Atom Heart Mother

 

 

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While Atom Heart Mother is certainly among Pink Floyd's most unique releases, it is not as spectacular as the other reviews indicate. The title track is very good, but the remaining four songs (if "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" can be called a song) are hollow and uninteresting, and in my opinion do not represent an experimental stage, as stated by other reviewers.

Although it is a necessary part of any true fan's collection, it doesn't have much merit on its own, and I feel the 4.5 Star rating currently attributed to this album is somewhat misleading.

Pink Floyd's fifth album Atom Heart Mother was released in October of 1970. The album was one of the band's more daring to date and was one their best in their so-called transitional period. I remember first getting this on tape in August in 1987 and was just in awe on how great this album was and still is today. The Floyd's history is really divided in five parts the Syd era (1966-68), the transitional era(1968-70), the classic Floyd era(1971-75), the Waters era(1976-83) and the post-Waters era(1987-today). This album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and was produced by the band members and engineered by Peter Bown and Alan Parsons. The album begins with the 23 and a half minute title cut which took up the whole of the first side of the original album and combined classical with rock with funk with avant-garde and was split into six parts(Father's Shout(with low E chord going into the track), Breast Milky(with the cello playing alongside Roger Waters' bass and Rick Wright's organ before giving away to some great overdubbed guitar work from David Gilmour and stellar drumming by Nick Mason), Mother Fore(which introduces the choir), Funky Dung(my favorite section of the piece which combined Dave's guitar soloing with the choir doing some off-the-wall chants and worked excellent), Mind Your Throats Please(included some mellotron from Rick and tape effects which predates Dark Side) and the piece concludes with Remergence which was a summary of all of the parts of the album). The piece was written by all four Floyds and Ron Geesin whom wrote the choral and orchestral parts on the track and worked with Roger on his solo debut Music From the Body. The second half of the CD contained four shorter tracks starting with Roger Waters' If which is a great song and he played it live on his Radio KAOS tour. Rick Wright's Summer 68 follows and is one of his best numbers. Following that is David Gilmour's Fat Old Sun which was his first song he penned lyrics for by himself and is a beautiful song, it's so good that Dave resurrected the song for his unplugged concerts in London in 2001 and 2002 which is documented on his David Gilmour in Concert DVD. The album concludes with the 13 minue instrumental Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast which is a homage to Floyd's then roadie Alan Stiles and a collage of music and sound effects like water dripping, eating food, cooking and mumbling(eggs, bacon, marmalade) all recorded in drummer Nick Mason's kitchen. The song is split in three parts(Rise and Shine(which combined piano and guitar and organ), Sunny Side Up(which is all acoustic guitar and sounds like an early version of A Pillow of Winds which was on the band's next disc Meddle) and Morning Glory(which has the intro to Rise and Shine that gives way into a jam and concludes with the water dripping). The album was a sign of great things to come for the band and was the band's second disc to crack the American Top 100 peaking at a modest #55 and eventually went Gold in later years. This was a great start to the band's eventual world domination despite the fact that most of the band despise this album. The cow on the cover was cool too and on the back cover and in the original LP gatefold was a picture of all cows. This CD was digitally remastered by Doug Sax in 1994 and sounds better than the original CD issued by Capitol in 1987 by a longshot. Highly recommended!

For the life of me I STILL can't see where people are coming from when they put down Atom Heart Mother! This was a crucial time for the Floyd when they were still finding themselves. And find themselves they did, mates! "Fat Old Sun" is worth the entire album alone, and "Summer Of '68" is one of the few Floyd 'ballads' (even if it IS about a one-night-stand at Woodstock...)
I definately wouldn't recommend this if you are just starting to get to know Floyd, because it may turn you off. Make sure you have The Wall, Wish You Were Here, and Darkside Of The Moon under your belt before you branch off into their other stuff.
This album is ACES!!

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5.0 out of 5 stars Atom Heart: The Mother of it All.
"Atom Heart Mother" is, ironically, often the most denigrated of all the Pink Floyd albums, but it is also one of their most important and indispensible. Lisez davantage

Published on Nov 14 2009 by Richard S. Warner

4.0 out of 5 stars Difficult but rewarding
This is not an album that can be fully appreciated in just one or two listens. And while its strongest songs are not the long, sprawing title track or the 'psychedelic' closer,... Lisez davantage

Published on Feb 27 2009 by Stephen Gazzard

5.0 out of 5 stars great pink floyd cd
this was yet another experimental album from floyd which in my humble opinion was also very much underrated and i still like it after owning this great cd after all these... Lisez davantage

Published on July 10 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars I fall asleep!
Yes I fall asleep BIIIIIIG TIME, can a pop record be indeed so boring? Yes it can!

This is UGLY, BAD, STUPID AND DUMB

Published on July 9 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars An experience, to say the least
If you've only heard Dark Side of the Moon, the Wall, and Wish You Were Here, you aren't seeing all of Pink Floyd. Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 28 2004 by James T. Glavin

5.0 out of 5 stars Although the band despises this, I love it
Pink Floyd's fifth album Atom Heart Mother was released in October of 1970. The album was one of the band's more daring to date and was one their best in their so-called... Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 20 2004 by Terrence J Reardon

3.0 out of 5 stars Avoid the Floyd is a Atom Heart MOTHER F*****
What the heck is wrong with you. How do think Pink Floyd could have possibly copied of Janet Jacksons 1993 album when Pink Floyd did Atom Heart Mother in 1970. Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 20 2004 by Mike Sobierajski

4.0 out of 5 stars Highlights Pink Floyd in an early experimental era...
...of course, EVERY Pink Floyd album is experimental in its own way, this album plays around with longer compositions, the A-side (or 1st track) being a classical-type suite, Atom... Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 19 2004 by Dan

5.0 out of 5 stars highly recommended
this is a great album.play no attention to the one star reviews and please buy this cd.

Published on Jun 14 2004 by scorpion expert

5.0 out of 5 stars an underrated masterpiece
the fifth album from this great rock band during the david gilmour era of the band was an underrated album with an experimental sound and though not that great in the mould of the... Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 13 2004 by crazy aboutfloyd

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