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Who doesn't love a good Pink Floyd album? This is their third, a soundtrack to the 1969 film More and their first without Syd Barrett.

Tracks:

1. Cirrus Minor: 8/10 a gentle, touching if overly restrained opener to the album. I don't know what all the random bird sounds are about but they only heighten the delightfully weird atmosphere.

2. The Nile Song: 5/10 Pink Floyd play well but lose their identity with this generic, woefully overdone rock song. David Gilmour, rather than singing the song, screams his way through the song like Shia Labeouf in Transformers.

3. Crying Song: 7/10 this never hits a peak, but that's effective in many ways and contributes to it being such an enjoyable understated and relaxing song.

4. Up the Khyber: 8/10 Nick Mason and Rick Wright, the 2 lesser known Pink Floyd members, get their chance to shine with this thoroughly enjoyable drum/piano instrumental.

5. Green is the Colour: 7/10 a perfectly pleasant and gleefully enigmatic, if slightly underwhelming, tune.

6. Cymbaline: 7/10 a well rendered dream, but not effective enough to become a nightmare.

7. Party Sequence: 4/10 hitting with the impact of a feather against iron, this really feels pretty half-hearted.

8. Main Theme: 8/10 a main theme to be proud of. If it's not standout Pink Floyd material, it's a very fine instrumental with typically captivating psychedelic aural art from Pink Floyd.

9. Ibiza Bar: 6/10 another heavy one, but it's thankfully a bit less annoying this time.

10. More Blues: 6/10 a good instrumental, even if it is essentially just a load of well played guitar chords.

11. Quicksilver: 7/10 too long, but it's an effective experimental piece consisting of multiple artfully constructed peaks.

12. A Spanish Piece: 4/10 pretty weak and too short to be memorable in any way, shape or form.

13. Dramatic Theme: 7/10 'Dramatic' might not be the word, but this is an interesting and more than adequate closer for the album.

Best song: Main Theme
Worst song: Party Sequence

Summary: The weakest Pink Floyd album so far, but that's not saying a lot. As albums go, it's perfectly acceptable. It's reasonably diverse, as well played as ever and has many stirring moments. When it is weaker, since many of the songs are just meant to be background music or short instrumentals it's not bad in the same way other albums are bad. At the times where Pink Floyd just don't seem to be trying, however, or when they abruptly switch to Nirvana level heaviness, it does get annoying. A perfectly good album, but certainly not Pink Floyd at their finest.




Final rating: 7/10