MORE (OST)

This album marks both the acquisition of Gilmour and the departure of Syd Barrett, and it shows. The annoying psychedelic noodling of Barrett is no longer here, and the band is beginning to find the sound typical of their later albums.

The album begins with 'Cirus Minor,' which is a peaceful and atmospheric acoustic song laced with Gilmour's vocals. I do find Wright's organ playing tasteful in the second half. 'The Nile song' is one of the Floyd's heaviest songs. But I don't think the heavy riffing really suits them, and the shoddy production doesn't help things along either.

'Crying Song' is overly simple and repetitive, but Gilmour's vocal melody and guitar solo at the end is nice.

'Up the Khyber' is nothing special except maybe Nick Mason's drumming which is decent. Green Is the Colour' is an acoustically driven song with Gilmour's soft and relaxing vocals throughout. I think this is the first real hint for things to come, as it sounds similar to some moments on Atom Heart Mother and Meddle. While this is not an "essential" Pink Floyd song, it is simply beautiful.

'Cymbaline' is pretty uninteresting except for some decent keyboard parts near the end. Party Sequence is just a mass of percussion sounds but is just filler out of the context of the soundtrack.

'Main Theme' sounds similar to some stuff off of Saucerful of Secrets, but is a little better. Wright adds some synthesizer-sounding keyboard melodies throughout, which is nice.

Of the two rocking songs on the album, I prefer 'Ibiza Bar.' Still, there's nothing terribly interesting about it.

'More Blues' is exactly what the title implies; it's a blues song mostly with guitar. 'Quicksilver' is very atmospheric, but special goes on here.

'Spanish Piece' is just filler, while 'A Dramatic Theme' is just an uninteresting close to the album

Overall, More is, in my opinion, the "true" first Pink Floyd album. While the compositions on this album are mostly forgettable, being that this is a movie score, I can't really fault them. But this is still a much better change from the Barrett-dominated Floyd.

3/10