Pink Floyd - Obscured By Clouds

Obscured By Clouds is the seventh studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, originally released in June 1972 via Harvest Records.

One of the lost treasures of classic rock and, by far, the most overlooked album in the Pink Floyd catalog during their classic era Obscured By Clouds is based on their soundtrack to the Barbet Schroeder film La Vallée.

Originally titled “The Valley”, the album was re-titled as Obscured By Clouds when the band fell out with the film company. This may be yet another reason why this great music has been so grossly understated over the past four decades.

There is the argument that Pink Floyd's music of the early '70s was similar to film music, but it had structure and a progression. Here, the instrumentals float pleasantly, filled with interesting textures. The instrumentals have either a spaciness or pastoral folkiness, two qualities that are really brought out on the full-fledged songs interspersed throughout the record, especially on "Burning Bridges" and "Wot's...Uh The Deal". These songs explore some of the same musical ground as those on Atom Heart Mother and Meddle, yet they are more concise and have a stronger structure.

The real noteworthy numbers are the surprisingly heavy blues-rocker "The Gold It's In The...", which, as good as it is, is trumped by the stately, ominous "Childhood's End" and the jaunty pop tune "Free Four", two songs whose obsessions with life, death, and the past clearly point toward Dark Side Of The Moon.

While viewed as a soundtrack, the startlingly advanced nature of the songs when blended with the sensibility of Meddle, give a clear pointer to what Pink Floyd was about to develop into.

Check out the tracks: “Free Four”; “Burning Bridges” and “Childhood’s End”.

This 2016 remastered LP on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl, housed in a sleeve with reproduced original artwork (rounded corners) is pressed in Europe.