Obscured by Coulds: a largely unknown pleasure

I grew up basically idolizing the Pink Floyd and everything they did. At first it was just for David Gilmour's masterful guitar licks but later I'd develop a fuller appreciation by understanding their full genius. I started, as many newcomers do, with Dark Side of the Moon and from there I listened to all the Floyd the casual rock fan would know of (i.e. greatest hits type tracks). Later though, I got the Floyd compilation Echoes as birthday present from my mother and was exposed to less familiar, old school, tracks like "See Emily Play" and "Astronomy Domine" and I learned how rich the rest of their discography was. There were the albums like Meddle and A Saucerful of Secrets I'd never heard of before because they never got any radio play; now I knew of their existence and was full prepared to seek them out.

Two albums that a lot of Floyd fans have missed, largely due to their obscurity (no pun intended) were both movie soundtracks called More and Obscured by Clouds. Obviously the movies never did exceedingly well and Obscured by Clouds actually tanked pretty badly yet their soundtracks are both good finds for true Floyd fans. Clouds in particular was a childhood favorite of mine and recently I acquired the album on vinyl and I continue to enjoy it. It includes quiet, majestic "Us and Them" type tracks like "Burning Bridges" and "Mudmen" but doesn't fail to take on a harder rock edge in songs like "When you're in" and "Childhood's End". Ballads like "Free Four" pontificate about human mortality and there's even an endearingly romantic song called "Stay" that you could use to set a mood for an intimate evening. Fuck Barry White, let's throw on some Floyd and make-a some-a sexy time! It's a stellar album but for some reason critics poo pooed its contents as merely a soundtrack rather than a standalone. I can see making that charge of More but Obscured by Clouds has lots of thoughtful songwriting, lyrics, and complexity unlike the former which is good but definitely sounds as if it's subordinate to something greater. Obscured by Clouds is actually my favorite Floyd album but what's a favorite when everything a band does is gold, I guess. Definitely worth a look though if you're unfamiliar.