Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother
Hello everyone, welcome to my music blog. Today, I will be reviewing Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother. After the disaster that was Ummagumma, I am expecting a step up compared to that awful record. Let's just say that this album was something else.
The first song is Atom Heart Mother Suite, so it doesn't count as a title track! Anyway this 23 minute monster starts with a powerful horn lead, followed by a much more quite synth driven section, which is then followed by a stellar guitar solo by David Gilmour, accompanied by some more horns. Then a choir takes the lead for the next 5 minutes with a hauntingly amazing performance. After that, a much more laid-back, guitar driven section, with some really nice organs backing it up. A few voices come forth to act as the bridge between this calmer part and a horn driven part. The horns are then followed by an incredible creepy section, featuring ominous sound effects, odd synth sounds and the sounds of living creatures. What's even more terrifying is that this part lasts almost 4 minutes. Then we brought back to the horn oriented part, which is then followed a quite, suspenseful section, leading up to a guitar driven part, followed up by a powerful horn melody to end this absolute behemoth of a song. So much experimentation and so many sounds. This is a masterpiece.
Next we have the much shorter, If. This song is a beautiful, soft, almost lullaby feeling track for the first 2 minutes, later adding a quite electric guitar solo. Another great song!
Next we have a have Summer '68, which started with a soothing piano melody, that turned into a guitar and trumpet driven song. You know, I didn't really like this song that much. I think the vocals didn't do it for me. I just didn't like it that much.
Fat Old Sun was a nice, soothing guitar driven song. Simple, but great.
And finally, we have Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast. It starts with a combination of kitchen sounds and the random chattering of Pink Floyd roadie, Alan Styles. I love how he describes everything he is eating, which is a surprisingly large amount of products. The actual song starts with a nice, upbeat piano melody. We are then brought back to Alan's kitchen, accompanied by a relaxing guitar melody, that slowly takes over the noises from within the kitchen. Slowly, these noises are brought back, and as we hear a pan sizzle, Alan whispers about different things in an almost ASMR style. At the 8 minute mark, another piano melody is brought back. Slowly, an electric guitar takes over the song, however it doesn't last for long, as we return to Alan's kitchen as he finishes preparing his breakfast, and the album comes to a close.
I enjoyed the much more longer songs on this album, and the risks that Pink Floyd took on this album turned out amazing, thus making a great record, and marked the start of their golden age, slowly approaching the time of releasing The Big 4.
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