While James Guthrie is brought back in, the absence of Bob Ezrin is notable. In terms of the production, it is indeed immaculate, and much of the sonic experimentation with the sound effects is there, but it just feels too superficial, if not based on gimmicks. While players like Raphel Ravenscroff do a commendable job, it just feels too imitative of Dick Parry’s past glories and my sympathies go out to the musicians asked to do this. Andy Bown’s Organ work is commendable as far as a mimic of Wright – but it’s an approximation.
While The
Wall was an uneven album, it had a balance between introspective material,
ballads, and up-tempo numbers, this album is top heavy with somber
introspective numbers, and the ballads, but not much else, and it makes for a
tedious listen. While I have little doubt that younger music fans will be
forgiving about the album, the surface depth starts to sound rather hollow from
Waters in what was initially probably well intended. The loose theme of the
album, described as a ‘requiem for the post war Dream’ is a screed against
modern war, the idea of broken promises for those who served in World War II,
that society would be living in a utopia that never came to be, much of this
feels like a variant over Roger’s past and the death of his father in Anzio
when he was an infant. Ideas that were hinted at with The Wall but
explored a little too in depth here. Once again, the addition of outside
vocalists playing differing characters may have made this a little more
compelling.
A harmonium drives the orchestral opener “The Post War Dream”, this is one of the
few cases where Roger’s vocal fits as far setting up the tone, but it needed
more moving forward. “Your Possible Pasts” is one of the few cases where
David’s guitar seems present, but the occasional drum and organ accents don’t
make a rock song, and some of the arrangements lean too heavy on the 1979
album, still David’s lead transcends at moments, but another vocalist should
have handled the material. The brief “One of the Few” acts as preamble to the
next number. Some of David’s pulsating guitar work reappears for “The Hero’s
Return”, Roger’s unhinged vocal style wears pretty thin soon enough, and starts
to feel like a one trick pony. The opening of the ballad “The Gunner’s Dream”
acts as a trauma flashback before the core of the material creeps through. But
the bombast feels empty in the instrumental section. The ballad “Paranoid Eyes”
has a strange self-pity to it that may have been unintentional, due to Roger’s
inability to translate the material, again, they needed another vocalist.
There is a
kind of dark humor that opens the second half with “Get Your Filthy Hands Of My
Desert”. The next number seems to be told from the perspective of an older
veteran, “The Fletcher Memorial Home”, but it needed a different vocal read for
it, what is otherwise, a moving piece. The middle section seems to reference
modern political policy, as Smedley Butler once said, ‘War Is a Racket’, and
very little has changed. This is another case where Gilmour is allowed to cut
through in the last half. With “Southhampton Dock” once again seems offer
another perspective that needed another singer, perhaps Gilmour. The ballad
“The Final Cut” has the last of the truly effective Gilmour guitar leads. Many
of these songs seem driven by characters full of anger that have translated
into defeated self-pity. The prior mentioned “Not Now John” is the most
up-tempo number, Gilmour’s guitar leads bring some life to the number. The
spare use of synths seems like an odd choice, other than on “John”, that choice simply leaves the
album feeling a little thinner somehow. The closer “Two Suns in the Sunset”
seems to be warning about nuclear winter if we don’t abandon our warring
inclinations. Wars are all built about land grabs and extraction of resources
without the proper arrangements of trade deals seen in peace time.
I must
disagree with my Rolling Stones peers on this one. If you want a political or
sociological screed; then by all means, pick your poison. But music should
partly entertain, and there’s a drudgery to some of the proceedings here. I hold no ill will towards Gilmour or Mason,
but I have serious questions about Mr. Waters now. If the album was Waters’
attempt to validate his argument about his importance within the band, his
questionable choices has undermined that very objective, while Waters remains
an incisive lyricist, the sum of the other parts have become all too apparent
in their importance. In the end Waters manages to undermine some potentially
good material, and you are not certain why – Perhaps over confidence in Roger’s
omnipotent intellect. That’s for others to conclude*.
It isn’t as though I disagree with the sentiments of the album’s ideas, but I just feel the execution leaves a lot of be desired. Rumors are out there’s no intended tour for the album, and if this is final statement from Pink Floyd, a band with such an important legacy, then this is rather unfortunate. Roger seems to have run out of a bag of tricks to illustrate his ideas. This album isn’t really a move forward for the band, maybe Gilmour will have some fresh ideas in the future, but I have my doubts about Mr. Waters. This is an unfortunate listen.
* In hindsight, we all know what happened after this album. To quote Saphire from Almost Famous, "I mean everyone knows". Roger would likely have a proverbial coronary for anyone to question his intellectual heft. But we have explored that here before.
