Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother
Aug 27, 2019 (updated Jan 18, 2020)
100
Even if Waters, Wright and Gilmour claim to abhor this record, (And based in that score, the critics seem to agree with them...) In my eyes, Atom Heart Mother is Pink Floyd's most underestimated and underrated album; it's not only an amazing album, but it is also one of my biggest personal favorites and it's one that I consider a masterpiece. It is a project that perfectly balances early Floyd's psychedelia and experimentation, with their later most progressive and more epic, culminating pieces. Starting with a magnificent 24-minute piece, the Cow album presents one of Floyd's most complex, well-textured, and other-worldly compositions in their whole catalogue. Pink Floyd brought something that they never did again on their later works, they merged an orchestra, a full-chorus, and their early psychedelic and trippy sound and made with it an outstanding piece that I consider to be one of the band's greatest achievements.
The album continues with more vastly short separated compositions made by each member of the band, something like the concept that they tried to pull out on Ummagumma, but without the experimentation; these tracks orbit around the sound of more simplistic, folky pieces but without losing the psychedelic aspect. And most importantly, they present each member doing their best with as much little as they can; "If" is a wonderfully written track and one of Waters songwriting peaks, with one of his most vastly introspective and heartbreaking lines, referencing the events that were surrounding the band for years since Barrett's departure ("If I go insane, would you still let me join on the game?"); "Summer '68", written and mostly composed by Wright is a melancholic and nostalgic piece that evokes the memory of the good old times of someones life, accompanied by his piano and keyboards arrangements, along with Waters' essential basslines; "Fat Old Sun" is Gilmour's contribution and the last passage before the ending, and it is a song almost completely composed and conceived by him. Thematically, it works as a continuation to the previous track, but with more of a blues approach with little touches of folk and rock. Gilmour's vocal performance is absolutely touching and blissful, along with his heartwarming guitar solos and his surprising drumming made of this a meditating, and beautiful moment in the whole length of the record.
And finishing, we have another genius piece. "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" is definitely the most confusing moment in the whole album on first listens; it actually took me a while to realize how much of a wonderful piece it is. Basically the name says everything, the track is a recording of a dude enjoying his breakfast while a psychedelic rock instrumentation plays. And why is it genius? Because of how the band manage to conceive such a bizarre concept that ended up being one of their most beautiful, peaceful and rewarding pieces. This track feels like the end of the journey, a psychedelic, melancholic journey full of beautiful memories; it's the perfect close to an album that with it's already trippy premise, it manages to evoke so many different feelings in the listener during it's whole duration, just like this track does on it's own. The instrumental bits on the song are some of the most magnificent and weirdly touching moments in this whole album, basically, this song achieves to melt your heart while you listen to a dude gagging with his toasts. If that's not genius, then I don't know what it is...
Concluding, Atom Heart Mother is a masterpiece. It is Pink Floyd's most oddly immersive and affecting work, and it's a record that I find impossible not to fall in love with, even with all the unfair hate and disregard that this album gets, I still find it to be one of the most unique albums I've heard, not only in the Floyd's catalogue, but in general.
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