October 2, 1970 - Atom Heart Mother

About a year after "Ummagumma", Pink Floyd released their fifth album on October 2, 1970, titled "Atom Heart Mother". They return to a more normal writing style with all members writing and performing together, including the near 24-minute title track that takes up all of side 1. Ron Geesin gets a rare outside writing credit for composing the orchestral arrangements in the title track, which also features a choir. Let's listen!

Side 1 begins and ends with "Atom Heart Mother". It's separated into six sections, and aside from the choir, is entirely instrumental. Pink Floyd are the first band that I have in my library to not just have a song over 20 minutes, but to have several different sections that are so well written that you don't even notice the changes unless you're really looking for them. It begins with the orchestra and they sound wonderful, I always love when an orchestra is incorporated into rock music. After a little over a minute the band joins the orchestra and we even bear some explosions and motor revving effects. This segues into the second part which has Richard Wright on synthesizer and some great violin. The synths speed up and ascend in three-note scales that sound very cool and there's also some trippy guitar by David Gilmour. Horns and piano also join the mix which moves into the third part. We hear some slow organ and the first appearance of the John Alldis Choir. It's just one or two people at first, and they sound very eerie, but a bunch more voices join in as well as some cool drum fills by Nick Mason. The fourth part is led by another cool organ bit and a great bass riff from Roger Waters. Gilmour takes the lead on guitar and this part is my favourite with an amazing bit with both guitar and organ. They both are doing their own thing, but sound incredible together. The guitar fades away and we hear Wright on both organ and piano backing some very weird wordless vocals. After, the orchestra rejoins and they briefly revisit the first section. The fifth part features some trippy organ going back and forth between high and low, and some more strange wordless vocals; almost howls, and this is done by a choir! This part clearly sounds like a Waters idea and is very psychedelic with organ and other noises. The sixth and final part starts with tape loops of all the previous parts in a sort of medley. They start various little snippets from the song at several different times to give a very trippy effect. They throwback to the first and the second part before starting a cool new bit with the orchestra and Gilmour's guitar. The choir returns for a grand finale and it truly sounds like the end of an epic score. A fantastic near 24-minute song that shows why Pink Floyd are the first real kings of progressive rock.

Side 2 begins with "If", written and sung by Waters. He also plays acoustic guitar and it is just that and his singing that opens the song. It's very soft for the first bit, but Gilmour joins on slide guitar and plays a drone-y riff while Waters backs him on bass. Wright joins the party on piano from the third verse on, and it's a very pretty well-written song. Track 3 is written and sung by Wright, titled "Summer '68". It opens with Wright on piano and singing some doo-da-doo wordless vocals. He sings normally in the first verse, but it soon transitions to a faster piano part where he returns to a scat-style singing. The orchestra from the title track makes another appearance, including a wicked trumpet solo. We hear Gilmour on acoustic guitar and some great piano by Wright. The orchestra even helps play out the song. The next song is written and sung by Gilmour, named "Fat Old Sun". It begins with slow acoustic guitar and some sappy singing by Gilmour. There are some trippy keyboards by Wright in the background of the chorus. After another verse and chorus we get an electric guitar solo by Gilmour and the rest of the song has no lyrics. It does have some cool stuff from everyone to keep you interested. I like keeping the idea of each member writing a song from the last album, but on this one the whole band gets to help make it, not just the writer, which I think is a better approach with so many talented musicians in the band. The last song on the record is the 13-minute "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast", which has speaking from Alan Styles, a friend of the band's. It starts with the dripping of a faucet and we hear Styles enter the room. He begins listing all the different breakfast foods he likes in a rather funny British manner. We hear the genuine noises of him preparing for breakfast, such as creaking of cupboards, jars being opened, doors being shut. We hear our first bit of music from the band as we hear guitar from Gilmour and some cool piano by Wright. He also throws in an organ part that plays it's own thing separate from everyone else, but the piano continues to shine. We're back to Alan's breakfast as we hear the first sizzles of a frying pan and the pouring, stirring and gulping of coffee. An acoustic bit begins over the sizzling and we hear a great little section with two guitar parts at once. Back in the kitchen, we hear the full popping and sizzling of bacon and some more ramblings by Styles. Wright plays some slow organ, which builds into a cool piano riff as well as some cool drumming by Mason. Wright again combines the piano and organ and they sound fantastic together. We return to the kitchen for the last time as we hear Styles say "my head's a blank" followed by a series of bangs. It ends with a drain emptying and again the drip of the faucet, it was made this way so on record players the drip would catch in the groove and play forever. A very psychedelic, pretty cool song. Only Pink Floyd could think up something like this.

That is the end of "Atom Heart Mother". I thought it was a fantastic album, with the title track being a well-crafted 24-minute adventure and side 2 also having lots of different, great stuff. So how does it compare to their previous 4 albums? I think it is most certainly better than "More" and "Piper" and I would say "Saucerful" as well. Their last album "Ummagumma" has a wonderful live disc, but I think the the studio disc is definitely not up to the stuff on "Atom Heart Mother" and so I believe this newest album to be their best one yet. Pink Floyd just keep getting better, and I hope that trend continues. My next release came out the same week as this one, hardly a wait at all!