ATOM HEART MOTHER

I can't see Side 1 of this album as anything except a giant snorefest. The "Father's Shout" theme that shows up a couple of times may be impressive, but all of the endless noodling surrounding it just puts me to sleep: it's not intelligently written, it's not particularly well played, it doesn't set a mood at all, it just has no use existing as far as I'm concerned.

Side 2 is built around the same principle as disc 2 of Ummagumma, with each band member contributing their own song, but all except Richard Wright (whose "Summer 68" rocks a memorable chorus and some typical cute Wright vocals, and ranks as my favourite track on the album) lazied out on here as well. "If" and "Fat Old Sun" are both pretty unremarkable folk rock songs, and Nick Mason's "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" is just a total disgrace. It sure looks bombastic with its 12-minute running time and three-part structure but this is all pretension: the 'suite' consists of nothing but a roadie reciting some mundane and barely audible monologue while the band plays some incoherent and dreadfully primitive jams in the background. As a progressive rock fan, I usually resent accusations of "grandiosity for grandiosity's sake", but... here it is! The 'epic' nature of it all just hides the lack of real musical essence throughout the entire album.

It's all just rather awkward. The band doesn't really know how to make the experimental music of old anymore, and they no longer really want to make it either, but they're also not sure about what to do instead. I hesitate to call it a bad album since even the worst parts of it are at most just boring, but I'll never understand why it's so highly regarded.