Atom Heart Mother

Atom Heart Mother is English rock band, Pink Floyd’s fifth album. It features material that is less influenced by psychedelia and instead leans more towards a progressive rock style that is featured in their later albums: The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. It is their second album released under Harvest Records, the first being Ummagumma*, and was recorded in Abbey Road Studios between March and August of 1970. This album was the band’s first to obtain the top position on the U.K. Album Charts and it reached the 55th spot on the Billboard Hot 200.

The first side of the five-track LP consists of only the 22-minute opening titular suite. In fact, this track is the one of the longest songs recorded by Pink Floyd along with “Echoes” and all of the “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” parts combined. Consisting of seven parts, this number demonstrates some of the band’s versatility and provides an orchestra, The Royal College of Music to back up the quartet.

The second side is composed of four tracks, the first three being short folk rock songs that was once ridiculed by music-based magazine, Rolling Stone. The final track, “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” is an 11-minute avant-garde piece that was primarily written by the band’s drummer, Nick Mason but was credited to the whole group. It features Pink Floyd roadie, Alan Styles preparing and discussing about his breakfast as well as breakfasts in the past.

Ultimately, this album was met by criticism from Pink Floyd’s frontmen, Roger Waters and David Gilmour but was considered commercially successful upon its release. Atom Heart Mother was remastered twice, once in 1994, and again in 2011.