OBSCURED BY CLOUDS

This album can be best described as a mix of Meddle and A Momentary Lapse of Reason with some Dark Side of the Moon influences, and suprisingly they mix quite well. You can tell that the production was a little rushed (once again, they only had a week) and a little sloppy, but overall that can be forgiven. This is 1.5 stars better than More, which was, in my opinion, pretty bad, with 4-5 good tracks. I give this 3.5 stars because it is definetly better than "good but non-essential" but worse than "an excelent addition." It was their second OST for a Barbet Schroeder film, and in 1972, a good 4 or 5 years after their first, More. An interesting thing about this album is that Floyd are experimenting with shorter songs, as low as two and three minute ones.

Obscured by Clouds: This is not all easy to explain in words, but I will try. Starts out with a lone synth, and then in comes drumming which constantly echoes. An endless guitar drone enters, and multi-tracked over this comes more guitar. The main impression is a dark, noisy, slightly 80s- like song with lots of sounds overlapping each other. It is neither good or bad, just sort of average. Instrumental.

When You're in: A similar track to the previous, but with better drumming, less noisyness, some piano added and overall a better sound. It is fairly short and repetitive, but makes up for that in its catchiness. Instrumental.

Burning Bridges: Excellent! I find it sounds a bit like Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale, but with softer singing and music. It's organ based. Floyd rarely have duets, I mean real ones where two singers are actually singing at the same time, but this one does, between Rick and Dave. It's quite a nice effect.

The Gold it's in The...: It's like a much improved Nile Song! A little softer, but it has similar guitar and a similar sound. The drumming is also similar. Dave sings on this one. It's sort of a more optimistic song, and pretty catchy. When the singing ends a Money-esque guitar solo begins, which must be one of the longest guitar solos of this Floyd period. The guitar work is impressive, but not as clean as it could be, perhaps because of the rushed production.

Wot's Uh The Deal: A much softer, melancholy song, but very good. Dave is singing again, with some help from either himself multi-tracked or another singer. This is more of a piano and acoustic-guitar based song. Rick even has a few solos which are pretty good, but which will obviously not even touch, say, Keith Emerson's piano. The drumming is as good as the most of the rest of the album, which is quite good.

Mudmen: Picks up the theme from Burning Bridges but with piano instead of organ (at least at first, there is some organ too later). Slower paced and a little looser, more of a instrumental jam. A few times Nick comes in with some harsh drumming and then the song explodes into louder organ and guitar. Good song.

Childhood's End: A song completely by Gilmour, which is pretty rare. He wrote the lyrics too, which are ok but weaker than Water's of course. Starts out really softly with a synth but fades into a really cool jam with some Time-esque drumming. The song is based mostly on a loud burst of organ, which is followed of Dave's singing. The music is good, with excellent drumming and a catchy tune. Unsuprisingly it becomes another guitar solo, but not for too long.

Free Four: AWFUL! AWFUL! AWFUL!!! An incredibly weak Waters song. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Waters, but this song is really bad. It's this pop-like, cheerful (in the music, not the lyrics-the lyrics are fairly gloomy) song, and engulfed in clapping. And I really hate clapping in songs, except if it's breifly for two seconds. The guitar drone from the first song is back, which only adds to the song's annoying quality. Water's vocals are improving, better than San Tropez, that's for sure (on Meddle). It goes on way too long.

Stay: After the last song anything would sound good, but this is already a really good wright/waters collaboration. Wright's mellow voice fits the song very well, and I think it's one of the best songs he has ever written. He hasn't written many for Floyd, but Summer 68 (I think that's what it was called) on Atom Heart Mother and the one he did for the Division Bell (1994, post-waters), are all fairly good songs he wrote. This is similar to Wot's Uh The Deal, but with no acoustic guitar and more of a focus on piano. Good drumming too, and nice lyrics.

Absolutely Curtains: A Saucerful of Secrets-like track, but definetly better. Mostly instrumental but with some form of chanting by Indians or something towards the end. As is said, it's that sort of track, so don't expect a great jam or anything, it's just an atmospheric peice, that, as Waters would say "Could mean just about anything" as in, you can envision any sort of picture to go with the song. The chanting later on is rather odd, and goes on a little too long.

So, this isn't essential Floyd but pretty damn close! In fact, it's a must for any hardcore Floyd fan and a possibility for a casual fan too. The only sub-par (below the usual quality for Floyd) songs are Free Four and Absolutely Curtains, and perhaps the first track too. It also shows some interesting changes from the usual such as: duets, shorter songs, wierd collaborations (such as Wright, Waters), a different sound, and the fact that this was recorded within one week for a film( like More).