More

With 1969 upon Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett was relegated to visiting recording sessions and showing up at live shows truly not even aware that he had been replaced by David Gilmour. I believe it was during this time period that Gilmour has said that Syd would just sit in the front row during concerts watching his every move. This must have been a difficult time for the band and especially Gilmour, but they carried on.

Originally titled, "Soundtrack from the Film More" this is a strange album indeed. This can be forgiven because after all it is a soundtrack to an actual movie. What makes this such a strange trip is that there are some actual Pink Floyd acoustic folk ballads here something that Floyd rarely visited again. In addition, if you ever wanted to know what Pink Floyd would have sounded like as a heavy rock band in the style of Led Zeppelin you can find it here in, "The Nile Song" and "Ibiza Bar".

Also unusual about this album is the David Gilmour who had really just joined the band is the only lead singer here. This would not occur again until 1987's "A Momentary Lapse of Reason". I have always wondered if this was because many of the songs would appear on the "More" film and his vocal style is much more stylized and soothing then Waters. I have not really ever heard why this was the case on this album but it does work in it's favor.

This album also has a jazz sound that I kind of like and it's instrumentals have a flow that is peaceful and smooth.

I must also say that although Gimour gets front stage with all of the lead vocals Roger Waters wrote all but one song which is very impressive at this very early stage of their career.

My Favorite Songs

"Green is the Color" - This is one of the folk songs  mentioned earlier and it may not sound like the Pink Floyd we have all come to now and love but it works for me.

"Cymbaline" - Yet another jazzy folk song brought to you.... by yes "Pink Floyd". Very calm and soothing. Don't get to used to this because it won't happen very much in the future, except for perhaps, "Fat Old Sun" in 1970.

"The Nile Song" - This song simply rocks. You would almost think a great hard rock band like Led Zeppelin wrote this. But nope.. it was Roger Waters.

"Ibiza Bar" - Another true and rare blatant hard rock song from Pink Floyd.

My Rating

It's a soundtrack and obviously was not the band's main focus at the time so it gets 3 out 5 stars. If you are a Floyd fan check it out, if not.. skip it for now, but someday you will be back to take a listen.