Songs: Cirrus Minor, The Nile Song, Crying Song, Up the Khyber, Green is the Colour, Cymbaline, Party Sequence, Main Theme, Ibiza Bar, More Blues, Quicksilver, A Spanish Piece, Dramatic Theme
Type of Music: Psychedelic Folk-Rock (Space-Folk)
By 1969, Pink Floyd was well appreciated in progressive art circles apparently as they were asked to write the soundtrack for Barbet Schroeder´s movie More. You have to bear in mind they were only active as a recording band for about 2 years. Also, they had little time to write and produce the soundtrack. Maybe that’s why Roger’s voice seems to sound a bit fragile at times. However, I believe it combines well with the spacey folk material on the album.
The story of the film goes as follows: In the midst of the psychedelic revolution, a young German, Stephan, leaves the Fatherland to travel. In Paris he meets the beautiful and mysterious Estelle and falls in love despite many warnings that the girl is a heroin addict. Estelle leaves for Ibiza and invites Stephan who follows. Despite the romantic setting of the island and the many parties it soon becomes clear to Stephan that Estelle indeed uses heroin. After his initial protests he soon gives in to temptation and the couple slowly but surely become junkies. Stephan also suspects that Estelle is sleeping with her dealer, a guy called Wolf. Despite everything the couple tries to get clean with the help of LSD.
It goes okay for a while until Wolf returns in their lives. Stephan is tormented by jealousy and resorts to heroin again. When a friend from Paris tries to persuade him to leave the island, he goes looking for Estelle as he doesn´t want to leave without her. She probably went out with Wolf and Stephan roams the island in a desperate quest. As he fails to find her, he takes an overdose and dies.
A heavy story indeed!!
And now The Music. This is likely to be the least known and most underrated album of the band. Probably because sound tracks are usually considered as nothing more than background music for the film itself. But that´s not the case here. Sure there are bits of music, like A Spanish Piece and Party Sequence, that only make sense when watching the movie but hey, there are some great songs here.
Most of the good stuff was written by Roger Waters who apparently used this album to try and create a style of his own. I’m sure the basis for later albums was laid here maybe even without Roger realising it. Most of these goodies are actually folk rock tunes and they are stunningly beautiful. I consider Cirrus Minor the best but it is closely followed by Crying Song, Cymbaline and Green is the Colour. Listening to Cymbaline I believe I know where groups like Air and Groove Armada found their inspiration. This is perfect lounge music and we are talking 1969 here! There are some good instrumentals as well like the jazzy Up the Khyber, the obviously bluesy More Blues and the spacey Main Theme. This song seems to have inspired the German band Kraftwerk in their later work. Only Quicksilver is a mere collection of sounds without any meaningful direction.
Actually, the album would have been even better if it weren´t for two hard rocking Heavy Metal songs that seem completely out of place, although they aren’t bad songs. They do sound very similar. The Nile Song and Ibiza Bar might have inspired David Bowie to undertake his Berlin adventure. In fact I don’t believe Pink Floyd rocked in this style ever again.
So my advise to you is to program your CD without those two songs, make yourself comfortable on the couch and pour yourself a nice dram of whisky.
Just close your eyes while listening to the Main Theme or Quicksilver and you can almost imagine yourself floating in deep space!
Make sure you get the new re-mastered version!
Rating: ******** (8 out of 10)
Black = Good Songs
Green = Great Songs
Red = Could Be Better
Who should buy this Record: This is an Essential Pink Floyd Album as it helps to define Roger’s style. It also has inspired other musicians in my opinion. As such it should be part of every great Classic Rock Collection
