Album title: Atom Heart Mother
Artist: Pink Floyd
Nationality: English
Label: EMI
Chronology: Fifth
Grade: A
Landmark value: Pretty huge. The first “proper” album to feature what would be the classic lineup, indeed, the only lineup of the band after Barrett, the third album being a soundtrack and the fourth that mixed solo/live thing they called
Ummagumma, this was probably the first time Floyd could show people what they were made of, how different their music without Syd could be, and indeed it took them to their first number one, at least in the UK. It was also, as mentioned in the album list earlier, their first collaboration with Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis, a relationship that would continue through almost all of their albums.
Tracklisting: Atom Heart Mother (Father Shout/Breast Milky/Mother Fore/Funky Dung/Mind Your Throats Please/Remergence)/If/Summer ‘68/Fat Old Sun/Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast (Rise and Shine/Sunny Side Up/Morning Glory)
Comments: Opening with a 23-minute suite might be ambitious, but this is Pink Floyd we’re talking about, and despite the success and acclaim they later achieved, they never seemed to be a band who went in search of hit singles, so they would have been playing to their growing fanbase here. Still, an interesting choice to use an orchestra, especially as somewhat rival band Yes had done so the same year. But who got their album out first? Okay, Jon and the boys did. Not saying this was copied by any means, but an interesting coincidence. Nice organ and keyboard work from Rick Wright - is all this going to be instrumental? No, I have never heard this album before. Sue me. The average settlement is ten thousand dollars...
Gilmour showing off his chops now, glad no doubt to be firmly established with the band, being basically the “new guy” for the last few years I would guess. Winning plenty of fans with those solos surely. I like the choir here - maybe foreshadowing Clare Torrey’s turn on “The Great Gig in the Sky” some three years later. It also presages “Echoes” on
Meddle the year after this. It’s an interesting piece, but I question whether it would have sufficiently held a newcomer’s attention through so long a period. Still, given this was the birth of prog, and with that the super-epic track, maybe.
After that incredibly long piece - surely Floyd’s longest ever? I’d have to check but I would think so - “If” is a mere four minutes and change, nice little acoustic ballad which features Roger Waters singing. Okay not acoustic, there is organ and electric guitar in it, but certainly starts that way and maintains the feel of an acoustic song. “Summer ‘68” is Wright’s contribution, and features, not surprisingly, a piano melody, though at least while it starts out as another ballad it breaks out halfway and has some life, including a nice slice of brass. Gilmour’s song is in fact the one which lasted the test of time, and most Floyd fans will know “Fat Old Sun”, one of the first solo songs he wrote for the band. Another folky kind of basically acoustic number before it later takes flight on Gilmour’s electric guitar, it does stand head and shoulders above the rest, though even at that it’s still not what you’d call something to get really excited about.
And one more epic to close. The weird “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” runs this time only (!) for thirteen minutes, effects-laden with muttering I guess narration - couldn’t call it singing as there is no music and no tune - then the music starts and it’s piano-driven, kind of classical sound till the guitar joins in. There’s a lot of stopping the music, bringing in sotto voce talking, some effects, and to be perfectly honest, for me, it would have worked better without them, as the music is pretty fine on its own. I guess in some ways we’re hearing a very nascent version of the kind of speech/dialogue that would surface on
Dark Side of the Moon, but whereas on that album it works perfectly, here it just doesn’t.
Favourite track(s): Summer ‘68, Fat Old Sun, Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast (sans the effects and speech)
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression: I’m not sure whether you could say the ghost of Syd Barrett had yet to be exorcised, or whether it’s fairer to say the band were still finding their feet, with or without him, but the suite aside, this sounds something like a small step, if at all, from the first two albums, not a huge shift in musical direction. In many ways, it could almost be considered a folk rock album, certainly the second side anyway.
Meddle would push the envelope a little more, but really we’re looking at 1973 before what would become known as the signature Floyd sound would be born. Right now, seems to me the Atom Heart Mother is still in labour. A while to go yet before she gives birth to a rock legend.
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