A deeply underrated album, The Final Cut had the twin misfortune of being Pink Floyd’s followup to The Wall (which is probably one of rock’s most overrated albums), and of allowing Floyd fans four long years to imagine what that followup would sound like; by then, just about anything was bound to disappoint. Musically, this album might have more in common with the version of the group that reunited in 1987, but lyrically, it continues The Wall’s exploration of unresolved (and perhaps unresolvable) emotional loss. Parts of it are so good, I can almost even forget that it also contains some of the most trite lyrics ever pressed on vinyl (“And no one kills the children anymore”? Seriously?).
