Atom Heart Mother (1970)
1. Atom Heart Mother Suite
2. If
3. Summer '68
4. Fat Old Sun
5. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast
 
Generally regarded as the least liked
and/or least known Pink Floyd album, and for good reason. In their defense,
they were still trying to find a new direction at this early phase in their career, and
they seemed to be prone to recording music that didn't have to appeal to
a mass audience. They were simply trying to be, well...weird, and sell
some records to an audience that was just as odd.
Unlike the strange studio sound effects the permeate the studio album in
the Ummagumma set, they at least sound like
they're trying to create some sort of music here. Yes, there are
actually songs on this album. Problem is that most of the music
is rather drab and insignificant. They haven't abandoned their penchant
for strangeness, so, quite often, some decent melodies and opportunities
are wasted since the band feels obligated to take us on a drug trip by
forcing cacophonous sounds that serve no purpose. If they would just
play music they could succeed in taking us to these places that
they're so intent on reaching. A perfect example is Alan's
Psychedelic Breakfast. It's a thirteen minute piece that actually
has some of the finest music that these guys ever made at this point.
The problem is that throughout the track, we hear "Alan" actually making
the breakfast in addition to mumbling to himself "mmmm....coffee. And
eggs, I like eggs....mmmmm". During these ridiculous interludes, the
music actually stops in order for us to hear these interruptions.
Had the band just went with the music and kept the song title, it would
have had a much better effect.
Then there's the entire side one of the album that is devoted to only
one song - the twenty-four minute Atom Heart Mother Suite. There
trying so hard to fill an entire side with something that will last the
length of an entire album side, that they forget that, well, no one is
going to actually waste twenty-four minutes of their life unless the
music sounds good. I'll bet most diehard Floyd fans have only ever
actually listened to this piece maybe five times during their entire life.
So the above two tracks take up 37 minutes of space on the album. The
other 15 minutes are devoted to the three most normal songs on the
album. Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Dave Gilmour each pen a tune
and, to be frank, they're all pretty good. They're buried so deep in
this muck, however, it's not a wonder that most Floyd fans don't even
know they exist. As a matter of fact, for the most part, these songs
have virtually been ignored by the band in the decades following
(although David Gilmour did resurrect his tune Fat Old Sun
on his latest live solo album). The best of the lot is Roger Waters'
If which sounds somewhat of a sentimental love song. Although,
remember, this is Pink Floyd, so the "love song" features lines about
going insane with wires in the brain. Never mind.
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