This is an album I heard frequently during my teenage years, yet many felt it wasn't a 'proper Pink Floyd album', being a film soundtrack (La Vallée). Coming between Meddle and Dark Side Of The Moon, it sits right in the centre of what is, for me, the band's most interesting period.
Unlike many soundtrack albums, it stands up on its own, despite suggestions that it was very rushed Opening with two rocking guitar driven and very similar instrumentals (Obscured By Clouds and When You're In) there's a run of short songs, which stand up well alongside any of the shorter pieces in the Pink Floyd catalogue.
Burning Bridges is a languid piece, with a dreamy guitar middle section and some fine vocals from Richard Wright and Dave Gilmour, the The Gold, It's In The ... is a more traditional rock/blues song, to my ears one of the weaker ones, while Wot's Uh The Deal is a lively acoustic guitar/piano song drifting smoothly along, before the first half concludes with Mudmen an instrumental which revives the theme fro Burning Bridges.
Childhood's End opens up the second half, with a beating that would later appear in Time on Dark Side Of The Moon before moving into a mid paced, listenable but unremarkable rock song. Then Free Four, Roger Waters' only lead vocal on the album, a catchy, rolling little number on life and death, with some glorious guitar from Gilmour. The final song, Stay, is a Wright ballad and a beautiful end to the songs, the final track, Absolutely Curtains, being an instrumental, accompanying the chanting of the Mapuga tribe of New Guinea (where the film is set).
As mentioned, the album sits snugly between Meddle and Dark Side Of The Moon and it sounds like it. There isn't a bad track here, and there's a few which are up there with much of the band's best work.
4* - a great album, with several songs at the Pink Floyd peak
Comentários