Pink Floyd - More
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Free Music Notes for More
Free Music Review: More is a delicious piece of Pink Floyd's catolouge.
Hit: 4 Stars
Okay, in truth, the soundtrack to the film More is one more wonderful Pink Floyd album. Out of their many well-done studio albums (reaching into the 'teens) More is perhaps the least acknowledged of all. It doesn't have the cult status of their other film soundtrack, Obscured By Clouds, and it doesn't have the notoriety of Ummagumma, so this probably is the least known Pink Floyd album.
Despite what any may say against it, it's actually one of my favorite from Pink Floyd. I actually love all of their work, but this effort from them rivals the other excellent albums of that period such as A Saucerful of Secrets and Atom Heart Mother.
If what you're looking for is a very specific, structurally clear album of good songs, then this isn't the album for you. 'More' does in fact contain some incredible songs, but even the structured songs tend to have spacey sections before or after the main portion. But if you want a wonderful album, 'More' is worthy of consideration.
First of all look at the prime cuts from the album. "The Nile Song" and "Ibiza Bar" are essential Floyd tunes and both are as heavy as anything from the sixties - fine examples of proto-grunge or proto-metal. "Cirrus Minor" is a groovey Floyd tune that certainly fits in with the spacey-ness and 'out there' style of other classic Floyd songs. "Green Is The Colour" is a nice little acoustic song with beautiful high vocals. "Crying Song" is a charming bit of sorrow that contains the first mention of the classic Pink Floyd symbolism of "the stone" (also featured in Hey You and Dogs). "Cymbaline" is a haunting, wonderful, eerie song with a chorus that will be revisiting you later on due to its catchiness. The rest of the album is full of weird insturmentals and such - tribal party songs, strange guitar workouts, lots of organ and stuff. Not the most outwardly focusing songs ever, but they can be absolutely fantastic if you go about them the right way. Lay down in a comfortable spot and just listen to this stuff, or go out in the woods at night, get drunk and have a party with your friends while you listen to the album. There are plenty of ways to get the best out of those hypnotic tracks.
It's definetly a classic in my mind. Clearly not for everybody but for the ones that might be into this kind of thing I whole heartedly reccomend it. This isn't prog rock or hard rock or anything... it's Pink Floyd.
Free Music Review: More...of a Saucerful Of Secrets
Hit: 5 Stars
Have you listened to A Saucerful Of Secrets? Because if you have, you have had a free preview of MORE. Dramatic Theme=Let There Be More Light, Quicksilver=A Saucerful Of Secrets, and Main Theme is a combination of both. The Nile Song and Ibizia Bar have that hardrock edge to them resembling that of Corporal Clegg. But that does not mean that this album is not worth it...as you can see, I gave it f stars. And because I am such an expert (I mean that sarcastically), that means alot. It's a very cool, easy going (most of the time) album. I wish there were more "musicalish" instrumentals like in Obscured By Clouds. Most of them on this album are very percussion focused, but I guess that's cool. Anyways, it's one of my favorites. I like to think of it as More...of A Saucerful Of Secrets. Right.Free Music Review: Pink Floyd's "More": their best album immediately after Syd?
Hit: 5 Stars
"More" is one of Pink Floyd's most underrated and undocumented albums. On the first side, the album showcased a songwriting upsurge, albeit relatively small and sometimes understated, after the creative trauma and chaos that the departure of original singer and guitarist Syd Barrett had caused. The second side showed that, if anything, Pink Floyd's soundscaping talent - simultaneously more improvisational and more calculated than one might think - was evolving in a new direction, because of the slow, yet unmistakable, descent of a darker, colder, and more threatening artistic vision that would start truly driving the band in 1973. In 1969, however, Pink Floyd were still very much trying to prove that they could make a decent album without Syd Barrett. With "More," a film soundtrack for French director Barbet Schroeder, they succeeded well - the album cracked the Top 10 in Britain at the time of its release, and its' tie-in with the movie "More" in France led to the group's future European success - but, ironically, the soundtrack is now the least-studied album Pink Floyd made.
The album starts with "Cirrus Minor," a soft song that begins with Roger Waters' birdsong tapes. Slowly, the birds' quiet chirping gets louder, then maintains a steady, unobtrusive volume as David Gilmour's acoustic guitar and lead vocal slowly fades in, along with Rick Wright's Farfisa organ. The lyrics are inscrutable, but do provide interesting images as Gilmour is gradually reverbed into nothingness, leaving Wright's vibrato Farfisa organ and new, icy Hammond organ to take up the burden of the rest of the song. It's almost purely mood music, but if there was ever a band that was made to perform fascinating and truly atmospheric compositions, it was this one, and "Cirrus Minor" is one of Pink Floyd's best early ballads. Gilmour, Waters, and Mason (no Wright to be heard) come roaring back, shattering the mood created, with the, um, "rocking", heavily distorted "The Nile Song." The lyrics are so bad that they're actually funny, and there is a huge sense of fun within the proceedings: clearly, it's a joke on hard rock, or more precisely, late-'60's psychedelic hard rock, but it's a good joke, to be sure: it thuds along with all the subtlety of the local middle-school brontosaurus. "Crying Song" immediately recaptures the mood of "Cirrus Minor," due to Rick Wright's delicate vibraphone and the dual acoustic guitars of Gilmour and Waters (no bass here), fading on a double-tracked, harmonized slide guitar solo. "Up The Khyber" is a completely different proposition: the first of the instrumentals, it shows a welcome, free-jazz influence, with a strange, thrashing drumbeat, minimal, palm-muted bass, clanging and dissonant piano, snakecharmer Farfisa organ, and inimitable, echoing tape effects, this time courtesy of Gilmour. It fades with the sound of the tape disorientingly thrown into fast-forward; a fascinating effort. The acoustic-based "Green Is The Colour" is impossibly light: nearly too light. The song sounds as if it's about to blow away at any second. Gilmour's lead vocal is incredibly high-pitched, and he never entered into this range again; a good thing, because he has trouble maintaining such high notes. The song is very melodic, though, and Rick Wright's piano solo at the end is very intelligently performed. "Cymbaline" is another early Pink Floyd classic. With very good metaphorical lyrics about drug paranoia, it, too, is based on acoustic guitars. This song is also dominated at the end by Rick Wright's organs. Only solitary congas keep time; Wright's keyboards provide a kind of quietus in of themselves. The side ends with the minute-long conga instrumental "Party Sequence." It's nice to listen to, but nothing important.
"Main Theme" begins the second side. It is an instrumental. Waters begins affairs with the sustained, majestic ring of a massive gong; Wright fades in around the rolling gong with snippets of Farfisa organ. Then the song picks up a lot of drive when Mason enters and Waters abandons his gong for his bass guitar, here relatively fluid and sustained; Gilmour adds slide guitar trappings. "Ibiza Bar" follows and is the sister rocker to "The Nile Song." It's not as funny when the joke's repeated twice, but Rick Wright's overdriven Farfisa organ adds color, and his crunching piano gives the song a heavier rhythmic drive than "The Nile Song" has. "More Blues" has a ton of reverb, and Nick Mason's drums stop and start almost at random; it's a very interesting effect, and it's also interesting to note that Wright's Farfisa organ is largely buried beneath the reverb utilized for the track. "Quicksilver" is a massively ambient track that sounds influenced by contemporary Krautrock; the track also seems to have influenced Krautrockers Ash Ra Tempel on one of their massive ambient epics. Vibraphone melodies rise and fall away and Wright's Farfisa organ picks up, fades back, strains for oxygen, and slips away. A mesmerizing listen, "Quicksilver" is as chilled out as Pink Floyd ever got. "A Spanish Piece" is good for a laugh, as Gilmour churns out a completely lame Spanish-guitar skit. "Dramatic Theme" ends the proceedings on a high note. A recasting of "Main Theme," this version starts with Waters' brilliant bass line (even though they'd used the melody earlier, it's far better in this context) and Mason's almost-jazz drumming. Gilmour dominates, and ends the album on a echoed-out blast of sun-kissed guitar; the effect is nearly magical.
All in all, this is actually one of Pink Floyd's best albums, and really not one to miss out on. It's a cult favorite among many Floydians, and really one to give more than a cursory listen to.
Free Music Review: Not an Album for Beginners
Hit: 3 Stars
If I had to pick, I would have to say that this is probably my least favorite Pink Floyd album. It is an incredibly languid (almost stagnant in spots), disjointed, half-hearted effort that never quite takes off. At least that's how I'd remembered it. Yes it had been awhile, but I decided to break out the CD again before writing this review. I must admit, I'm glad I did, because it's better than I'd remembered.
To properly assess this recording, a few things should be considered. First, Pink Floyd was still very much a band in search of its sound. To say that More was "kind of experimental" is like saying Dark Side Of The Moon was "kind of successful". Second, this was the band's first effort at composing a full film score, and by all accounts it wasn't a major picnic. This was due in large part to the supervision of director Barbet Schroeder. Third, the entire record was written and recorded in eight days. Even for an immensely talented band like Pink Floyd, this is hardly an ideal timeframe to create. Finally, unlike soundtracks of today where hits of established pop successes are merely compiled together to generate maximum revenue, the Floyd were composing directly to scenes in the movie (ie; moody sounds and incidental music). The result is that there are as many bizarre fragmented moments as there are actual songs.
Considering all the above, one would likely expect a seriously flawed effort. However, despite all the failings of this record, the band managed to capture several moments of kaleidoscopic beauty. Songs range from the gentle acoustic breeze of Green Is The Color to the pounding rock of The Nile Song (and its evil twin, Ibiza Bar). In between there lies oddities of every sort, including a slight taste of blues; a touch of flamenco guitar (complete with comical "drunken Spaniard" ramblings); and the dark musings of Cymbaline (a song that would become a staple of their stage act for the next couple years). The tracks I find most interesting, however, are the three instrumentals: Main Theme, Quicksilver, and Dramatic Theme. Each are strange moody pieces that depend heavily on Rick Wright's keyboard excursions. Percussion, bass, slide guitar, and various instrumental sounds (along with the intelligent use of panning in the mix) round out the sonic picture. What is created in each is a FEEL, if not quite a substantial song. What intrigues me most about them is that you can see where the band was headed. The songs are glimpses of Pink Floyd working towards their sound; something they will find in two years with the spectacular Meddle album. Perhaps not works of genius, but certainly works of curiosity.
More is not a masterpiece. Nor is it a flop. It is merely a snapshot in time of a young band pushing their creative envelope on their way to musical greatness. Like all of their work, how you rate More depends largely on which facet of Pink Floyd you love most. Fans of the Barrett-led Floyd, who plunged the band into the unshakable image of trippy psychedelia, will probably enjoy it. Fans of what Pink Floyd became - soaring guitar solos, melodic music, and high concepts - will likely be disappointed. This is NOT an album for the beginner. If you are just a casual fan, I would suggest passing this up. An understanding of what Pink Floyd was all about and what they were trying to accomplish will probably allow you to appreciate it most. Start with The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, and then move on to A Saucerful Of Secrets. If you find yourself eager to hear more, move on to this album. You may find that it has a pleasant surprise or two waiting for you.
Free Music Review: Pink Floyd - 'More' (Capitol)
Hit: 4 Stars
I give this one a 4 1/2 star rating.Originally released in 1969 as 'More' was the band's third record.Nearly as good as both their earlier efforts,'A Piper At The Gates...' or 'Saucerful Of Secrets'(see my reviews of both).'More' served as a soundtrack to the French movie by the same name.Heard that the lp did quite well when it first came out.The mind-trippin' tunes here include "The Nile Song"(probably Floyd's heaviest song ever),"Cymbaline",the bluesy-psych "Ibiza Bar" and "More Blues".Some folk rock-like cuts they did are "Crying Song","Green Is The Colour" and the oddity "Cirrus Minor".A true keeper.Highly recommended.