Originally Posted by half drag

Atom Heart Mother, recorded and released by Pink Floyd in 1970, is important as a transitional album in the Floyd's history. The band's fifth LP effort, it came at a time when Floyd was coming out of a highly experimental period in which they had tried anything and everything as they were forced to carry on after the loss of their former principal songwriting contributor of the group, Syd Barrett. Of course the band still had some experimenting to do as anyone who's seen Pink Floyd at Pompeii or is familiar with the making of Dark Side of the Moon (also examined in PF @ Pompeii) knows. But Atom Heart Mother begins to see the band come out of its highly experimental phase with the inclusion of three classic singer-songwriter tracks, and future LP efforts will be more commercially viable than all previous LP's up to and including Atom Heart Mother.

The LP marked the band's first UK #1, though it is probably Pink Floyd's worst album and band members have said as much. However the album cover is iconic, the compositional ideas of the title track foreshadow future blockbuster compositions such as Echoes and Shine on You Crazy Diamond, and the three singer-songwriter tracks (one provided by each of Roger Waters, Rick Wright and David Gilmour) are classic tracks.

I rate the album 3.5 out of 5 stars based on the strength of the three songs and the weakness of the remainder of the LP as it stacks up against the band's other repertoire (notwithstanding the evolutional importance of the work).

For your enjoyment I have included links to the three aforementioned standout tracks: If (R. Waters), Summer '68 (R. Wright) and Fat Old Sun (D. Gilmour).

YouTube - Pink Floyd - If

YouTube - Pink Floyd-Summer '68

YouTube - Pink Floyd-Fat Old Sun

PS - I would like to learn how to post the Youtube tracks as playable within the post. If anyone wouldn't mind sending a quick lesson via PM I would appreciate it. (Then I will edit out this call for help). Thanks. -hd