Atom Heart Mother - Pink Floyd (CD 1987)

It was October 10th, 1970... And Pink Floyd have released a new album... Atom Heart Mother. Atom Hearth Mother was the fifth album from the band, and it was their most successful one so far, becoming #1 on the U.K. charts soon after its release. The album was experimental. The problem back then was that Pink Floyd did not really have a direction, so they were just stumbling around, and messing around in the studio. Atom Heart Mother is a good example of that experimentation. Almost as good an example as "Ummagumma". However you can also sense that Pink Floyd seem to be taking a new direction with their music.

The album consists of 5 songs. Two of them, which bookend the album, are long instrumental suites made up of separate parts. Somewhat in the tradition of "Saucerful Of Secrets". And the other three are normal lengthed songs in between. One each from Roger, Richard, and David.

1. The Atom Heart Mother Suite- The early '70s brought an original concept to the rock world. What will happen if you combine a rock band and an orchestra? The concept was used by everyone until it became cliche. There are many examples of that concept. This is one of those examples. This is quite possibly the most over the top song I have ever heard. It is a (about) 20 minute long instrumental featuring Pink Floyd jamming with help from a choir, and an orchestra. The orchestra was arranged, and conducted by Ron Geesin. The song is split into several parts, each with a musical motif of its own, but with central chord progression going through the entire thing. The song is, quite fun, and is quite hilarious, in all its' over-the-topness. But at times, it is quite understandable how The Pink Floyd have said in the past that they wouldn't mind if the suite was thrown in a dustbin, and never listened to by anyone. The problem is that the orchestra, and the band had different ideas on how to play music.

2. If- After the loud, thunderous title track, the orchestra suddenly dissappears, and Roger gives us this nice, mostly acoustic song (Although David does get a short, soft solo) The song is really relaxed, which is nice after the tense opening of the album.

3. Summer '68- This song was written by Wright. It starts of as a rather quiet mostly piano piece. After which the orchestra is brought back in for the chorus. Overall, the song is quite underrated, and is a good one, with a catchy tune. The song, to me, seems to have somewhat of a Beatles vibe to it.

4. Fat Old Sun- David's song contribution to this album is a soft ballad about his childhood home. In a way, it is David's "Grantchester Meadows". The melody is catchy, and overall in my opinion, this song has a "sunny, weekend morning" feeling to it. It is a good song.

5. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast- This song brings back the spirit of Atom Heart Mother. It is a 13 minute long instrumental (Unless you count Alan's muttering of "Marmalade, I love marmalade" and other things that he says)Overall the song is pleasant, it is not intrusive and it doesn't make you jump out of your chair with sudden explosions of loudness like the title track does, but I usually skip it. To me it doesn't have many merits musically. There are nice ideas, but they are not evolved at all, and the parts don't seem to be connected. They just seem glued onto each other in every way possible.

Overall, the album is nice. However, the instrumentals seem to have a lot of filler put in to make them longer (Which the members admit to somewhat now) I consider the album the last of the "Old Pink Floyd". (Meddle is still partially in that style, but it is closer to the new band style) It is worth buying if you are a Pink Floyd fan, but most other people probably won't appreciate it. However, those who are careful, can hear signs of foreshadowing of what is to come with future albums.

PS- One interesting thing to note about this album is the artwork. After releasing "Ummagumma", Pink Floyd wanted to surpirse their listeners by giving them the least psychedelic album they could make. Which included the cover. In the end, the cover was chosen. Pink Floyd's visual artist simply went onto the first farm he found, and took a picture of the first cow he found there. It was supposed to be as plain as possible, but in the end, no other cover could have worked better. The album's title was taken from a random newspaper article.