OBSCURED BY CLOUDS

"Obscured By Clouds" is the 7th full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Pink Floyd. The album was released through Harvest Records in June 1972. "Obscured By Clouds" is a soundtrack to the French film "La Vallée" ( "The Valley") by Barbet Schroeder. The album was recorded over two periods of one week each (23.-29. ofFebruary and 23.-27. of March 1972) at the Château d'Hérouville, Hérouville, Île-de-France in France. The band was already in the process of writing material for "The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)" but accepted the offer to go to France and record the soundtrack. They were shown scenes from the film and then made music to fit the atmosphere of the scenes.

"Obscured By Clouds" features 10 tracks. 4 instrumentals and 6 tracks with vocals. Stylistically the music is semi-progressive rock with a few nods towards psychadelic rock. I would label "Obscured By Clouds" one of the least progressive album releases by Pink Floyd. The lack of any long tracks and the fact that most tracks are easily accessible vers/chorus structured, except for some of the instrumentals, which are a bit more adventurous. While the experimentation might not be in the high seat on this particular album the energy and the excellent playing/singing certainly are. There are some pretty energetic and quite catchy tracks on the album like "Gold It's in the..." (check out that ripping guitar solo) and "Free Four" but also some beautiful mellow tracks like "Burning Bridges" and "Wot's... Uh the Deal". The instrumental "Mudmen" deserves a mention too. Great track with a beautiful theme. The only track on the album that´s not that interesting is the ambient closing track "Absolutely Curtains", which is the only track on the album that reminds me of what I would characterize as conventional soundtrack music.

The band members are all well playing and there´s an infectious enthusiastic atmosphere about the project, like the band really needed and enjoyed the break from their more regular work schedule. The production is surprisingly good when you think about the short time the band had to record and finish the album.

Compared to the "More (1969)" soundtrack album "Obscured By Clouds" is a more entertaining and more well written album. Maybe because it´s actually not that obvious that the album is in fact a soundtrack. This could just as well have been a regular studio album as there really aren´t that many repetitive and ambient moments on the album, which is something you´ll typically find on soundtracks. "Obscured By Clouds" is the album by Pink Floyd you should chose to listen to if you would like to hear them a bit more relaxed and spontanious than what is the case on most of their more structured, well planned and detailed studio albums. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

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