More
Pink Floyd, 1969
(45:01)

David Gilmour: guitars, vocals
Nick Mason: drums
Roger Waters: bass, vocals
Rick Wright: keyboards, vocals

More is Pink Floyd's third album, released July 27, 1969, and is the score for a film of the same name by Barbet Schroeder (produced by Jet Films). It was recorded in only a week at Abbey Road Studios (London) in March 1969, in the middle of working on Ummagumma. It has a wide range of sound (from unconventional electronica, in "Quicksilver", to blues, in "More Blues", to heavy metal, in "The Nile Song") but manages to remain a relatively laid-back album. "Cymbaline" and "Green is the Colour", two popular live songs, come from this album.

The album fits well in Floyd's discography: it appears between A Saucerful of Secrets (still very reminiscient of Barrett, but indicative of the band's growth) and Atom Heart Mother (Floyd's post-Barrett psychedelia shines, and the opposing forces of Waters and Gilmour begin to surface). (I leave out Ummagumma because More's production overlaps Ummagumma's, so the feel of the two albums are very similar.) That said, it's not a good album for anyone new to Floyd's works, unless you're doing things chronologically.

This was a weird time for Floyd: the relatively recent loss of Barrett shook things up quite a bit, and in this release you can begin to see the shape the band would eventually take. Waters shows the talent for songwriting he would later make evident with Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, although this is definitely before his unignorable disgust with the music industry prevalent in the latter and Wish You Were Here. The album has a couple well-done tracks written by the whole group, such as "Ibiza Bar" and "Main Theme", but other tracks show that the band lacks direction without a definite leader.

More is either loved or hated by Floyd fans. Many fans who listen to the late-1970s Floyd work think this album is horrible, lacking the developed talent of Waters by that time; those who started listening to the band in the late 1960s and like Barrett's work enjoy this album because it is different from Piper and Saucerful but seems to tie into later more abstract albums like Meddle and Obscured By Clouds. Others feel that the album as a whole lacks the completenes that is common knowledge with other Floyd albums, like The Wall, Dark Side and even Piper, but appreciate of a few

The album cover (designed by Hipgnosis) is a creepy-looking landscape of deep blue and orange-yellow, with two people in the foreground waving to another person standing near a windmill in the background. The Japanese remastered reissue of the album has a darker cover than the previous releases.

Tracklisting:

  1. "Cirrus Minor", written by Waters, vocals by Gilmour (5:09)
  2. "The Nile Song", written by Waters, vocals by Gilmour (3:22)
  3. "Crying Song", written by Waters, vocals by Gilmour/Wright (3:31)
  4. "Up the Khyber", written by Mason/Wright, instrumental (2:10)
        (titled "Up The Khyber (Juke Box)" on Capitol's LP pressing)
  5. "Green is the Colour", written by Waters, vocals by Gilmour (2:55)
  6. "Cymbaline", written by Waters, vocals by Gilmour (4:46)
  7. "Party Sequence", written by Waters/Wright/Gilmour/Mason, instrumental (1:07)
  8. "Main Theme", written by Waters/Wright/Gilmour, instrumental (5:28)
  9. "Ibiza Bar", written by Waters/Wright/Gilmour/Mason, vocals by Gilmour (3:13)
  10. "More Blues", written by Waters/Wright/Gilmour/Mason, instrumental (2:12)
  11. "Quicksilver", written by Waters/Wright/Gilmour/Mason, instrumental (7:07)
        (titled "Quicksilver (Water-Pipe)" on Capitol's LP pressing)
  12. "A Spanish Piece", written by Gilmour, vocals by Gilmour (1:02)
  13. "Dramatic Theme", written by Waters/Wright, instrumental (2:16)

In the spirit of the Dark Side of the Rainbow, More synchs up with The Ten Commandments. See Pink Floyd Synchronization phenomena for details.


References:
Mine ears
All Pink Floyd Fan Network (pinkfloydfan.net)
Amazon (amazon.com)