Pink Floyd's first double LP, 1969's Ummagumma is a bit of a difficult album to give a firm rating to or condense in a tight little Nut, considering both LPs being so very different from each other.
The first portion of the album is a haunting live performance of 4 of Floyd's most popular songs at the time. They are incredible and vast in sound, with 2 out of the 4 songs putting the studio recordings to shame. The second portion of the album is made up of studio recordings broken up into 4 parts, each part a solo effort of sorts from each band member. It's a little fragmented at times and is made very apparent that the Floyd still don't know what to do with out the likes of Syd Barrett as their leader. However, with Roger Waters and David Gilmour's stronger submissions it shows who will be the duking it out for the throne in the future.
Ummagumma might not be a perfect album front to back but it's interesting to hear Floyd in their final moments of the transition into what they'll soon establish as the Pink Floyd sound.
4 mad rants of a pict out of 5
Songs Of Note: Careful With That Axe, Eugene [live]; The Narrow Way
3 comments:
i like this one. it took a little while to grow on me, but i think it's a solid 4 star or at least 3 and a half album.
the live version of astronomy domine, in my opinion, is a bit murky compared to the version on piper at the gates of dawn, which sounds crisper. careful with that axe is pink floyd at their late 60's freak-out psychedelic best.
i have to say that while the "studio" portion of the album is a bit disjointed and lacks cohesion, it is a great document of the band's most experimental period (between the syd era and dark side of the moon). roger waters wasn't running the show yet, so it's a bit directionless, but still fun.
i really love richard wright's portion of the studio album, and i still think he is the unsung hero of pink floyd, far more influential on their overall sound in the 70's than many people would think.
Yeah...the studio versions of "Astronomy Domine" and "Saucerful" are much better....but I think "Careful" and "Set The Controls" on this album blow the originals out of the water.
I could listen to Set The Controls all day.
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