 Although it enjoyed a degree of commercial success , the album received mixed reviews . Melody Maker deemed it " a milestone in the history of awfulness " , and the NME 's Richard Cook wrote : " Like the poor damned Tommies that haunt his mind , Roger Waters ' writing has been blown to hell ... Waters stopped with The Wall , and The Final Cut isolates and juggles the identical themes of that elephantine concept with no fresh momentum to drive them . " Robert Christgau opined : " 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 + grade . More impressed , Rolling Stone 's Kurt Loder viewed it as " essentially a Roger Waters solo album ... a superlative achievement on several levels " . Dan Hedges of Record also approved , writing : " On paper it sounds hackneyed and contrived – the sort of thing that was worked into the ground by everyone from P. F. Sloan to Paul Kantner . In Pink Floyd 's case , it still works , partially through the understatement and ingenuity of the music and the special effects ... but mostly through the care Waters has taken in plotting out the imagery of his bleak visions . " 
