Pink Floyd’s ambitious fifth album, Atom Heart Mother, was the group’s first U.K. chart-topper but not much of a hit with some critics—or with the band itself. Guitarist David Gilmour, for example, once called the October 1970 LP “a load of rubbish,” and the group’s other members have spoken similarly.
To these ears, though, Atom Heart Mother and Pink Floyd’s other early efforts, such as Ummagumma and Meddle, have always been even more interesting than the excellent, more widely accessible music that followed on LPs like The Dark Side of the Moon and Animals. You have a fresh opportunity to decide whether you agree with that assessment, thanks to a two-disc special edition of Atom Heart Mother that first appeared in Japan in 2021 and has received a December 2023 reissue elsewhere.
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The first disc consists of a 2021 remaster of the original record, whose adventurous, six-part, 24-minute instrumental title cut can be seen as a predecessor to Meddle’s “Echoes.” It features lots of tempo changes and meanders—some would say aimlessly, others would say fascinatingly—before building to a dramatic climax that features a brass ensemble and a choir. That’s followed by three relatively brief and more conventional but well-crafted numbers: Roger Waters’ folky, lyrically rich “If”; Rick Wright’s trumpet-spiced “Summer ’68”; and Gilmour’s dreamy, leisurely paced “Fat Old Sun.”
All three of these songs sound almost like solo efforts by their composers and the last of them practically is, as Gilmour not only provides the vocals but plays all the instruments except the organ.
The program concludes with “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast,” a 13-minute, mostly instrumental opus credited to all four members of the group. Though decidedly a product of the LSD era, it delivers more than a few musical moments that still hit their mark, plus the sounds of road manager Alan Styles preparing and eating his morning meal and then declaring “My head’s a blank” as the track fades out.
The remastered audio is fine but not a huge improvement on the original record. Disc two of the new edition is a notable plus, however: it’s a Blu-ray that features a dynamic August 1971 live performance of the title track (sans brass ensemble and choir) at Hakone Aphrodite, an outdoor Japanese music festival. Previously available in the U.S. only via Pink Floyd’s pricey Early Years boxed set, the 16-minute video is good enough to make you wish “Atom Heart Mother” weren’t the only one of the six numbers from the show that has survived on film.
Also featured in the new package are a forgettable three-minute bonus video with images from the festival; a 60-page photo book; and replicas of memorabilia from the show, including a poster, an admission ticket, a pamphlet and a map of the venue. Fans will probably enjoy looking at these items once or twice, but the treasures here are the original album and the “Atom Heart Mother” concert video.
