Final Cut is great...but the new stuff sucks. I can't say it remotely qualifies as Pink Floyd. I went to their Delicate Sound of Thunder promo tour, and it's like they're trying hard to be Pink Floyd, but the conceptual heart of the band was Waters. He's a liberal flake, but he knew how to string a wild album together. The guys that are left are just putting a good vibe together and throwing in cheeseball lyrics. They will never have a sound or sense of togetherness like Waters did. Radio KAOS--great album. The Division Bell--not. It's like they think they can just link their new songs with weird sound effects and it'll be a-okay. They're wrong.
Sorry, you probably weren't expecting that tirade--but I hate the new 'Floyd.'
As far as the Syd stuff is concerned, there was some interesting stuff around. If you want a decent album to sample from, A Nice Pair is not a bad sprinkling.
Do NOT buy Works or Final Cut, however, unless you have everything they already made. Works is a wannabe collection of hits and some leftovers, and Final Cut is nothing BUT leftovers from other albums. However, Final Cut is a great album of the songs that would have fit into The Wall and into concerts. I think the story there is they had a bunch of cuts that didn't make it into The Wall and they weren't able to hang out together any more (Waters hated Gilmour, so I heard it) and they figured why not just do an album of leftovers instead of putting up with each other?
I think the early Syd stuff is not the same Floyd, really, but it's still good. I think the new 'Floyd' is hamburger instead of steak.
I didn't care for "Delicate Sound of Thunder", either--haven't listened to much since then, either group or solo. "Final Cut" still had a "Wall"-esque quality to it in certain songs I like okay but wasn't as consistently good as previous stuff.
I agree with you on the Final Cut. That record probably scored up there in the top 10 as one of the all times ultimate waste of vinyl ever produced. Out the 12 songs on the record only one was semi listenable, Not now John, and that is only because the rest of the record sucked so horribly. It was so bad that my stereo’s diamond stylist rebelled by scratching it beyond playability saving me from ever playing it again.