FEATURED CD : Pink Floyd : Atom Heart Mother

[Duncan Glenday]

Credit for this featured CD : tdotdo

Based on a CD received from the collection bequeathed to Progressive Ears by the late Chris Buckley (Winkersnuff)

tdotdo's comments:



First off I've haven't heard much Pink Floyd from earlier than Dark Side of the Moon. Just occasional songs here and there. So I was happy to get this one.

I'm sorry to say that I'm not very impressed with it. I'll start with the suite. Parts of it sound good but then about half a dozen times it veers of to a sections that are uninteresting and forgettable. I lose interest and can't remember what I just listened to. It seems the band is trying too hard to be clever. It comes off as forced. It's like they're trying to throw everything...orchestra, choir, strange vocals (which I did like) discordant noises, etc. just to show off without having any idea where they're going with it.

On side two, "If" is too sleepy and boring. Both Summer of 68 and Fat Old Sun are okay but nothing special. The music parts of Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast are good. But I make breakfast every day and don't need to listen to someone else do it.

Reading up on the album I found that the members of the band aren't to crazy about it, either.

But saying this, I've listened to it 3 times and I'll probably keep it around and give it a few more listens to see if it grows on me.

[NogbadTheBad]

Love it, bang in the middle of their experimental phas while trying to find their sound, personally one of my favorites

[Zappathustra]

It's okay, 3 times is enough to have a solid opinion about it. I might have listened to it 30 times and still don't have a clear opinion, but that's maybe because I am slow, too slow for this world.
My non-too-clear opinion is that it's one of Floyd's best, and exactly because "without having any idea where they're going with it". It lacks this element of pretentioutness that pops out so evidently for me in the post Meddle albums (some of which I still like a lot). I love the suite, it combines the 60's spirit with the 70's in a unique way. It's like listening to the Beatles and Krautrock at the same time.

[interbellum]

My elder sister had this one in the early '70 when I was about 12, 13. It was in fact the first Pink Floyd I got to know. It really impressed me and have played the LP (especially the suite) very often. It's an unique piece of music in the PF-discography, but I can understand a lot of people don't like it. I guess when you enter the PF-story with melodic album like TDSOTM or WYWH this one makes less sense.

[thedunno]

Classic Pink Floyd. Maybe not quite as good as Meddle and Dark Side but still pretty great.

I still play it regulary and will probably continue to do so untill I die.

[LeFrog]

Love it although it's often rated as a lesser PF album. It's one of my gateways into prog, found in my father's collection. I played it because I was intrigued that one song actually took up one whole side. The rest, as they say, is history.

[Trane]

probably the Floyd album I played most... and can still get the urge to spin it once more.

[soundsweird]

Bought it when it came out. I had just bought "Ummagumma" and loved parts of it. I didn't hear the earlier albums until a few years later. The suite is worth it though it does drag in places; I like all of side two just fine. This album, along with the "Music From The Body" soundtrack, made me a Ron Geesin fan.

[EBES]

I adore Summer '68 and I've always regarded it as one of the lost gems in their catalog (to the extent that anything by such a high-profile band can be "lost" I s'pose). I like the rest of it well enough though I don't know the long suite well enough to play it in my head.

[EBES]

"It's like listening to the Beatles and Krautrock at the same time" -- it's never been a favorite of mine but thanks to that description I'll probably come back to it this evening.

[Tangram]

Pink Floyd still gathering the pieces. Great in places, drags a bit in others. I originally didn't care for the weird keypoard bit on the title track, so I cut it out and replaced it with the end of a A Saucerful of Secrets. The rest of the album remained the same and other side of the cassette was selected tracks from A Nice Pair. When I got more accustom to PF's longer tracks and musical adventures, I restored the albums to their original listings. Geesin did a bizarre and excellent job with the orchestra and choir. Gilmour and Waters are not that fond of it, although DG did play the title track for Geesin within the past couple of years. The solo tracks from Waters Wright and Gilmour are all very good. Alan's Pyschadelic Breakfast was probably funny when they thought of it but only the Morning Glory section stands the test of time.

For those fans of the Atom Heart Mother title track, the live version they did w/o the orchestra, brass and choir, on the The Early Years 1970 is a real revelation.

[Geoff O'Donoghue]

I like ATM a lot. It took me a while to get used to the sometimes dominant horns in the title suite but I ended up loving them - so much that I had to seek out a boot of Ron Geesin's 2008 performance of ATM with full horns and choir and a guest spot by Dave Gilmour. I'd love a commercial release of this. The rest of the ATM songs are good - Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast is probably my least favourite of them - the sound effects and voiceover initially struck me as too gimmicky but I have grown to enjoy the track.

[Paulrus]

Not one of my favorite Floyd albums, but it still gets repeat spins. At least side 2 does. A very fertile period for the band.

[Digital_Man]

One of my favorite PF albums. I haven't heard it in a while though. Also, in my opinion, it's one of those rare albums where the music fits the album cover(and especially back cover) perfectly.

[ctoelle]

Funky Dung is about the only part that works for me

[SteveSly]

An experiment that only half worked. I like some of it, but for Pink Floyd albums I rank it close to the bottom.

[Piskie]

The band are starting to get their act together on this album...almost there. Worthwhile!

[battema]

For those fans of the Atom Heart Mother title track, the live version they did w/o the orchestra, brass and choir, on the The Early Years 1970 is a real revelation.

^^ very much this. I was always fairly lukewarm on AHM; interesting, but not essential. Hearing the stripped-down version with just the band tearing it up was incredible and completely flipped my perception of the tune. Love it.

[lovecraft]

I would probably plump for the studio run through sans orchestra.

Summer 68 and Fat Old Sun are just beautiful songs.

[bill g]

I really like 'Summer 68', and the instrumental parts of 'Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast' I especially like. The rest is decent, I rather like, with the exception of 'If' which I find rather bland.

[Paulrus]

The rest is decent, I rather like, with the exception of 'If' which I find rather bland.

I've always seen "If" as an early example of the kind of songwriting Waters would mine repeatedly with Floyd. Other examples are "Brain Damage" and "Pigs on the Wing". Very simple, almost naive little folk tunes.

[Jerjo]

They're still finding their way on this one. Some things come together and some definitely do not, particularly the title track. But they were ambitious and clearly building to greatness.

[Progatron]

Love it, bang in the middle of their experimental phas while trying to find their sound, personally one of my favorites

This is me exactly. Although I love Animals, it's really everything from the beginning and just prior to Dark Side that is my favourite PF. I never listen to the rest anymore, particularly the overkilled classic rock radio stuff.

Atom Heart Mother for me is all about the suite, which I've always loved. The flipside has its moments but nothing has ever stood out for me really. I laughed at an interview with Waters when he said people ask him if he'll ever play the suite again and he says "Are you fucking joking?" Whereas Gilmour played it with an orchestra some years back.

[NogbadTheBad]

For those fans of the Atom Heart Mother title track, the live version they did w/o the orchestra, brass and choir, on the The Early Years 1970 is a real revelation.

This really is the dogs bollocks isn't it?

[EBES]

I've always seen "If" as an early example of the kind of songwriting Waters would mine repeatedly with Floyd. Other examples are "Brain Damage" and "Pigs on the Wing". Very simple, almost naive little folk tunes.

Not just the simplicity, I think but the bitterness and self-loathing of that song, the way he's digging into himself and into the little cruelties of daily life, in a quiet but merciless sort of way. It's not astounding as a song -- musically speaking I think this kind of writing tends to be elevated by a conceptual framework -- but it does contain the dark little seed of his whole worldview as a writer.