Pink Floyd
Atom Heart Mother

Capitol    CDP 7 46381 2  (1970)
Recording Date   August 1970

Rock/Pop
CD, 5   Tracks, 51:59  Length
01 Atom Heart Mother Suite Ron Geesin; David Gilmour; Nick Mason; Roger Waters; Richard Wright 23:39
a. Father's Shout
b. Breast Milky
c. Mother Fore
d. Funky Dung
e. Mind Your Thoats Please
f. Remergence
02 If Roger Waters 04:30
03 Summer '68 Richard Wright 05:28
04 Fat Old Sun David Gilmour 05:23
05 Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast David Gilmour; Nick Mason; Roger Waters; Richard Wright 12:59
a. Rise And Shine
b. Sunny Side Up
c. Morning Glory
Music Details
Product Details
Packaging Jewel Case
Spars DDD
Sound Stereo
Musicians  &  Credits
Bass Roger Waters
Guitar David Gilmour
Drums Nick Mason
Keyboards Richard Wright
Musician Pink Floyd
Producer Pink Floyd
Engineer Alan Parsons; Peter Brown
Personal Details
Index # 2493
Owner Dave
Tags Psychedelic Rock, Prog Rock, Symphonic Rock
User Defined
Purchased New
Notes
Appearing after the sprawling, unfocused double-album set Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother may boast more focus, even a concept, yet that doesn't mean it's more accessible. If anything, this is the most impenetrable album Pink Floyd released while on Harvest, which also makes it one of the most interesting of the era. Still, it may be an acquired taste even for fans, especially since it kicks off with a side-long, 23-minute extended orchestral piece that may not seem to head anywhere, but is often intriguing, more in what it suggests than what it achieves. Then, on the second side, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Rick Wright have a song apiece, winding up with the group composition "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" wrapping it up. Of these, Waters begins developing the voice that made him the group's lead songwriter during their classic era with "If," while Wright has an appealingly mannered, very English psychedelic fantasia on "Summer 68," and Gilmour's "Fat Old Sun" meanders quietly before ending with a guitar workout that leaves no impression. "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast," the 12-minute opus that ends the album, does the same thing, floating for several minutes before ending on a drawn-out jam that finally gets the piece moving. So, there are interesting moments scattered throughout the record, and the work that initially seems so impenetrable winds up being Atom Heart Mother's strongest moment. That it lasts an entire side illustrates that Pink Floyd was getting better with the larger picture instead of the details, since the second side just winds up falling off the tracks, no matter how many good moments there are. This lack of focus means Atom Heart Mother will largely be for cultists, but its unevenness means there's also a lot to cherish here. -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

Believe it or not, the, er, suite on the first side is easier to take than the, gawd, songs on the second. Yeah, they do leave the singing to an anonymous semi-classical chorus, and yeah, they probably did get the horns for the fanfares at the same hiring hall. But at least the suite provides a few of the hypnotic melodies that made Ummagumma such an admirable record to fall asleep to. D+ -- Robert Christgau