Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2017 14:34:56 GMT 10
First things first I will try not to get too political on this post as that's what The Jimbob Zone is for. Politics angers people and gets them very passionate because as much as many want to respect an individual's opinion it's hard to do so when people's lives and wellbeing are potentially at stake. That said it's hard to ignore on an album as socially charged as this. So I will do my best to keep my own opinion out of this and focus on Roger's perception of the issues at hand. If you want to discuss the falklands war or British PM Margaret Thatcher's time in office, come to this thread: (keep in mind my opinions change rapidly over the course of this entire thread so keep reading if you want to know where I stand). bmjpinkfloydforum.proboards.com/thread/34/legacy-apffn-thatcher-debate
Now onto The Final Cut. It's an album i've always been mixed on and to a degree I still stand by this. However I gave it a fair try again recently as I was in the mood for this type of commentary. Let's take it track by track.
"The Post War Dream" is not how you start an album. I do admittedly like the samples of news readings, that's pretty relevant for the time but despite Roger emoting as passionately as possible, the lyrics he's reading are so cringeworthy. Was the reason Jesus crucified the same reason an innocent child's father died in the war? Not sure what this is saying about religion or childhood innocence for that matter. It's just a bit of a cheesy line. "Did I watch too much TV", really, Roger you've got to do better than that. Then after two minutes of saccharine sappy preachiness, some overly theatrical drums come in and Roger starts yelling a question that's worth asking but he doesn't attempt to answer in any interesting way. What happened to the post war dream, I don’t know, please explore this. It's lame and cheesy and so painfully unsubtle. As my buddy Josh put it, if Shine On was on this album the lyrics would be "Drugs are bad, don't do LSD, I fucking hate Thatcher, I'd drown her in pee".
But then we move on to "Your Possible Pasts" which is actually quite a soothing melody with an incredible drum sound before it poignantly builds. The way it sets up the story is much better here than how "The Post War Dream" set up the scene. It really stresses the empathy that many felt the Thatcher government lacked for people different to them but doesn't become overtly political. Anyone who's ever suffered pain of any kind and wanted to understand someone else can relate to this regardless of their political beliefs and that says a lot. It's not a song I listen to often cause it could have been shorter or more musically fleshed out (one of the two) but it works well for all its flaws.
"One of the Few" has a very ominous, eerie riff matched to a hypnotic clock tick and I really like the lyrics about the struggle to keep going in negative times. But the arrangement ruins it. It's so dull and I know that Roger wanted to create sparse creepy atmosphere but man it could have worked so much better. Roger stripped things down a lot on The Wall and while I take some issue with it, and will take the live recording from Floyd over it any day, I still don’t mind hearing it when someone plays it for me. There’s still a lot of great songwriting on The Wall even if it’s not the kind of thing I love from Floyd. The biggest problem with the weaker songs on The Final Cut is there not memorable enough to get past how unemotional they are and this album even more so than The Wall demands you to be moved and quite often i’m not. Going straight from this into "When the Tigers Broke Free" makes the latter song hard to like but tigers uses its sparse melody much more effectively with some of the most incredible lyrics Roger has ever written in my opinion, and a climax that deserves a slow build for it to be as effective. The way it segues into "The Hero's Return" is utterly haunting as well, and that's another solid number.
"The Gunner's Dream" is incredible, one of my favourites on the album, and depending on the mood it can be on the cheesy side sure but in the context of the album, it's simply breathtaking. The line "and no one kills the children anymore" still haunts me, especially with what’s going on now with the countless deaths of young black kids in America from police brutality and the amount of transgendered murders and suicide before the age of 20. Whatever your opinion is on the reasons these things are happen or the motivations behind them, it’s still sad that so many young people are dying on a global scale. We live in a scary world. We still haven't made the gunner proud.
"Paranoid Eyes" opens with a nice piano melody but doesn't build much beyond it, becoming bland very quickly. It brings the album’s gold streak to an end. I found myself yawning half way through it. It's such an exhaustingly boring song. "Get Your Filthy Hands off My Desert" is also boring with possibly Rogers most awfully boring vocals on the album, and a cheesy hum.
"The Fletcher Memorial Home" has its flaws musically but I have grown to love it despite them. It's Roger's singing. As the song builds and he starts to sing about the lack of respect the leaders of the world gave the soldiers they sent out I really become quite moved. "Southampton Dock" brings us back to cheesiness and blandness unfortunately although I like the piano sound on it. The title track makes things okay though. One of the best songs of the bands entire career. Mainly the arrangement and its placement on the album and the vocals. I don't need to comment much on the lyrics. It speaks for itself I think. "Not Now John" has a reprise of one of these days which is actually pretty cool but tbh the song has soured on me a bit. Just a very typical rocker on an album that doesn't demand such a style.
And so this very hit or miss album closes with a favourite of mine. The haunting "Two Suns in the Sunset". It's not terribly interesting musically but it suits the lyrics. It's like a 60s folk ballad and while it's hard to get into admits such mediocre content, it works on its own merit.
So overall The Final Cut is a very mixed bag and as a concept album, that's not okay. Most mixed bags i'm more forgiving of, I try to look at it as I still got some great content out of this. And I definitely got great content out of The Final Cut, even the songs I never want to hear again are placed on the album about okay and the way the narrative is told is really truly incredible. Yet I always think what could this album have been had Roger been more open minded to fleshing out the sound. Some songs deserve that simplistic approach, others really needed more. It's such a shame to me that this work was not as much of a masterpiece as it could have been. Yet for what it is, I don't mind it. And it has some themes, ideas, and songs that will stick with me. Pretty powerful stuff.
Now onto The Final Cut. It's an album i've always been mixed on and to a degree I still stand by this. However I gave it a fair try again recently as I was in the mood for this type of commentary. Let's take it track by track.
"The Post War Dream" is not how you start an album. I do admittedly like the samples of news readings, that's pretty relevant for the time but despite Roger emoting as passionately as possible, the lyrics he's reading are so cringeworthy. Was the reason Jesus crucified the same reason an innocent child's father died in the war? Not sure what this is saying about religion or childhood innocence for that matter. It's just a bit of a cheesy line. "Did I watch too much TV", really, Roger you've got to do better than that. Then after two minutes of saccharine sappy preachiness, some overly theatrical drums come in and Roger starts yelling a question that's worth asking but he doesn't attempt to answer in any interesting way. What happened to the post war dream, I don’t know, please explore this. It's lame and cheesy and so painfully unsubtle. As my buddy Josh put it, if Shine On was on this album the lyrics would be "Drugs are bad, don't do LSD, I fucking hate Thatcher, I'd drown her in pee".
But then we move on to "Your Possible Pasts" which is actually quite a soothing melody with an incredible drum sound before it poignantly builds. The way it sets up the story is much better here than how "The Post War Dream" set up the scene. It really stresses the empathy that many felt the Thatcher government lacked for people different to them but doesn't become overtly political. Anyone who's ever suffered pain of any kind and wanted to understand someone else can relate to this regardless of their political beliefs and that says a lot. It's not a song I listen to often cause it could have been shorter or more musically fleshed out (one of the two) but it works well for all its flaws.
"One of the Few" has a very ominous, eerie riff matched to a hypnotic clock tick and I really like the lyrics about the struggle to keep going in negative times. But the arrangement ruins it. It's so dull and I know that Roger wanted to create sparse creepy atmosphere but man it could have worked so much better. Roger stripped things down a lot on The Wall and while I take some issue with it, and will take the live recording from Floyd over it any day, I still don’t mind hearing it when someone plays it for me. There’s still a lot of great songwriting on The Wall even if it’s not the kind of thing I love from Floyd. The biggest problem with the weaker songs on The Final Cut is there not memorable enough to get past how unemotional they are and this album even more so than The Wall demands you to be moved and quite often i’m not. Going straight from this into "When the Tigers Broke Free" makes the latter song hard to like but tigers uses its sparse melody much more effectively with some of the most incredible lyrics Roger has ever written in my opinion, and a climax that deserves a slow build for it to be as effective. The way it segues into "The Hero's Return" is utterly haunting as well, and that's another solid number.
"The Gunner's Dream" is incredible, one of my favourites on the album, and depending on the mood it can be on the cheesy side sure but in the context of the album, it's simply breathtaking. The line "and no one kills the children anymore" still haunts me, especially with what’s going on now with the countless deaths of young black kids in America from police brutality and the amount of transgendered murders and suicide before the age of 20. Whatever your opinion is on the reasons these things are happen or the motivations behind them, it’s still sad that so many young people are dying on a global scale. We live in a scary world. We still haven't made the gunner proud.
"Paranoid Eyes" opens with a nice piano melody but doesn't build much beyond it, becoming bland very quickly. It brings the album’s gold streak to an end. I found myself yawning half way through it. It's such an exhaustingly boring song. "Get Your Filthy Hands off My Desert" is also boring with possibly Rogers most awfully boring vocals on the album, and a cheesy hum.
"The Fletcher Memorial Home" has its flaws musically but I have grown to love it despite them. It's Roger's singing. As the song builds and he starts to sing about the lack of respect the leaders of the world gave the soldiers they sent out I really become quite moved. "Southampton Dock" brings us back to cheesiness and blandness unfortunately although I like the piano sound on it. The title track makes things okay though. One of the best songs of the bands entire career. Mainly the arrangement and its placement on the album and the vocals. I don't need to comment much on the lyrics. It speaks for itself I think. "Not Now John" has a reprise of one of these days which is actually pretty cool but tbh the song has soured on me a bit. Just a very typical rocker on an album that doesn't demand such a style.
And so this very hit or miss album closes with a favourite of mine. The haunting "Two Suns in the Sunset". It's not terribly interesting musically but it suits the lyrics. It's like a 60s folk ballad and while it's hard to get into admits such mediocre content, it works on its own merit.
So overall The Final Cut is a very mixed bag and as a concept album, that's not okay. Most mixed bags i'm more forgiving of, I try to look at it as I still got some great content out of this. And I definitely got great content out of The Final Cut, even the songs I never want to hear again are placed on the album about okay and the way the narrative is told is really truly incredible. Yet I always think what could this album have been had Roger been more open minded to fleshing out the sound. Some songs deserve that simplistic approach, others really needed more. It's such a shame to me that this work was not as much of a masterpiece as it could have been. Yet for what it is, I don't mind it. And it has some themes, ideas, and songs that will stick with me. Pretty powerful stuff.