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Pink Floyd - Obscured by Clouds CD (album) cover

OBSCURED BY CLOUDS

Pink Floyd

 

Psychedelic/Space Rock

3.37 | 1780 ratings

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VianaProghead
Prog Reviewer
3 stars Review Nš 353

'Obscured By Clouds' is the seventh studio album of Pink Floyd and was released in 1972. The album was based on the soundtrack of the French film 'La Vallee' or 'The Valley', because some copies of the album refer the film in its English title. 'Obscured By Clouds' might appear to tread an old ground, as Pink Floyd returns to a songwriting template that went as far back as their previous work 'More'. That fact is enough to cement this album's status as a black sheep in the Pink Floyd's catalog. It's also understandably overshadowed by the masterpieces that precede and follow it. Nevertheless, as a collection of songs, 'Obscured by Clouds' is bit a better then their earlier soundtrack work.

'La Vallee' is a French film of 1972 written and released by the Franco-Swiss film director and producer Barbet Schroeder. The star of the film is the French actress Bulle Ogier who plays the role of Viviane. Viviane is the wife of the French consul in Melbourne, who joins to a group of explorers on a strange and accidental voyage in search of a mysterious hidden valley in the jungle of Papua New Guinea, where she hopes to find the feathers of a very rare exotic bird. Along the journey they make contact with Mapuga tribe, one of the most isolated groups of human beings on earth. This encounter inspired them to explore their own humanity, free from their own ideas about the civilization. The end of the film is when they arrive into the valley. This is one of the many typical lyrical and idealistic films of the 70's in the search of happiness and their own humanity. In this case, their search becomes the search of the paradise itself.

'Obscured By Clouds' has ten tracks. The first track 'Obscured By Clouds', written by David Gilmour and Roger Waters, and the second track 'When You're In' written by David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason, are two instrumental songs that are, somehow, linked as only one song. They sound like an integrated music and both have the honour to open the album. They're both two fantastic songs and represent a great opener for this album. They essentially explore great keyboard and guitar works, very well supported by a dynamic drumming work. These two songs were performed together live in 1972 and usually opened the shows on the 1973 'Dark Side Of The Moon' live tour. The third track 'Burning Bridges' written by Richard Wright and Roger Waters is a very mellow and beautiful track. It consists of an organ melody with beautiful space guitar solos and with a vocal line very calm nice and harmonic. The fourth track 'The Gold It's In The '' written by David Gilmour and Roger Waters is a rock song and it's very different from the other songs. It's an interesting song, very well played, but I can't see anything special on it. The fifth track 'Wot's'Uh The Deal?' written by David Gilmour and Roger Waters is a very beautiful, soft and melodious ballad, which as the power to calm ourselves when we are lying down on a comfortable sofa listening to it. The sixth track 'Mud Men' written by David Gilmour and Richard Wright is an extremely beautiful instrumental song with a tune very similar to 'Burning Bridges'. It has a very catchy melody with beautiful piano, organ and guitar works. The seventh track 'Childhood's End' written by David Gilmour is an interesting and happy song with a very good composition. The eighth track 'Free Four' written by Roger Waters is a good ballad with pleasant acoustic guitar sound and a main rhythm section. This song reminds me the music of The Beatles. The ninth track 'Stay' written by Roger Waters and Richard Wright is an atmospheric and soft ballad. The instrumentation is mostly piano, bass guitar and some guitar solos with a wah-wah pedal. The tenth track 'Absolutely Curtains' written by David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason is another instrumental and space song that closes the album. The last part of the track is a chant by the Mapuga tribe, recorded from 'La Valle', that remind us that 'Obscured By Clouds' is a soundtrack.

Conclusion: In the first place, I must confess that I never was a big fan of film soundtracks made by progressive rock bands. In the second place, on the contrary of many of you who haven't seen 'La Vallee', I saw it in those times and despite have been passed more than forty years, I still have in my memory some of the film scenes. Anyway, I must confess that I can no longer associate the soundtrack to the film. However, I must say this isn't an obstacle, for me, to review this album, because we can't forget that we are reviewing a Pink Floyd's album and not the soundtrack of the film 'La Vallee'. So, 'Obscured By Clouds' has a very interesting set of songs, but when I'm hearing the album, I have the feeling that I'm in presence of an album out of time. I have the feeling that it was moved in time of the chronological order of the Pink Floyd's official discography. It seems to me this album should have been released following 'More' or 'Ummagumma', but never after 'Meddle'. Its music is much closer to the psychedelic period of the band than the more progressive music of 'Meddle'. But don't get me wrong. I don't consider 'Obscured By Clouds' a bad album. In my humble opinion, we are in the presence of a good and pleasant Pink Floyd's album. Still, I think 'Obscured By Clouds' isn't one of the best albums of the band and isn't an essential album in a collection of progressive rock music, indeed.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

VianaProghead | 3/5 |

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