Obscured By Clouds (2011 - Remaster)

Firstly, this review concerned the 1994 digital remaster and it's packaging. I am not sure how this new cd is packaged but here is my original review from 2001...

This album was recorded and released between sessions for The Dark Side Of The Moon. If that makes it sound like it was a rushed job then you are mistaken. OBC was the second soundtrack provided for Barbet Schroeder. The first was More for the 1969 film More. Now Schroeder wanted music for his latest movie La Vallee (The Valley).

I personally love this 40 minute album. It is one of the most musical of any of the Floyd's albums. (For example The Final Cut had great lyrics but not such great tunes; and Meddle had great tunes but maybe some of the lyrics were weak). This welds both together to create an album that borders rock to soft rock. Much in the same way David Gilmour achieved on his 1978 stunning solo album David Gilmour (I also rated that 5*).

If you have only recently discovered Pink Floyd through the outstanding compilation Echoes then you will not be familiar with any of these titles. However, don't let that put you off purchasing this much underrated Floyd classic. To get a feel off what to expect musically then listen to Meddle (1971); particularly tracks 2,3,4. Or on Echoes the track Echoes for the style of singing and some of the sound. Some of that sound can be heard to on Dark Side Of The Moon (1973) too. There are a lot of us fans who do not understand why there are not any tracks for OBC on Echoes.

For me this album ranks very highly in the Floyd catalogue. It is a varied display of ballads (verging on love songs), moody and atmospheric pieces and all out rock instrumentals. The ten tracks are proper songs/tunes, with no over-the-top soloing, or weird sound montages (as found on More and Ummagumma). Wright's piano and keyboards are wonderfully light (almost comparing to his work on the Wish You Were Here album) and his voice sounds so young a relaxed (unlike on The Division Bell, 1994). Mason's drums are a pleasure to listen for and his trademark cymbal playing is a key feature of Childhood's End. Gilmour's guitar work is used to fuse the band as apposed to lead it from one of his solos, except on the opening track which rocks. Waters is the main lyricist and the themes are varied. Even touching on his father's death in WW2. He would later become obsessed (for lack of a better word) with this theme. This is set to a bouncy little tune called Free Four.

2011 update: The 1994 digital remaster edition is one of only a few Floyd albums to be better packaged in the CD format as opposed to the original vinyl. The 24 page booklet gives both lyrics and a synopsis of the movie and has several pictures from the film. The original vinyl had just the sleeve and a plain white dust jacket. There is a Japanese import available but I don't know how detailed it's packaging is. I do not know if the 2011 cardboard sleeve version is as detailed - be warned !!

Thanks for reading.

Probably the most underrated album in the Pink Floyd catalog. This is the one that came after 'Meddle' and before 'The Dark Side of the Moon'. In comparison to these two, 'Obscured by Clouds' was somewhat of a step backwards to the 'More' and 'Ummagumma' era, with hardly any easily identifiable signs to the masterpiece that was about to follow.

Even as a massive Pink Floyd fan, this was the album I discovered last in their discography. No one ever seems to talk about it or mention it in great details when covering the band's legacy. Indeed obscured, if not by clouds than definitely by Meddle and Dark Side. However, it is a fact that I still find myself listening to it quite a lot, more than any of their offerings from the 60's or 80's.

Most of the songs here are in a similar style to the 4-5 minutes long songs in 'Meddle' and 'Atom Heart Mother', just with a slightly different sound, and a more prominent electric guitar. But though you can say that all the songs are "small" or simple, with none of the grand features of Floyd, they are all, nevertheless, excellent.

Not even one track is out of place or weak. 'Absolutely Curtains' is a hidden classic, 'Childhood End' and 'The Gold Is In The...' are typically brilliant Gilmour rock stompers, while 'Stay' and 'Wot's... Uh The Deal' are two beautiful ballads. If anything, this album just suffers from bad titles (Wot's the deal?). Interestingly enough, it also features possibly the "driest" sound they ever made.

It is Pink Floyd's most humble record, but you're gonna to love it.

This is a strange one - it never appears in retrospectives of the band's work, being a soundtrack, but actually stands up well as an album in its own right.

The band certainly thought some of the tracks stood alongside the rest of their material - the two opening songs appear on several bootlegs and in fact are very much of the 'shine on' mode of stadium psychedelia.

Musically the album forms a natural bridge between 'Meddle' and DSOTM with the band learning to write shorter songs that don't descend into whimsy.