Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Pink Floyd
Label: EMI Records
Released: 1972
Length: 40:30
Rating: 4/5
“Obsured by Clouds” is one of those Pink Floyd albums that doesn’t come up all that often when people list the best moments of the legendary band’s career. That’s fair to a degree, since it’s ultimately “just” a film soundtrack, but it’s also slightly unjust, because there isn’t a single bad moment on it and practically every track offers plenty of listening pleasure. The album had the bad luck of landing right after the groundbreaking masterpiece “Meddle” (1971), where they first found their signature sound, and right before the monumental “Dark Side of the Moon” (1973). “Obscured by Clouds” doesn’t reach their artistic depth, and a few tracks even feel a bit half-baked, but that only holds if you measure it by the usual, highly demanding Pink Floyd prog rock standards.
It carries the soundtrack for the film “La Vallée“ by the acclaimed Swiss director Barbet Schroeder. Pink Floyd were by no means newcomers to film scoring by then: they had already worked with Schroeder on the film “More” (1969), and their successful forays into the movie business also include the soundtracks for “The Committee” (1968) and “Zabriskie Point” (1970). Like most film soundtracks, “Obscured by Clouds” (some early versions of the album came out under the title “The Valley”, the English translation of the film’s name) has a concept that most of the tracks tie into.
The story, or rather the script, of the film is about Viviane, the wife of a French ambassador, who heads off to visit New Guinea. She’s gone there to scout out the local fashion boutiques. Hoping to find rare bird feathers to enrich her fashion collection, she joins a research expedition bound for the heart of the jungle in search of a mysterious, lost valley. Midway through the journey Viviane increasingly sheds the shackles of “civilization” and grows enthralled with life in touch with nature. Eventually the explorers discover an uncharted area where they’re surrounded by mysterious mud people, members of a still uncivilized tribe. The expedition members befriend them, and Viviane, whose spiritual values have by then changed thoroughly, decides in the end that she’d rather stay with them than return to “civilization”.
The individual tracks tell the story of Viviane’s journey and its key moments through music, and the mood of the album swings throughout between childlike playfulness and an incurable melancholy and nostalgia of the kind only Pink Floyd can conjure up. Most of the lyrics were written, as usual, by bassist and singer Roger Waters, though none of them relate directly to the film.
It’s worth noting that the band members also used some instruments on the album that counted as cutting-edge technology at the time. A nice example of this tinkering with keyboard textures that were revolutionary for the era is the title instrumental. The opening track boasts an inventive use of electronic drums and EMS VCS3 synthesizers. Rick Wright coaxes a monotone, repeating texture out of them, soon joined by slide guitar accompaniment from Dave Gilmour. It’s all backed by an electronically tinged rhythm line courtesy of Nick Mason. The end result is a mysterious, slightly futuristic atmosphere that’s somewhat reminiscent of the krautrock bands of the day, led by Can. This track, which along with “Childhood’s End” was the only song from the album they ever played live, often opened their concerts in 1973.
The next instrumental, “When You’re In”, is another relatively atypical but interesting piece, a hard rocker built on punchy guitar phrases and the velvety sound of the Hammond organ. A good idea is spoiled a little only by the song’s sudden, overly hasty ending, which makes it feel slightly unfinished. On the excellent “Burning Bridges” Pink Floyd build a successful bridge between the dreamy psychedelia of their early years and the art rock melancholy they first discovered on “Meddle”. Wright spins a romantic melody on the Hammond organ, while the melancholy touches come from Gilmour’s trademark “weeping” guitar slides. Their splendid trading of vocal parts is also one of the main charms of this excellent song. Its melody returns later on the instrumental “Mudmen”, only in a slightly altered time signature.
The boisterous “The Gold It is In the…”, where Gilmour again reigns on slide guitar and vocals, is another hard rocker, this time on a more-than-obvious blues foundation. The gorgeous acoustic ballad “Wot’s…Uh the Deal” is Gilmour’s next “star” moment, where the legendary guitarist enchants with a beautiful melody and superb singing. David only remembered this song many years later, when it became part of his live shows in 2006 (where he performed it together with Rick Wright).
The song “Childhood’s End” was inspired by the novel of the same name by Arthur C. Clarke. Its lyrics tell of the last days of Jan Rodricks, the last man on Earth, and of the price humanity had to pay on the closing pages of the book. Gilmour shines again with a combination of heart-wrenching slides and an excellent vocal performance, while the spirited use of the Hammond organ keeps him good company. An interesting fact about it is that, right up to the album “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” (1987), it was the last Pink Floyd song written solely by Dave Gilmour, meaning he wrote both the music and the lyrics.
Waters’ creation “Free Four”, which also came out as a single, was the first Pink Floyd song to get broader airplay on American radio stations. It’s also the first song in the band’s history whose lyrics directly refer to the death of Eric Fletcher Waters, Roger’s father, a theme Roger would keep returning to through most of his musical career. The song is built on a relatively simple rock’n’roll motif with handclaps in between and light guitar phrases that eventually drift into somewhat heavier waters. Mr. Waters shines with a characteristically somewhat cynical vocal performance and thickened bass lines.
The excellent ballad “Stay” is a chance for Rick Wright to shine again with sensitive piano playing and melancholy singing, while Waters’ bass and Gilmour’s playful use of the wah-wah pedal accompany him. The closing ambient instrumental “Absolutely Curtains” is packed with extraordinary atmosphere thanks to Wright’s magic on the VCS3 synthesizer, electric piano and Hammond organ, as well as Mason’s witty use of cymbals. Near the end you can hear the rowdy singing of the African Magupe tribe, who also appear in the film.
“Obscured by Clouds” admittedly isn’t among the best achievements in the story of this legendary band, most of which went down in rock history in golden letters, but it’s still a hugely interesting, if not outright excellent, soundtrack. The Pink Floyd collective was brimming with extraordinary ideas in this period, which shows most in the variety of the tracks, and their signature sound had already been born by then. In the flood of masterpieces that Pink Floyd churned out in the seventies like on a conveyor belt, the only fairly reliable yardstick for this album’s quality is that it’s a considerably better record than “More” was, and that a few of its tracks served as the groundwork for the sonic identity of “Dark Side of the Moon”.
Lineup
David Gilmour – guitar, vocals, VCS3
Nick Mason – drums, percussion
Roger Waters – bass guitar, vocals, VCS3
Richard Wright – keyboards, vocals, VCS3, Hammond organ
Production
Pink Floyd
Tracklist
1. Obscured By Clouds
2. When You’re In
3. Burning Bridges
4. The Gold It’s In The …
5. Wots … Uh The Deal
6. Mudmen
7. Childhood’s End
8. Free Four
9. Stay
10. Absolutely Curtains
