Three classic tracks off a not-so-great Pink Floyd album/Atom Heart Mother Review
 

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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).







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

EDIT: Thanks Satch for the instrux.

When you are on youtube cut the par tof the URL that is after the equal sign (=). In the case where it also says "&related", cut the part of the URL between "=" and "&related". go to your mb reply box and hit "go advanced" and select the "wrap [youtube tags around selected text" option. when the you tube brackets appear paste the code from youtube in between them.

you can quote my post to compare what I did with your videos to my instructions.

I'm guilty of actually liking the title track, it's my favorite track in fact.

I think it's a rather decent album actually. Now if you want a sh*tty Floyd album, I recommend the studio side of Ummagumma or The Final Cut.

Actually, I don't recommend those, avoid at all costs, unless you're a completionist.

I agree. It's definitely an album that has an undeserved reputation as being poor to mediocre. I like it a lot.

The Final Cut is better than The Wall. I have absolutely no qualms saying that.

Wow..... No.

I still consider The Wall to be a great album.

The Final Cut is basically what you'd get if you took the worst Wall songs, which were the boring ones like Nobody Home, Vera and Bring the Boys Home, the ones that the rest of the band didn't even appear on, and might as well have been Roger Waters solo tracks, and stretched it into a whole album.

The Wall is dominated by Waters but the presence of the rest of the band can still be felt, I still consider it a Floyd album.

The Final Cut is Pink Floyd in name only, it's a Roger Waters solo album with "special guest" David Gilmour. It doesn't even sound like Pink Floyd.

Wow. No Yes. It's all opinions. No one opinion is right. Every single thing points to The Final Cut being wrong on all levels but it's as if mason and gilmour expelled their last bit's of love juice for the Floyd and let rip. The Solos on the album are exquisite and emotionally it rings much more true for me.

And what? His solos on The Wall are mind numbingly awful? He contributed a lot more to that album than he did on Final Cut, he wrote at least a few of the songs, sang on more than one song and did more than just brief solos.

When people praise Animals and The Final Cut but call The Wall a piece of crap it really makes no damn sense at all, I think everyone is basing their opinions on the album's status more than it's actual quality.

No I base it on nothing but what I hear. I would like to think that I am not influenced by any secondary opinions regarding music and whether you agree with my opinions or not, I would like to think that as a fan for over 20 years of the floyd I at least my views are true to myself and not mere vitriol to ingratiate myself into popular opinion. I LIKE The Wall. I'm a Floyd fan to the day I die but it's over exposure and many banal songs lead me to other works that are more rewarding PERSONALLY. Music is for me and no one else and I wont change that ever.

Sorry, I'm not trying to be mean.

I guess I confused you with someone else.