ATOM HEART MOTHER

Atom Heart Mother is the 5th studio album of the progressive rock band, Pink Floyd. Written about a woman being fitted with a nuclear-powered pacemaker, Pink Floyd did not gain real relevance until this album hit the charts around the world. Shifting out of their Psychedelic/Space Rock era of musical expertise, Waters and Gilmour took their band to new heights with this album. Is it a perfect comeback by one of the most highly regarded prog-rock bands of all time? No, but it certainly does have it's jaw dropping wows. ---------------------------------------------------- 1. Atom Heart Mother (Suite) ------------------ The longest Pink Floyd to date, this 24 minute suite got the band on to new experimental heights. It is hard to juxtapose this with the other tracks on the album, due to it's musical nature to be much different then a normal track or an epic like "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast". Starting with the signature fading-in hum that starts many of Pink Floyd's great hits, the listener is greeted with fanfare, which is unusual for a Pink Floyd song. Gilmour, Waters, Mason, and Wright however come in to save the day with their extraordinary work of instrumentals. The suite stretches on, and starts hitting very psychedelic and odd bumps, which really throws off the suite's rhythm. Some better parts are fitted into the suite, however are slightly spoiled by the less appealing aspects of their predecessors. Admittedly, the suite was a masterpiece and a fine work of art until "Echoes" on Meddle came to claim the spot as one of the greatest rock suites of all time, and "Atom Heart Mother" was left to linger in it's over-looming shadow. ----------------------------- 2. If ------------------------- The first and unavoidable first primarily Waters-written track on the album, "If" takes the mic after the preceding suite has faded into silence. The song starts out relatively slow, and gives you the feeling that the song will turn to something great. It doesn't. The song retains the same chord progression and doesn't change musically until it picks up slightly with the lamely soft drum work of Mason. The lyrical work retains it's major heading all throughout the track, usually starting with Waters saying along the lines of: "If I were a ____, I'd ______". Then, after four and a half minutes of looping music, the song ends with no visible sign of stopping or musical climax to warn you of the song's sudden drop into silence. If I were the writer of this song, I'd really need to step up my game. ---------------------- 3. Summer '68 ------------------------ One of the only 16 Pink Floyd songs to have Wright singing, one of the 6 Pink Floyd songs to have Wright be the only singer, and one of the 8 songs to be written solely by Wright himself. Opening with a soothing piano piece coupled with Wright himself singing, the song gets you in the mood of a slow song. This is broken very soon by a barrage of guitar and drums coupling with the keyboard (which has become much more bouncy and jazzy) and the Abbey Road Session Pops Orchestra coming in with the brass. Wright's voice is very beautiful, and it gives me sadness that he didn't sing in many other songs after this one by himself. This is definitely one of the greater tracks on Atom Heart Mother. ----------------------- 4. Fat Old Sun ------------------------------ The only solely Gilmour written and sung song on the album, "Fat Old Sun" brings a god damn smile to my face every time I hear it. Starting with Gilmour's extraordinary guitar work, coupled with Mason's superb percussion mastery, this song rises to the stop on my list of best songs from the album. The song start's with the sound of distant ringing bells that thrusts you into the extraordinary work of Gilmour and his fellow band members. While the sweet song takes it's time, you are suddenly put into the astonishing rock solo that closes the song. As the rocking guitar solo ends, the opening bells come back to finish the job and close the doors on this masterpiece. This is DEFINITELY my favourite song from the album. ------------------------------- 5. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast ---------------------------------- Meant to be an ode to the past founder of the band, Syd Barret, this take the place as my least favourite of the tracks of the album. The title and composition was supposed to be a reference to the Floyd's mainly psychedelic influenced music from when they first started their first studio album. The song is obviously supposed to maintain their old school psychedelic feeling, and I think they did a pretty good job. The thing is, their trippy origins weren't favorable in my opinion either. So, by making this song, they successfully made the song just as good as their origins, so not very good at all. The song is obviously trying way to hard at being super-psychedelic with it's goofy over-the-top sound effects, and which therefore makes the song very unappealing in my opinion. The song can have some very moving pieces during it, however, which makes it at least standable. When I'm trying to enjoy a nice acoustic guitar piece, however, I would rather not having the noises of a man shoveling food down his throat with unbelievable gusto, and then just choking on it and taking me away from the atmosphere of the track. My least favorite on the album, but it does hold it's strong suits and it's special place in my heart.