ATOM HEART MOTHER

Pink Floyd

Psychedelic/Space Rock

3.91 | 2509 ratings

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thehallway
Prog Reviewer

Ah... The album that launched the career of "that cow". It's a shame the same can't be said for the Pink Floyd, although they were on their way.

'AHM' is in my opinion, the first truly progressive of Floyd's efforts. Firstly because of it's obvious stylistic tendancies towards prog as a genre, moving on from the mistake that was 'experimental music' and moving ever closer towards you-know-what. And secondly, because it is literally a "progression" from 'Ummagumma'. Its better, and worth an extra star for that reason. Side 1, the suite itself, is big. A little too big at this stage in the Floyd's career. Considering it's size, there's actually relatively little content within it, which is what lets it down. It's a big, fat, bulky peice of music, but really with just a few salvagable themes and a nice jammy section in the middle. I'm not saying it's poor. But it's average. And 20 minute songs should be more than just average.

The second side treats us to more individuality from the band members (they didn't let Mason have a go this time, probably after hearing his 'Ummagumma' contribution...). Waters' 'If' is melodically similar to 'Grantchester Meadows', though thankfully shorter. Gilmour's 'Fat Old Sun' is nice, and showcases his first [good] guitar solo of the band's career. My favourite is Wright's 'Summer '68' though, which is similarly poppy yet utilises the brass instruments in a way which sort of makes it superior to the 'AHM' suite (is that allowed?!). The final 13 minutes should be ignored unless you can be bothered to rummage through all the tape effects to try to find any music lurking in there. For me it brings back bad memories of 'Ummagumma' so the less said about it the better...

And that's 'Atom Heart Mother' at face value. It's tighter, more cohesive, and more progressive than previous works, and if you hang around for long enough you can explore even more of the longer tracks. We're not quite there yet though, just one more hurdle...

thehallway | 3/5 | 2010-4-14

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