Album: Atom Heart Mother
Band: Pink Floyd
Label: Harvest
Release Date: 2nd October 1970
With a fairly famous album cover which attempted to symbolise the band's wish to explore all types of music, rather than just the psychadelic tracks for which they were known at the time, Atom Heart Mother marks a significant point in Pink Floyd's history, five studio albums into their discography and the beginning of their most well known sound. The band already had a version of 'Us and Them' from 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' and parts of the album are precursors to the sound achieved on later album as a whole.
The first side of the record is the 23 minute title track, an instrumental piece and the band's most ambitious idea at that point in their career. Split into 6 sections, 'Atom Heart Mother' is a showcase of several musical ideas which the band were attempting to tie together with some success. Although all of the band members have expressed a dislike for the track and album as a whole in retrospect, there are several redeeming features including the main theme and the less experimental parts. The middle of the suite does feel a little too directionless and experimental, without any intentions of tying together the themes and ideas contained.
There are certain similarities between the experimental parts of the and 'Echoes' on the band's next album 'Meddle'. 'Funky Dung' is the most enjoyable part of the suite as it seems to be the best combination of the band's work and the orchestral arrangement. Overall as a piece, it has its moments but its quite easy to see why the band view it in less of a positive light than their later ideas.
The second side takes a different musical approach to the first, with a song each from Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Richard Wright before the final track which can only really be described as 'very experimental'. 'If' is a quiet, charming song which showcases some of Pink Floyd's lyrical style to be used on later albums. There's a nice guitar solo and it's all very relaxing on the whole if a little ordinary in comparison to the first side. 'Summer '68' seems as if it will continue in the same ordinary style as 'If', until picking up the pace to reveal a more complex side to the song with a much closer relation to 'Atom Heart Mother' from the first side.
'Fat Old Sun' continues the trio of songs which start gently and quietly, and takes a while to lead into its long guitar outro which is set up by the vocal first half. It's hard to choose a favourite out of the three songs, with their similar but varied approaches to quieter songs. 'Summer '68' is the only one which develops fully into other ideas, whereas the other two stay somewhat safer in their explorations. 'Alan's Psychadelic Breakfast' is perhaps the only track I'd recommend avoiding from the album; it never really develops into anything noteworthy with a few murmured lines about cornflakes here and there, and the band playing musical interludes every now and then, none of which are really all that exciting.
Overall 'Atom Heart Mother' doesn't work well as an album; it has moments of genius in the first track, surrounded all too often by moments of overexperimentation. The trio of quiet, evolving tracks begins the second side and are really the highlight of the album, despite the fact that only one of them really develops into anything noteworthy. After ending with a few guitar parts interspersed with cereal talk, the listener is left with somewhat of an empty feeling from the album; there's no doubt it has its moments but there's nothing to really dig into. The occasional glimpses of what's to come from the band are the main attraction here.
3.25/5.00
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