Poll: How do you rate Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother" album?

Clearly one of their best works. It's up there with DSOTM, WYWH, The Wall and Piper At The Gates Of Dawn in my opinion. Not really a fan of Fat Old Sun, but the rest is classic Pink Floyd for me.

 

Artists discredit their work all the time. Cult classics are often seen as lackluster and sub par by their creator.

 

I had to go with lower-tier. It has some really good moments and ideas, but it's an effort for me to listen to it as a whole.

There's not much in the way of songs.

 

I remember being ill as a child and playing a cassette over and over, I was told that if my favourite or liking
was more towards Piper then perhaps Atom Heart Mother would not be an enjoyable experience.

The Child thought it wonderful and the Adult still does.

However something (state of mind) is preventing a judgement, oh well.

 

Not their best album, but to me it's Floyd on the way to their peak (DSOTM and WYWH). Upon first listening to this album, I was obsessed with Summer 68, just an excellent song with beautiful use of the piano and the horn solo is wonderful. The end bit with the blaring horns is a bit much, I wished they had toned that down or maybe eliminated the horns entirely at the end. Overall this is a good listen. I have an old worn copy of the original US album plus a digital rip of a room mate's CD.

 

I really like it. One of their best in my opinion. I listen to side one often.

 

In my opinion, AHM is up there with their most acclaimed albums. I also find very interisting the fact that it was really a group effort. After AHM, Waters leadership increased continuosly towards the final break-up. It worked well until Animals, but since The Wall (maybe Animals too) you can say that Roger is the main act and the others the backup band.

 

It’s clear this is a band still in transition almost, searching for ideas and not quite sure of the direction to take. Meddle was the first real indication of what was to come.

I enjoy Atom Heart Mother anyway. Always liked Summer ‘68 and Fat Old Sun is incredibly evocative..

 

That's pretty funny. The guy who gave us "Young Lust" and "A New Movie" wants his critique of past releases taken seriously by others? Why? I'll take the first half of AHM Suite and Fat Old Sun over anything on A Momentary Lapse of Reason. And Roger bemoaning the pomposity of AHM while giving us nothing but pompous releases since Radio Kaos is also a good laugh. Do they really think denigrating the older work makes their contemporary or recent releases shine brighter? It doesn't. Atom Heart Mother has it's flaws, no doubt about it, but there is a lot that works well regardless if the guys who recorded it and praised it upon release have done a 180 regarding it' s artistic merits.

 

I think they're both pissed at Ron Geesin for some reason and that colors their opinion.

 

It's funny that they played this song (Atom Heart Mother) regularly in concert for a solid two years but apparently it represented their artistic nadir -they just didn't realize it at the time.

 

Well, my favorite Floyd era. Out of Ummugumma, AHM just opened the door to Meddle. It’s an album of its time. They probably got so bored of playing it live that it left a sour taste in their mouth.

 

Lower-tier Floyd - not good overall

 

In the Pink Floyd picto-book by [Barry] Miles, published 1981 or so, he has quotes from the early 1970s in which band members dismiss the album in no uncertain terms. They basically called the suite a load of rubbish, and had not much to say about the songs on side 2.

Personally I find the album delightful as aural wallpaper, not exactly inspiring music.

 

I'm still not sure what I think about the first half of the album. The suite probably works best when it's just the band plunking away as they did live, but then you run into the problem of, "Why are they still playing this bit with nothing else happening?"

The standalone songs are great, but definitely over-shadowed by the suites.

 

It took me some me time to get into this record, I had listened to many of the band only live versions of the title track and really fell in love with it, this made it easier to begin to digest the record. Now it’s one of my favorites as is More

 

Every time I hear Atom Heart Mother, I end up cooking beef for supper. I have absolutely no idea why.

 

Essential, up there with the best. And of course the cows.

 

Worth recommending but Meddle is a much better album IMO.

 

Agreed.

 

I’m a massive Syd Barrett fan who also respects what the band did after he departed, and I think “Atom Heart Mother” is a masterpiece and my favourite of the post-Syd era.

It’s so evocative, I can almost smell the 1970 air when I listen to it. A well deserved UK #1 that the band should be ultra proud of.

I like to play it and “Barrett” back to back to get a snapshot of where all 5 of them were at at the time.

I always considered “Meddle” a bit of a comedown in comparison but it’s grown on me lately.

 

I voted on this a long while ago, but didn't comment ... I was probably busy.

I love this album and see it as the start of the incredible run of albums that dominated seventies rock music.
I guess for some the title track and Alan's psychedelic Breakfast don't work, and I think that is the dividing line on opinion of this album. To me the title track is one of their greatest pieces of work. Alan's psychedelic breakfast also works for me, on a completely different level.

 

Love it. It was the first PF album I bought (vinyl) and I still rate it as one of their best. Now shoot me down in flames.

 

“Atom Heart Mother” is my favorite Pink Floyd album.

On the topic of artists critiquing their own work -

I didn’t like any Yes albums after “Drama”.

Then one day they put out a new album and I really liked it!

The liner notes included an address to write to Yes.

I was so excited by this new Yes album that I actually liked,
that I sent a letter to Steve Howe congratulating him
on releasing their best album since the seventies.

Six months later Yes had a new album out that I didn’t like.

And there was a magazine interview of Steve Howe.

The interviewer asked him about that previous album,
and Steve Howe said “Recording that album was a mistake.”

I felt terrible. Why did he have to say that?

 

Fat Old Sun and the title track are worthy of the entry price.