The Final Cut (album) - Release and Reception

Release and Reception

The Final Cut was released in the UK on 21 March 1983, and reached number one in the UK album charts, something that The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall had each failed to do. It was less successful upon its US release on 2 April, peaking at number six on the Billboard album charts. "Not Now John" was released as a single and reached the UK Top 30, with its chorus of "Fuck all that" bowdlerised to "Stuff all that". Despite its success, the album received mixed reviews. Melody Maker declared it to be "... a milestone in the history of awfulness ...", but Rolling Stone's Kurt Loder viewed it as "... essentially a Roger Waters solo album ... a superlative achievement on several levels". Robert Christgau wrote "... it's a comfort to encounter antiwar rock that has the weight of years of self-pity behind it ..." and awarded the album a C+ rating.

"The Final Cut is very good but it's not personally how I would see a Pink Floyd record going."

—David Gilmour in 1983

With over 1,000,000 units shipped in the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America certified The Final Cut Platinum in May 1983; the record achieved double Platinum certification in 1997. The Final Cut was however the lowest-selling Pink Floyd studio album in the United States and worldwide since Meddle. Gilmour later claimed that this relative commercial failure supported his assertion that much of the material on the album was weak. Waters made the following response:

The Final Cut sold three million copies, which wasn't a lot for the Pink Floyd. And as a consequence, Dave Gilmour went on record as saying, "There you go: I knew he was doing it wrong all along." But it's absolutely ridiculous to judge a record solely on sales. If you're going to use sales as the sole criterion, it makes Grease a better record than Graceland. Anyway, I was in a greengrocer's shop, and this woman of about forty in a fur coat came up to me. She said she thought it was the most moving record she had ever heard. Her father had also been killed in World War II, she explained. And I got back into my car with my three pounds of potatoes and drove home and thought, good enough.

The album's release was accompanied by a short film, The Final Cut. Based on a selection of the album's songs, it was produced by Waters and directed by his brother-in-law Willie Christie. Four songs are used: "The Gunner's Dream", "The Final Cut", "The Fletcher Memorial Home", and "Not Now John". Waters is shown revealing his innermost secrets to a psychiatrist named A. Parker-Marshall, and Alex McAvoy, who appeared in Pink Floyd The Wall, also appears in the film.

The Final Cut was released on Compact Disc in 1983, and a remastered and repackaged CD was released by EMI in Europe and on Capitol Records in the US in 2004; this included an extra song, the previously released "When the Tigers Broke Free". A remastered version was made available in 2007 as part of the Oh, by the Way boxed set, packaged in a mini-replica of the original gatefold LP sleeve. Despite being a replica of the original LP, the album artwork was altered to include "When the Tigers Broke Free".