More (1969)


 
1. Cirrus Minor 2. The Nile Song 3. Crying Song 4. Up the Khyber 5. Green is the Color 6. Cymbaline 7. Party Sequence 8. Main Theme 9. Ibiza Bar 10.More Blues 11.Quicksilver 12.A Spanish Piece 13.Dramatic Theme

 

Quite often, when a band evolves, they have to take a few steps backwards before they can charge forwards. Syd Barrett was now officially gone, and you could say the same thing was true about the early style of acid-rock that this band played so brilliantly. With the band nowhere near the label "famous", they probably jumped at the opportunity to make a (very) small amount of cash in providing music for a French film that most people never have heard of. If anything, maybe this gave the guys an opportunity to explore new sounds and new directions.

Also, we must consider the fact that the band may have been limited in terms of creativity. They may have been told what kind of music they could, or could not produce to make sure it "ties in" with whatever the movie was about (I haven't seen it, but I've heard it described as a French Hippie movie where a lot of drugs are ingested. Well, it was 1969). This may be the reason why this record sounds very cautious, and sadly, nothing really stands out. I can only imagine people buying this record because they already have all of the "good" stuff by this group, and want to round out their collection. It does sound like Pink Floyd, but it sounds like a typical first album of a band, which to be fair, in many cases that's exactly what this was now that Syd Barrett was gone.

The music, for the most part, is very sedated. Apart from a couple of songs like Ibizah Bar and The Nile Song, there's very little elements of rock and roll here. The music rather focuses on dreamy atmospheric tunes with lots of Richard Wrights eerie organ and keyboard work supplementing David Gilmour's whispy voice as if they're trying very hard to soothe people and put them to sleep. In many cases, they sound like they're trying to replicate some of their awesomeness of the past. Quicksilver actually sounds a bit like the song A Saucer Full of Secrets from the album of the same name, and Main Theme comes across as strikingly similar to Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. The problem with these new songs is that the band pulls back too much and doesn't quite have the same feel or atmosphere that made those former songs so special. It must be stated again, though, that this might have been the group's intention all along.

They don't embarrass themselves. All the songs probably sound exactly as how they were intending. There just isn't anything here that stands out, nor is part of the collection of the great songs, or themes that made this band famous. Maybe, if anything, it was just a good thing that the guys stayed together after so much turmoil early on in their career.

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