FREE FOUR

After getting Obscured by Clouds from a friend of mine and promptly listening to the album, I couldn't help reviewing the album. I simply loved it, and it became my perhaps favorite Pink Floyd album to date.

A huge highlight of the album was perhaps the fourth track, 'The Gold It's In The...'. This is something much different from what Gilmour wrote before or even to date. Today, Gilmour is perhaps known for his fantastic work on Animals with the 17-minute epic of 'Dogs', or perhaps he is known for his other amazing work on other Floyd albums. But it is true many people don't know him for this. So just to say, this is less of a review of the more popular Free Four that became the A-side for this single, and instead is reviewing the B-side which I like much more.

The song is quickly and clearly reminiscent of some of Led Zeppelins work at the time, with a Gilmour-written hard rocking blues piece. It doesn't branch of as much as say 'Childhood's End', but its simplicity does give it some meaningful qualities. The vocals seem slightly strained, which may be my only problem with the song. The lyrics, although don't last for the entire song, are pretty simple telling about a man traveling with his friends to find gold, however he isn't in it for the profit. Instead, he'll "..get his kicks on the way." The song neatens out with a nice Gilmour-guitar solo.

So I think the big reason why this song is so appealing is just it's simplicity making it so nice. It's hard to do that with bands; most times they under-shoot it and it becomes too simple and boring. But with this song, they did it right.

Just to add for 'Free Four', it's not my kind of song. I know many people love the ideas behind all of Waters' works, but this power-pop ballad never grew on me. I know that many people enjoyed it's dark lyrics combined with the light and bouncy tone, but I never thought that was good. In fact, I thought it seemed sort of disjointed. However, many people like it and although I wouldn't suggest it, it seems like a good pick for any Floyd fan.