![]() ![]() ![]() The 370 lines of lyrics can almost be read as a book. Suffice to say it's an album that needs time to grow on you. And also the Floyd diehards, who were let down at first, appreciated the album later on. The same critics who slagged off the album back in '84 ranked it among "the wordiest albums in the history of Rock 'n' Roll" years later. Many of these had already appeared on the last two Floyd albums, therefore the album sounds a lot like a Floyd album.Ī salient detail: Michael Kamen and Eric Clapton collaborated again in 1987 on the movie soundtrack for Lethal Weapon, which, in it's turn, sounds a lot like Pros and Cons.īut through the years opinions have changed. True, the album is not easy to review, mainly because there is hardly any melody on the album (apart from the title track and 5:06 AM (Every stranger's eyes), which are the only straightforward songs), it is more a collection of recurring musical fragments. But, constricted or not, Clapton gave the album a much warmer and bluesey atmosphere, which many Floyd albums had lacked before. Clapton's virtuosity was however somewhat constricted by Waters' decision to record all the basic tracks first before inviting Clapton to record his guitarparts (All the songs - apart from the title-track - have been recorded that way). In order to ensure that no one would miss Dave Gilmour on the record he brought in the husband of his wife's friend: one Eric Clapton. With these men Waters already had a stunning backing band, but his secret weapon had yet to come. The artwork was designed by Gerald Scarfe - of The Wall-fame - and even the Holophonics made a reappearance.Īpart from Kamen and Newmark the assembled all-star band consisted of Andy Bown on organ, Ray Cooper on percussion, Raff Ravenscroft on horns (all three had also played on The Final Cut) and David Sanborn on saxophone. The drums were played by Andy Newmark, who had already taken over from Nick Mason on The Final Cut. The album was produced by Roger Waters himself, together with Michael Kamen, who had already co-produced The Final Cut and played on The Wall. That same album cover was banned for its American release and Water's refusal to change it caused the album to become censored with a lovely black bar over the girl's arse.īut despite all the fuss, was the album that bad at all? The seemingly sexual content also shook many people in mid-eighties prudish Britain and feminist groups organised to rip down Pros and Cons posters, on grounds that the picture of the hitchhiking nymphet amounted to a virtual advertisement for rape. Something which couldn't be explained just easily with "Gilmour doesn't play on it". The biggest problem for everybody was that although it sounded like a Floyd album, it lacked something. On May 8th Waters' first solo album hit the shelves and the first reactions were exactly the same as to Gilmour's album: It failed to impress the general public neither did it burst the charts and even the die-hard Floyd fans didn't know what to make of it. Gilmour was the first to release his solo effort (his second to date) which didn't get a warm reception from neither press nor fans. There was no tour to support The Final Cut and both David Gilmour and Roger Waters spent most of 1983 in the studio recording solo-albums. After the disappointing The Final Cut album all die-hard Floyd fans knew for sure: Pink Floyd was breaking up. ![]()
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