ATOM HEART MOTHER

For my 1st Prog Archives review I have selected a real mother of an album! This is my favorite Pink Floyd album. Experimental, progressive, non-commercial. A far cry from The Wall, that's for sure. It's not an easy album to get into. It's layers take time to unravel. For a long time this was one of my least favorite Pink Floyd albums for the very reasons I like it now. For me it's revelation came rather casually. Just out driving around one Saturday morning when I decided to give this album one more try. Above me the sunshine was beginning to peak through the overcast sky just as the Atom Heart Mother Suite began to play. It's strange, hypnotic groove kept me heading down the highway towards some unknown destination. Away from the city I drove. Cows and cornfields replaced crowded streets and shopping malls. Why the hell had I gone out today? Wasn't there some errands I had to run for the wife? I tried to breakthrough the trance induced by Roger Waters and his bass. Errands could wait. This music demanded to be heard. Let it take me wherever it needed me to go. The Suite composed largely by Ron Geesin is a prog masterpiece. A true avant-garde epic. This Suite also heralded the early peak of the post-Syd Barrett era Floyd. The group had come into their own. The remainder of the album is also very strong. Some of the best songs the group had written up to that point. "If" by Roger Waters is a gentle, plaintive ballad. "Summer '68" is joyful and nostalgic. Richard Wright is wonderful singer, it's a shame he didn't sing lead more often. "Fat Old Sun" is one of the finest songs David Gilmour has ever written. A perfect song for a lazy afternoon in the park. The closing suite "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" has the feeling of someone not quite awake but alert enough to hear a man prepare and eat a breakfast. You are in the room with him, yet not really part of what's happening. This is not flower-power 60s psychedlia, but some kind of out of body experience instead. A real trip. Good headphone music. Overall the music has a rather pastoral feel about it, which is aptly made clear by the famous cow on the album cover. There is nothing here that really "rocks". That may be another reason some folks have a hard time getting into it. But believe me it is definitely worth the time. Take a drive in the country and play this album and see if doesn't reveal itself to you.