Pink Floyd: Obscured By Clouds

Obscured By Clouds

Best song: Stay

Worst song: Absolutely Curtains

Overall grade: 4

Pink Floyd’s last attempt at a film soundtrack went swimmingly. Apart from the fact that they completely fell out with the film’s director and so released this album as something that, officially, had nothing to do with the film. Clearly assuming that anyone who then saw the actual film, ‘La Vallee’, would assume its use of exactly the same songs was a coincidence. Luckily, this never had to be an issue, because the people in charge actually changed the film’s title (or gave it an extra title) to fit in with the album. So as you can see, the band had plenty of experience of petty disagreements before they started their own war in the 80s.

That’s a bit of a history lesson, but it’s got nothing to do with the album really. What is interesting about this one is that it was written essentially in tandem with their artistic and commercial breakthrough ‘Dark Side of the Moon’. That particular piece was already in its early stages of development when the band were approached and asked to score something for Barbet Schroeder. Consequently, the whole thing reads like an outtakes and demos collection from ‘Dark Side’.

I imagine that for someone who worships ‘Dark Side’ and thinks every record should sound like it, this would be an absolute gem. For me, it’s a definite poor relation. Some of the ‘Clouds’ songs exactly correlate with those on ‘Dark Side’ a year later. The most blatant is ‘Childhood’s End’ in its ripoff of ‘Time’: the theme and structure of the lyrics are identical, the main melody is kind of similar, and at the beginning there’s what is basically ticking – a clear equivalent of the chiming clocks on the other song. ‘Burning Bridges’ is also the exact equal of ‘Breathe’ in its soft edged vocals and mellow atmosphere, and out of context I think I’d find it challenging to tell their openings apart. Lastly, ‘The Gold It’s In The…’ can only be ‘Money’, the token rocker. They still don’t seem all that comfortable with the style, but they’re getting better at hiding that fact, which must count for something.

Aside from those three, the other songs don’t have obvious counterparts, but all bar one would have seemed right at home on ‘Dark Side’. You could probably create a playlist that structures them into a double album if you’re a person who doesn’t think messing with the running order of ‘Dark Side’ is sacrilege (so not me then.) The one song that would feel out of place is ‘Free Four’, which is almost a throwback to the more lighthearted side of Syd Barrett musically, with a bouncy rhythm and a carefree demeanour, even during lines like ‘You are the angel of death’.

The two other vocal tracks are ‘Wot’s… Uh, The Deal?’, a Gilmour dominated affair that happens to be one of his favourites. I can’t argue with that. It has lots of guitars and his trademark soothing vocals and a very pleasant instrumental break in the middle, but is removed from easy-listening territory by the dark quality of Waters’ lyrics. ‘Stay’ is my absolute favourite. It gets the strongest emotional reaction from me out of anything on this album; I can just feel the yearning in that opening section. The brightly-coloured lyrics are very evocative and though nobody mentions is when discussing best Gilmour guitar solos, I can’t get enough of his wah-wah solo on this song.

To round out the album we have a handful of instrumentals. ‘Obscured By Clouds’ is very Floyd; some weird distorted guitars over an atmospheric backing, can’t really go wrong. ‘When You’re In’ has more going on and is pretty cool too, but is it film music? I can’t really imagine it as the backing track to anything, but who knows? ‘Mudmen’ goes through a lot of changes for its length and doesn’t really flow. Some of the sections are good – there’s a part near the end that’s awesome to listen to with headphones on – and some of them are less good, like the screeching guitar that’s not all that enjoyable to listen to. Strikes me as more a medley of ideas than a developed track. And the final ‘Absolutely Curtains’ doesn’t do a lot for me, just wandering around for a while. Plus, there’s another large-group chant at the end, for at least a couple of minutes. Is this becoming a thing, the Floyd finishing off their songs with famous chants? I can’t get into that, it disrupts the flow of a song.

So, in conclusion: the beta-test version of ‘Dark Side’. Listen to it for interest’s sake, but it’s hardly essential.