Obscured By Clouds (1972)


 
1. Obscured By Clouds 2. When You're In 3. Burning Bridges 4. The Gold it's in the... 5. Wots...Uh the Deal 6. Mudment 7. Childhood's End 8. Free Four 9. Stay 10.Absolutely Curtains

 

Not really known for much, other than the other Pink Floyd soundtrack album. Like the first one, More, this one seems to have mostly simple tunes from a movie that most people have never heard of (I think the movie was called "La Vallee", or something). Unlike their first soundtrack album, this one sounds a little bit more focused, the playing is a bit better and the finished product sounds much more accessible.

That's not necessarily the equivalent of good, nor even memorable. After all, this is a soundtrack album, and like many soundtrack albums, there's only a certain level of quality one can come to expect when the tunes must be catered to specific moods and/or themes of a movie. While the whole album sounds sort of "normal" (without a lot of the trademark Pink Floyd characteristics), they do break out of the mold from time to time, and even when they don't, they manage to produce some nice, well crafted songs.

Songs such as Wot's...Uh The Deal and The Gold It's in the... sound very pleasant. The latter rocks a bit more, but these are the most straight forward tunes these guys ever recorded. But then we must remember that "straight forward" is not necessarily a compliment when talking about the music of Pink Floyd. It was their ethereal, atmospheric, off the wall, different sounding music that endeared them to fan's hearts.

They do manage to pull of a couple of numbers in this fashion, however, and it's a shame that these songs have been "forgotten" due to their inclusion on such an album. Mudmen has traces of Floyd brilliance, especially in the David Gilmour area. The best of the lot is the last song Absolutely Curtains that sounds as though it would be better at home had it been included on the previous Meddle album. It's a shame they never "resurrected" this piece during the latter days of their touring.

So there are some nuggets scattered about. There a bit too scarce to justify repeated listens of the whole album, but it was nice to see that the boys finally had a good, steady groove going.

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