ATOM HEART MOTHER

I have a book written by Miles called "Pink Floyd" (Omnibus Press, 1988). In this book there are fragments of inteviews with some of the members of the band about their opinion about this album. Some of the members said : "That album was crap...". I couldn`t believe their opinion about this album. The same happened to me when I read an interview done with Tears for Fears `bassist Curt Smith. He was asked about his first solo album, called "Soul On Board" (1993). He said: "That album was a compromise with the record label, I don`t like it, and I don`t expect that people are going to listen to it... don`t bother to find it in the record shops and to listen to it...it doesn`t represent me as an artist". With both Pink Floyd and Curt Smith I disagree: both albums are good.

In the case of "Atom Heart Mother", Side One of the old L.P. has the "Atom Heart Mother" musical piece, which has interesting arrangements, including an orchestra and a choir, "The John Aldiss Choir". I was surprised recently when I discovered that some of my late father`s albums in his long Classical Music record collection include this choir in works of several composers. The orchestral arrangements were composed by the band with Ron Geessin, who previously worked with Roger Waters in an album called "The Body". Rick Wright particularly worked more with Geesin in these arrangements. I can`t see why the band despise this musical piece, I think that it was unfair. Some choral arrangements are similar to some parts of Carl Orff`s "Carmina Burana" a bit.

Side Two of the old L.P. starts with "If", a song composed by Waters, which has acoustic guitar, a bit of drums, a bit of keyboards, a slide guitar solo and very good lyrics. The next song is "Summer of `68", composed by Wright, is the best song in this album and also has a very good orchestral arrangement. It also has good lyrics which seems to be about waking up after spending the night with a groupie. The next song, "Fat Old Sun", composed by Gilmour, is another good song. The album is finished with "Alan`s Psychedelic Breakfast", an experimental instrumental piece with sound effects added, which is the less interesting song in the album.

What rating can one give to albums like this which are not liked by their composers? I could give a four star rating, but, after reading their opinions about this album, I give a three star rating to it.