Product Description

This is not a pretty album. Described as "a requiem for thepost war drama" it is Pink Floyd at their most miserable. In addition to the somber lyrics and themes explored by RogerWaters, it was recorded while the band were so fragmented, they had effectively broken up. Gilmour and Waters' feud hasbeen well documented and this could well have been titled THE FINAL STRAW. The only hint of lightness and humour throughout is in "Not Now John", but only in the shape of irony ("Can't stop lose job mind gone silicon"). Not an album to be played at parties or anniversaries.

Track Listing

1. The Post War Dream
2. Your Possible Pasts
3. One Of The Few
4. When The Tigers Broke Free
5. The Hero's Return
6. The Gunners Dream
7. Paranoid Eyes
8. Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert
9. The Fletcher Memorial Home
10. Southampton Dock
11. The Final Cut
12. Not Now John
13. Two Suns In The Sunset

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1127 in Music
• Released on: 2004-03-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

personal
I remember this album coming out in time for my 17th birthday, which corresponded with my first family funeral, and listening to it the night and the morning before this. Its now remebarance day 2008 and im about to listen to it again... now my point is that 23 years seperate these two events but im sure ill sit and ill know the lyrics and quely sign along to to songs like the gunners dream with the tears pricking in my eyes just like in the the song. Doesnt matter whether its floyd or walters its stil a fantastic album. So buy this album, and maybe it will affect you like it has me !!

A Masterpiece
This has always been one of my favourite Floyd albums, and I'm glad this reissue includes the terribly moving 'When the Tigers Broke Free' (the original single from 1982 said that it was from the forthcoming album The Final Cut, but was never included until this CD reissue).

OK, the band were imploding at the time they recorded it, but I think that has had an added effect on the music, in other words, this is incredibly disillusioned, angry, sad and cynical stuff. With references to the Great Beast Thatcher and the Falklands, shipyards closing and the IRA, this is clearly the work of people (or persons, namely R. Waters) who have lost faith in just about everything.

But this lack of faith is what makes the album incredibly affecting - I would go so far as to say that it is one of the most moving records ever made by a rock band. This is almost as far as it goes. Utter, total contempt for our rotten society, summed up perfectly in The Fletcher Memorial Home, a song which doesn't seem too far removed from Spitting Image or The Comic Strip presents. I particularly like the line 'Did they expect us to treat them with any respect?'

Enough of my fervour. Listen to this and make up your own mind. For me, it's been a landmark these last 25 years. And I think it will continue to be so. Floyd may hate it, but I don't think they realise what a beast - and a wise beast at that - they created with this magnificent album.

Time is kind...
Time is kind to this record. Written in the aftermath of the Falklands war, by a band in the middle of internicene warfare, it was accused of being a Vanity Project, Indulgent, Over-blown, Melodramatic, Not-As-Good-As-Dark-Side-Of-The-Moon etc etc.
However, having just repurchased it 20 years after my tape was spewed out of my binatone tape recorder, I'm finding it more and more compelling second time round. This was clearly a deeply personal record for Waters. His dad died at war, he objected to the Falklands invasion, he wanted to make a statement. And my goodness, did he. 'Southampton Dock', 'When the Tigers Break Free', 'The Hero's Return' will all bring a tear to your eye (or at least a lump to your throat).
Too often musicians have nothing to say other than I love you. This record is different - and a good reminder that even dinosaur rock stars care about the music and statements they make. Shame about Not Now John, mind - it's rubbish.