although I'm no fan this is an OK CD

Although I am not a Froyd fan I like this album.



Best track is DEFANATELY : ABSOLUTELY CURTAINS with the hypnotic vchanting, beautiful I wish it only lasted an entire side.



Other good tracks when you're in, mudmen, obscured by clouds.



worst song : 3,4 - rather childish.



maybe the best thing about this album is the atmosphere, tempting, congruent and favorite over many of their later works.



Definately buy this, you will not regret, it is a winner album.

Floyd's best film score given Japanese LP sleeve treatment

Pink Floyd released their eighth album(overall) Obscured by Clouds in June of 1972.

The album was a soundtrack to the French film La Vallee, which was directed by Barbet Schroder. OBC was the band's second film soundtrack for Schroder, their first was the 1969 movie More. I first heard and obtained a copy of this album when I was 11 years old on cassette and I now have the remaster on CD and the sound on the remaster is like night and day(it buries the cassette and original CD). This album was the album released before 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon and was the band's first ever US Top 50 disc peaking at a respectable #46 and eventually went Gold(in 1994).

The album was produced by Pink Floyd themselves and was recorded in a week at the Chateau D'herouville(a/k/a the Honky Chateau as Elton John called it) in France in late February of 1972.

The album kicks off with the title cut(featuring excellent synth work from both keyboardist Rick Wright and bassist/vocalist Roger Waters and slide guitar from guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour) which then segues into When You're In(with excellent drumming from drummer Nick Mason). Those two tracks were staples of Floyd shows in 1973 on the Dark Side tour. Burning Bridges follows and has a great vocal from Gilmour and Wright and is a great tune. The Gold It's In The... is a hard rocker with some great guitar work from Gilmour. Wots...Uh the Deal follows and is a great song with excellent keyboard work from Wright and great vocals and guitar work from Gilmour. Next is an instrumental version of Burning Bridges entitled Mudmen which is in a different tempo than Burning Bridges.

Side two kicked off with Childhood's End(one of Gilmour's best songs ever). Next is Free Four was Waters' first song mentioning the word run which would appear more dominantly on future Floyd albums, it also talks about war and death for the first time and those subjects would appear more dominantly on The Wall and The Final Cut. Free Four was the first Floyd track which got substantial airplay on American rock radio. Next was Stay, which had an excellent vocal from Wright. The album closes with the atmospheric instrumental entitled Absolutely Curtains which features synthesizer work from Gilmour, Waters and Wright and percussion work from Mason and the New Guinea tribe, from the actual La Vallee film itself, conclude this track.

In 2001, EMI Japan re-released Obscured By Clouds with a sleeve that recreates the original European vinyl edition of the album with the back cover as it appeared on the UK edition and the rounded edges on the sleeve!

Highly recommended.

not for beginners

This album is a beautiful Pink Floyd album, but it is definately not a starter album. Tracks like "Wots...uh the deal" and "Childhood's End" are quite simply Pink Floyd at their best. This is an album and true fan should own, and an album that is a must for anyone who enjoys the albums More, Meddle, or Atom Heart Mother.

Pretty good album

This is an overall enjoyable album from the Floydmeisters, with a very trippy sound and good songwriting. However, was "Absolutely Curtains" necessary? The song is apparently just filler, and serves no real purpose. It definitely doesn't bring the album together. Would have been a five star album with a better song to tie the album together.

Stink Floyd

I wouldn't waste much time on this. It can't compare at all with Dark Side of the Moon; it's hard to believe the band that wrote and performed Dark Side is the same band on this album. The only thing interesting about this album is how it may add evidence to the theory of a meaningful connection between Dark Side and the movie "The Wizard of Oz." The band had an opportunity to put music to a movie shortly before making Dark Side. Anyway, Obscured by Clouds is the only Pink Floyd album I have that I doubt I'll ever listen to again.