OBSCURED BY CLOUDS

Although OBSCURED BY CLOUDS is a totally unspectacular album, I've always found it more lovable than the over-familiar million-sellers that were to follow it. It doesn't feature songs as dramatic as "Time" or "Dogs", or guitar solos as pristine as the ones on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond pt.1", but it also lacks the cynicism of the Floyd's later albums. To this day, I haven't got a clue what kind of film it's supposed to be the soundtrack of (if you look at the pictures in the CD booklet, LA VALLEE may have been a hippy precursor to THE EMERALD FOREST) but most of the tunes sound like gentle love songs. "Burning Bridges" and "Stay" are particularly lovely. If you enjoy the vocal bits of "Echoes", I don't see why you wouldn't like these tracks as well. "Wot's... uh the deal" is similar, and in addition it's blessed with one of Rick Wright's typically subtle and unforgettable piano solos.

The rockers on OBSCURED BY CLOUDS are fascinating, because they sound like a general rehearsal for DARK SIDE OF THE MOON. If you're a Floyd fan and you long to know from what seeds that more famous album sprung, then this soundtrack will be an essential buy.

The instrumentals which open and close the album are less mysterious than the ones on MORE, but they've never irritated me. "Mudmen", which closed the first side of the original LP, is a short piece of symphonic (sonata-like, in fact) prog, similar in spirit to Focus's slower pieces.

All in all, I find OBSCURED BY CLOUDS impossible to dislike, and I'd recommend it to anyone.