Album: Atom Heart Mother
Year Released: 1970
Lineup:
Pink Floyd
- David Gilmour – electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 5), slide guitar (1, 2), pedal steel guitar (4, 5), acoustic guitar (3–5), bass and drums (4), vocals (4)
- Nick Mason – drums (1–3, 5), percussion (1, 3, 5), sound effects (1, 5)
- Roger Waters – bass (1–3, 5), acoustic guitar (2), vocals (2), sound effects (1, 5)
- Richard Wright – piano (1–3, 5), Farfisa organ (1, 4), Hammond organ (1–5), Mellotron (1), vocals (3)
Additional musicians
- EMI Pops Orchestra – brass and orchestral sections (uncredited)[12]
- Hafliði Hallgrímsson – cello (1) (uncredited)[70]
- John Alldis Choir – choir (1)
- Alan Styles – voice and sound effects (5) (uncredited)
Production
- Ron Geesin – orchestration and co-composition (1) (uncredited)[71]
- Peter Bown – engineering
- Alan Parsons – engineering (misspelled as "Allan Parsons" on the original sleeve)[72]
- Doug Sax, James Guthrie – 1994 remastering at The Mastering Lab, L.A.[73]
- James Guthrie, Joel Plante – 2011 remastering at das boot recording[74]
Track Listing:
Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Atom Heart Mother" 23:44
Total length: 23:44
Side two
No. Title Length
2. "If" 4:31
3. "Summer '68" 5:29
4. "Fat Old Sun" 5:22
5. "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" 13:00
Total length: 28:22
Album Length: 52:06
Overall Thoughts:
The fifth album by Pink Floyd is broken into two halves. The first half, the title track 'Atom Heart Mother', is a single song taking up the entire side of the record. It has an 'everything and the kitchen sink' feeling about it- it's a progressive rock instrumental with orchestral backing. You do hear the journey that Pink Floyd is making from mere meandering music, but they still haven't found their focus yet. It's not tedious- musically, the group remains excellent. But it's a 23 minute instrumental that would be better if it was half the time.
The second half of the album is four songs. The first three are written by different members of the group. Waters composed "If", Wright wrote "Summer '68", and Gilmour was behind "Fat Old Sun". "If" is the first (of many) song Waters writes about mental illness. "Summer '68" is about a one night stand with a groupie (and makes the protagonist out to be an ass). "Fat Old Sun" is a song about the countryside, and might have been cleaner if it was just an acoustic guitar song without any other instruments.
The final song is "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast"- and the album falls off a cliff here. Pink Floyd has always added unusuaul sound effects to their music- but hearing close up of someone eating breakfast and drinking coffee is nauseating and unpleasant. I hate hate HATE it. The rest of the album is mediocre- but the final song is such utter shit that it makes it the worst album that the band has created.
Ranking of Pink Floyd Albums (adding as more albums are reviewed):
- A Saucerful of Secrets
- Ummagumma
- More
- Piper at the Gates of Dawn
- Atom Heart Mother
Top 10 Pink Floyd Songs (changing as more albums are reviewed):
- "Let There Be More Light", A Saucerful of Secrets
- "Set The Controls For the Heart of the Sun", A Saucerful of Secrets
- "Remember A Day", A Saucerful of Secrets
- "Cirrus Minor", More
- "Flaming", A Piper At the Gates of Dawn
- "Astronomy Dominé", A Piper At the Gates of Dawn
- "A Saucerful of Secrets", A Saucerful of Secrets
- "The Narrow Way", Ummagumma
- "Crying Song", More
- "If", Atom Heart Mother
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