OBSCURED BY CLOUDS

When I bought Shine On, the Floyd box set, many years back, I thought I had just about all the Floyd I would ever need. After a while a couple friends turned me onto Obscured by Clouds, and I'm very glad they did. This is Floyd at a different angle than I'm used to: raw, relatively unpolished, and working under tight deadlines. Of course, they still managed to come up with many quality tunes, though nothing cohesive, and little that is originally progressive.

Obscured by Clouds, When You're In. This two are spacey rockers that are a great way to kick off the album. Simplistic, yes, but powerful nonetheless, and I think they have aged well.

Burning Brides, Wot's...Uh the Deal. Two mellow tunes with some raw harmonies. The former is quite forgettable, but the latter is a keeper, with nice vocals and guitar from Gilmour.

The Gold It's in the... Raw Floyd as you will rarely find them. Fairly generic rock, but I do enjoy hearing Gilmour cutting loose on the guitar here.

Mudmen. A slow, yet powerful instrumental. Wright and Gilmour really play off each other here to great effect. This is one that I never get tired of.

Childhood's End. The highlight of the album. A spacey drone builds to the entrance of the song proper. Here Floyd lay down the sound that would suit them well for the next few albums. Nice lyrics, vocals, guitar, and tune. The only true collaborative effort on the album.

Free Four. The bouncy tune is a wonderful contrast to Waters' snarky, sarcastic lyrics. This is back when Waters really had some impressive vocal tone and range. A far cry from his eighties output, but still reminiscent.

Stay. This mellow Wright piece shows that he could make valuable contributions, especially with Gilmour's expert additions.

Absolutely Curtains. Absolutely boring. Maybe a blast from Floyd's psychadelic past, but the chanting has never done it for me.

Looking back, it's really astonishing how close in time this album was to Dark Side, because the sound is so different. If nothing else, some good tunes, enough rocking bits, and an interesting glimpse into a different period of Floyd to make this worth buying.