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Atom Heart Mother

Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother Audio CD

A fair review of the Pink Floyd "Atom Heart Mother" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Pink Floyd reviews here, or go back to the Pink Floyd tabs.

Band: Pink Floyd
Title: Atom Heart Mother
Rating:

Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Atom Heart Mother: Father's Shout/Breast Milky/Mother Fore/Funky Dung 2: If 3: Summer '68 4: Fat Old Sun 5: Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast: Rise and Shine/Sunny Side Up/Morning ...

Proof is in the eating
I read all the very mixed reviews and decided I'd probably like it, so plunged in. I have long wanted to acquire AHM as I have most Pink Floyd though until recently only about half of pre-DSOTM Pink Floyd. I've got to say I'm disappointed. Maybe its wrong to say there's anything wrong with this recording per se. The challenge I have is that I have a great deal of music to choose from, and by now own almost all Pink Floyd (bar I think, More, and oddly enough the first one).

I therefore have two choices to make: first I have to decided I'm in the mood for Pink Floyd, and secondly, I have to decided which. I've listened to AHM once only, and while I know it's wrong to make a decision on such short acquaintance I honestly don't think I'll be selecting it again in a hurry. I'd have to decided I'd rather listen to this than any of the others in their amazing portfolio - and the reality is all the others are better (some far better and some slightly better). So what chance does it have to see the light of day? It's a little tedious, and the chamber music doesn't appeal to me. It's the sort of thing I might occasionally put on to justify having bought it in the first place, but doesn't warrant intensive listening.

But who knows? It may be one of those recordings that rewards persistence. Only time will tell - if it ever makes it back onto my player.

The Floyd
Great arrangements for such a young group. You need to be a total fan to get it.

Another good album

This album sounds progressive an a little bit psychedelic an if your aware of the Ozric Tentacles band? This album right here sounds a little like Ozric Tentacles. one of the best instrumentals albums from pink floyd other than meddle whcih had echos.

Only album's that i dislike from pink floyd is the final cut, an the divison bell whcih their nothing specail.

Everything has a time and a place...
Since the house record collection had nothing but Van Morrison, we needed something to mix things up, so I went down to a little hole-in-the-wall record store on 24th and picked up copies of The Door's "The Soft Parade" and Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother. In the summer of 1991 my girlfriend and I were tasked with housesitting a friend's victorian just off Haight Ashbury. "

Between deliveries from Escape From New York Pizza (and other random indulgences), we were pretty surprised by what we were hearing. The opening orchestral track, a lumbering, majestic creation still finding its feet like a dishevelled organ grinder finally coming to after a vicious bender, was ambitious, grandiose, and, at times, plodding. . . . but ultimately rewarding, as if it were the result of certain substances secreted into the punchbowl before an unsuspecting orchestra took the stage.

I liked it then, I like it now. No matter that members of Pink Floyd have bashed this album from time to time; artists often distance themselves from youthful indiscretions, but Atom Heart Mother is a great album, and that includes the bookend-like suites that begin and end the performance. It's more like a tootsi-pop; you have to suck on the hard stuff a while to reach the chewy center.

And what a center it is. Roger Water's "If," a touching acoustic arpeggio to mental instability, is clearly a precursor to later songs like "Wish You Were Here. The pleading rejoinder, "And if I go insane. . . would you please let me join in with the game," is scary stuff, but ultimately ironic, especially considering that Waters was at the forefront of ousting Syd as the leader of Pink Floyd.

But quibbling aside, the true majesty of AHM lies in Wright and Gilmour's contributions. "Summer of '68" is perhaps the finest thing Wright ever commited to vinyl. The swirling orchestrations echo the title track (and clue us in to the chief creative force on this record) but it's the lyrics that really stand out for me. After a whirlwind romance, the speaker feigns indifference as he prepares to leave, only to turn and ask how his lover feels about him. The complexity of the situation, rendered in such simple terms, never ceases to amaze me, and the chorus is perhaps one of the finest psychedelic interludes ever recorded.

Then there's "Fat Old Sun," the kind of song you wish could go on for another twenty minutes, (and for those of you with any knowledge of Swinging Pig Records and their amazing bootlegs, such dreams are possible). An ode to mortality and a simple love song to boot, there is something deceptively simple about "Fat Old Sun. " When I first heard it, it seemed little more than filler to me, but here, twenty years later, it's perhaps the most moving track on the record.

A friend of mine once tried to summarize Pink Floyd in one word: loss. The potential for loss, the reality of it, and the attendant fears that seem to loom over everything we create, engage, or love in our lives. "Fat Old Sun" is, to me at least, preventitive medicine for such lament. It's a song of heightened awareness, one that avoids lamentation by living acutely in the moment. And Gilmour's soloing only serves to echo those sentiments strongly.

And finally there's "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast. " I don't know why people bash this song. It's fun, playful, and experiemntal, all of which suggests a cereal commercial gone wrong. . . or very right. The piano melody that weaves in and out of this song is, again, one of Rick Wright's joyful creations, and it's just plain fun.

"Marmalade. . . everybody likes marmalade. "
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Atom Heart Mother
It starts out with the odd 24 minute Atom Heart Mother that sounds more like a rock gig rather then a track and ends with the 12 minute long Alans Psychadelic Breakfast. Atom Heart Mother being Pink Floyd 1970 release is an alright experimental rock album that is almost too experimental for its own good. I can honestly say that I like it but I am quite confused about this album as it seems a bit unfocused and confounding. The booklet is also a strange one with pictures of cows on the cover and inside the booklet. 3/5.

You can see a complete list of all Pink Floyd discography, or go back to the Pink Floyd tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.