MORE (OST)

Experimental albums like this and Ummagumma always suffer from the bad of being strongly underrated by the public. But one has to try to see the nuances of these special gems, and once they are showed, the listener will sure be more pleased and may have her/his opinion about the album changed to a more positive one.

This is the first soundtrack album recorded by PINK FLOYD, it was recorded in just one week at the same year their other experimental work Ummagumma was being made. It's very different from their other OST Obscured by Clouds, which is far more rock directioned and easily enjoyable by the mainstream audience. This, on the other hand, is a much tougher listen even for floydian fans since it is more based on instrumentation variety and various musical styles are combined altogether making this the more eccletic FLOYD album. We have here mellow songs like "Cirrus Minor", "Green in the Colour" and "Cymbaline" - all classics - which are very opposite to tracks like "Ibiza Bar" and "Nile Song", the two heavy metal sisters found here and looking awfully out of place. There's also the shorts "Spanish Piece" and "Party Sequence", a light joke by Dave that works much better than "Seamus" and a drum based track with somewhat of a jungle theme respectively. Both are fine songs that don't ruin the album but on their own are quite mediocre ones. We also have blues on the obviously named "More Blues", which it's quite a nice short piece with a nice guitar flow by Dave and some jazz on "Up the Khyber" that shows Rick and Nick in the spotlight and it is based on the second part of the "Saucerful of Secrets" mini-epic. "Crying Song" is very dreamy ballad and would be an excellent follower for "Cirrus Minor", were not the incovenient appearance of "Nile Song" on the way. The other three lasting instrumentals "Main Theme", "Quicksilver" and "Dramatic Theme" are all very grossly underrated. The first one is an amazing trip through Rick's synths and my favorite song from the album. The second is a new-agey track that perhaps goes too long but can still be a nice trip as well if you listen to it with an open mind. And the third is the album's closer, which is nothing special but not bad either.

By the way, on the movie version of "Cymbaline", we have some different lyrics:

Instead of...

"Will the tightrope reach the end? Will the final couplet rhyme?" -album's lyrics

...we have...

"Standing by with a book in his hand, It's an easy word to rhyme." -movie's lyrics

And in the movie version the vocals are done by Roger Wates instead of David Gilmour.

This album has its great moments. It's a soundtrack, yes, but it deserves some attention too. Sadly this is often overlooked and not appreciated as it should be (like Atom Heart Mother). On the other hand, it is not that special and it's much inferior to its predecessor, but we have to understand that PINK FLOYD was just borning and discovering their sound, mainly because they lost Syd Barrett who was the mastermind of the band on the debut. "Saucerful of Secrets" already proved that they could make a great job on the tracks without Syd, and "More" is already quite a huge accomplishment for a soundtrack album.