Welcome back to my Pink Floyd Discography Review. Last time we looked at their psychedelic 60s output and now it's time for the 70s with some of the most famous albums ever.
Atom Heart Mother
Released in 1970, Atom Heart Mother features a lot of orchestral elements. It features two very long tracks that bookend the album along with 3 other shorter tracks. The title track is quite epic, considering it is over 20 minutes long. It has an orchestra, choirs, synths. It has everything. There are a lot of distinct sections that flow together and it makes for a great experience. If is another great track, it's very subdued and features some great acoustic guitars and solos. Unfortunately I am not a fan of Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, it's just a bit bland and features too many spoken word/not musical sections for me. It's just a bit naff. The album is good overall but nothing really special.
7/10
Meddle
Meddle (1971) is a transition album between the psychedelic-influenced Syd Barrett era (and the era immediately after his departure) and the Roger Waters prog rock concept album era. The opening track One of These Days is Pink Floyd's rockiest song yet. The driving riff heard throughout the buildup is awesome and when the electronic guitars come in just before halfway it gets very exciting. It's very riff-driven but also has a fantastic atmosphere. David Gilmour is fantastic on the guitar in this song, It's a highlight of early Pink Floyd. The final track Echoes is also incredible. It sounds almost like proto-post-rock. Layers fade in and out as it rises and falls. It has an amazing atmosphere in the second half and everyone's instrumentation is great. It doesn't quite reach 10/10 status for me personally but it's something special for sure. Unfortunately, aside from these two songs and Fearless, the rest of the album isn't that great. San Tropez and Seamus especially are pretty bland and just a bit naff. Different to both what has come before and what comes next, Meddle is a truly unique Pink Floyd album and one definitely worth checking out (if not just for the bookend songs!).
8/10
The Dark Side of the Moon
One of the most popular and well known albums of all time, The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) is considered by many to be Pink Floyd's opus and even the best album of all time! Wow! Is it that good? It isn't in my opinion, but it is still for sure a fantastic album and has many incredible songs. The overall song quality isn't quite incredible enough for me to give it such intense praise. I do adore how each song flows into each other on each side though, it's a genius move and makes the whole album feel so cohesive.
On The Run is by far the weakest song on the album, just a bunch of energetic and slightly suspenseful synths. It's decent and works fine but compared to a lot of the rest of the album it's very weak (It's also too long). Thankfully after On the Run we get Time which is an absolute masterpiece. The opening, featuring echoing and haunting drums combining with the spacious guitar is fantastic and gives way to the fantastic 'proper' song. "You missed the starting gun" going into a solo is brilliant. I love this song so much. The Great Gig in the Sky, Money, Us and Them and Brian Damage are all fantastic too.
9/10
Wish You Were Here
Wish You Were Here (1975) is my favourite Pink Floyd album. 3 of the 5 songs are masterpieces and only 1 is slightly disappointing. If Welcome to the Machine was better, this album would be one of my absolute favourites of all time. As it stands it is very close but just barely misses out [EDIT: It's a 10/10 album, Welcome to the Machine is only a slight blip]. Shine On You Crazy Diamond and the title track are incredible and I just really don't know what to say about them, they're just so so good. Shine On You Crazy Diamond was inspired by Syd Barrett who actually visited the studio during the recording of this album but he looked so different due to his drug abuse and mental illness that the band didn't recognize him at first. Whish You Were Here is a beautifully melancholic album and Shine On You Crazy Diamond is a glorious tribute to Syd Barrett. This album is so so close to being a masterpiece ("We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year").
9/10[EDIT: 10/10!]
Animals
Animals (1977) is another fantastic prog rock album by Pink Floyd featuring only 3 proper songs named after animals (it is book ended by very short pieces). Dogs, the longest one, is my favourite of the bunch as it builds up brilliantly and features great performances from everyone. I find these songs a bit hard to dig into because they're so long but they're all pretty fantastic. Great riffs throughout, great album.
9/10
The Wall
(From what I've heard) at the time of The Wall (1979), Roger Waters was becoming increasingly in control of the band and the writing of the songs and apparently The Wall was 'his story', if you will. The album is fine, really. It has some fantastic songs (Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 1 and Comfortably Numb) and a really great eerie atmosphere but the overall song quality is just...good. And also it's soooooooooooooo loooooooooong. It does not need to be so long. It's a good album but a bit disappointing comparatively.
7/10
Pink Floyd in the 70s (especially the mid 70s) was a force to be reckoned with the TDSOTM - WYWH - Animals run particularly impressive. Join me next time where we take a look at the 4 remaining Pink Floyd albums.
Thanks for reading!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://www.atomcollectorrecords.com/blog/2019/08/04/pink-floyd-discography-review-part-2-the-70s/