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Atom Heart Mother by: Pink Floyd

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Rating: - Pastoral bliss.

Atom Heart Mother is a fine album with a pleasant, nostalgic atmosphere and a crisp production.
The title track is perhaps a little overwrought, and stretches one's patience over a full 20 minutes. Leonard Bernstein fell asleep to this one and it's not hard to see why. The opening bars are interesting...Ron Geesin's dissonant brass arrangements lend a contemporary classical feel, as do the choral parts later on. It would work as a soundtrack piece, but it lacks any real development on the main theme to make it truly engaging listening experience. What it does do is establish a mood, that contributes to the overall mood of the album. "If" is bare in contrast, and is a fine piece of honest songwriting. "Summer '68" follows this marvellously. Glorious and nostalgic. "Fat Old Sun" is more curious..very Ray Davies. It closes with an Barrett-esque solo that fragments perfectly into the song's fade. "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" is for me the track that makes it. It contains three pieces of lazy pastoral bliss. The third seems to be a slight return of the title track, but is more optimistic.
Rick Wright's piano is gorgeous, especially as the coda takes shape. Gilmour joins in with some tentative jazz guitar. It's a low key ending, but it's kind of perfect. Listen to the album as a whole, but not too often. You will find yourself returning to it. It also makes a nice companion piece to "Barrett" by Syd. Both albums share the same production, and general vibe.

Rating: - Revisited

I don't usually read or write reviews as they drive me to distraction. Many people reviewing vintage albums and TV do so from today's perspective and miss the point entirely. I.e. 'Isn't that Monty Python great?!'. New fetishism.

I bought the vinyl of this when it first emerged and am now buying the CD having forgotten for 35 years what an influence both this album and Meddle had on a young teenage me.

I love it but would not recommend anyone new to Floyd to make it their first purchase, however, I have tended over the years to buy the 'in' stuff then look back at many bands beginnings and finally enjoy their earlier works more than the present days. Love this album or not it's part of why Floyd were so suvccessful - enjoy.

Hope I've not driven anyone to distraction by this review.

Rating: - Beuatifully Bonkers

I think that people judge this album a little too harshly in general. There are some interesting ideas on here and some rather lovely "proper" songs . It is very different from the later output so at the risk of offending anyone, it's not for the mullet and denim jacket floyd brigade in general, but I personally love it. Equal parts playful (Alan's pscyhedelic Breakfast) and lush (fat old sun) it serves as something of a curio in it's disjointed layout. Famously the band themselves have dismissed it as rubbish, but perhaps that has more to do with the fact that they are now in their 60's and, like anyone of advancing years, may be slightly embarrased about their more adventurous youthful experimentation. It is also David Gilmour's first really overt contribution to the Floyd sound. I can quite happily listen to this album from beginning to end which is not something you can say about many albums being churned out at the moment, and fat old sun never fails to put a smile on my face. In a word....interesting. Suck it and see.

Rating: - A curate's egg

Good in parts, that is.

Atom Heart Mother is one of those Floyd albums that tends to put people off, a bit like the studio half of Ummagumma.

I have to say that it was never a huge favourite but it does serve to show how they found a way out of the post Syd era and started their march to world domination (sort of).

It is easier now to re-evaluate as one can see how the ideas first tried here ended up as fully fledged trademarks on Meddle and DSOTM.

It is here that you first get introduced to the mellifluous David Gilmour guitar style which is so important to the mature Floyd soundscape.

It is also here that the writing gets away from the psychedelic noodling (which I adore, incidentally) of Saucerful of Secrets and Interstellar Overdrive and heads towards coherent thematic pieces, even though it is not fully realised yet.

An important album, but not as an introduction. Best bought after the real milestione albums, I'd say, but do buy it.

Rating: - Bonkers (and all the better for it)

Atom Heart Mother for me is a real curio amongst the Floyd back catalogue, and is one of those albums that, although far from perfect, is amazingly rich and varied and I still play it fairly regularly. From the sprawling title track (containing one of Gilmours finest guitar solo's) to the mellow but sinister 'If' ('please don't put your wires in my brain..') the gorgeous 'Fat Old Sun' and the franky bizarre 'Alans Psychedelic Breakfast'. This is an album that newcomers to Pink Floyd should approach with caution, but with perseverance you will be richly rewarded.

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