ATOM HEART MOTHER

I don't think I have another album in my collection which I have this mixed feelings about. Is this the greatest prog rock album ever created? Or is it just some failed attempt at experimentation? Well, all I need to know is that this album made a large impact on me, look at my name for instance.

The reason why I'm having mixed feelings about this album is propably very apparent, as many other prog rock fans, I love the first side and everything about it. Every single time I put on the album I have a really hard time to grasp how Pink Floyd could record something like this one day and then go to music like... the Wall a few years later (not that I don't like the wall, but it doesn't have the same magical feel as AHM does).

You don't record songs like Atom Heart Mother over a day of course and Pink Floyd even had to get some help from their friend Ron Geesin, who had to do a major part of the arragements on the song, and I think that might be one of the main reasons why Pink Floyd didn't write a second Atom Heart Mother, it was too much work for something that wasn't even well-percieved by the main part of the rock community. But for me, this will be Pink Floyd's grand achievement forever and I could leave it at that.

As for the song, it's very unpolished, has many flaws and may even feel abit lazy at some times. But does that stop it from being the best song ever recorded for me? Even if Atom Heart Mother faces all those problems, it got something that no other song or album ever even got close to, and I can't really tell you what it is, I just don't enjoy the song because I love to listen to it. I sense another type of enjoyment when I listen to this album, and that sense hasn't left me after hundreds of spins, and propably won't leave me after my thousand listen.

Somehow this song manages to keep itself fresh, listen after listen. It just progresses in such way, which is what the core of progressive rock is for me. Music that progresses, and I'm not talking about Beatles incorporating Psychedelica into pop music or King Crimson putting the Jazz into Hardrock with 21st century schizoid man. I'm just talking about a song that progresses, all the way from the brass intro to the funk guitar soloes to the avant-garde sound collagues. That's what prorgressive rock is for me, and Pink Floyd has managed to create a prime example of it.

The other side, has four songs, which are good and enjoyable. But they don't keep the grandness in the album, it's more of a relief from what you just experienced. I can honestly say that hearing the first notes of If (which is why I prefer the CD version to the LP version on this album) is a huge relief for me. This is why the second side is needed, and is also why it keeps the album from achieving a masterpiece status for me. But there was a time in my life where I would not even think for a second when rating this album.

So, I just said that this side is pretty much what this album needs, that's true. But it sure doesn't need to be 25 minutes long, after If, the songs lose that feeling of relief and are just typical pop songs, which you can find on any other psychedelica album.

I like the ending however, it's kinda fun, but it loses it's charm after some listens, but it's still my second favorite song on the album. It's kinda the same thing that Mike Oldfield did, just takes a few good parts and put them together to a song. The only difference is that Pink Floyd is improvising and jamming, when Mike Oldfield just got already arranged part which he just build up. And that is why this is much more enjoyable for me.

So there it is, my review for Atom Heart Mother. This is the most polarizing album, I have ever heard, and is most likely going to stay that way for a long time. But, meanwhile I'll keep on enjoying Atom Heart Mother.