The opening instrumental track "Obscured By Clouds" featuring some spooky slide guitar, with wierd synthesizer.

The second track, instrumental as well, is called "When You're In". It sounds much like a continuation to "Obscured By Clouds".

The 3rd Track, "Burning Bridges", is sung by Dave Gilmour and Rick Wright. This song is perfect to go with this album.

"The Gold Is In The..." is short song, but some real good guitar work from Dave Gilmour.

"Wots...Uh The Deal" is a variation between rock & roll, and country music. Very good acoustic guitar.

"Mudmen" is much like a repeat instrumental performance of "Burning Bridges".

"Childhood's End" is a very good tune. It's weird to say, but "Childhood's End" sounds much like Dark Side Of The Moon's "Time".

"Free Four" is the only song sung by Roger Waters. It has some of that weird synthesizer from "Obscured By Clouds".

"Stay" is a very mellow song, but good. Sung By Rick Wright. This should of been the last song on the album and...

"Absolutely Curtains" should of just been left out, because it only has keyboard sounds, and ends with some weird people singing this french song. What ever you do, do not listen to this song. But the rest of the album is good. Buy the album, and check out the video page of "The Valley Obscured By Clouds".


Very atmospheric soundtrack with some heavier moments   June 10, 2006
 13 out of 13 found this review helpful

This 1972 soundtrack for the Barbet Schroeder film "La Vallee" was recorded during two, one-week sessions, between which a tour of Japan was sandwiched. Interestingly, the album works as a cohesive whole, in spite of the short recording time, and the "dry" production (especially on Nick Mason's drums) lends the album a very tight feel. It has been written that Obscured by Clouds is the last true group effort and I pretty much agree. The album also finds the band poised on the cusp of massive, global superstardom, which would become fully realized with the mega-smash, mega-million selling album The Dark Side of the Moon (1973).

Lyrically, Roger Waters begins to reflect on issues that he would develop further, including his war-victim father (Free Four) and Dave Gilmour refers to science fiction with Childhoods End, which is the title of Arthur C. Clarke's classic from the genre. I guess it is worth noting that Childhood's End was recorded without the final verse and that Roger would write all lyrics for the group following this album, thus "relieving" Dave of this responsibility. Dave's vocals are also excellent and he really comes across as a confident singer. His guitar playing is also in top flight too. In addition to tracks with lyrics, there are quite a few instrumentals as well.

Musically, I think Pink Floyd was in fine form on this album. My favorite cuts include the atmospheric, VCS3 synthesizer heavy instrumental tracks Obscured by Clouds, Mudmen, and Absolutely Curtains (loads of Rick Wright's sustained Hammond organ), along with the heavy instrumental When You're In. Burning Bridges, Wot's...uh the Deal, and Stay are also superb and feature the trademark drifting and spacey Floyd sound. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the thunderous The Gold It's in the..., which reminds me somewhat of the bone-crushing Nile Song (from More, 1969). Free Four is the only bouncy and lighthearted track on the album, which stands in stark contrast with Water's dark subject matter - the ruminations of someone on their deathbed.

With respect to this 1994 remaster it is just OK and features good sound quality, images from the film, and all lyrics.

All in all, this excellent album is a personal favorite and is very highly recommended along with Atom Heart Mother (1970), Meddle (1971), Wish You Were Here (1975), and Animals (1977).


Underrated   November 14, 2001
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

1972's Obscured by Clouds is the most unjustly overlooked album in Pink Floyd's catalogue. Its instrumentals, the title track; "When You're In;" "Absolutely Curtains" and especially "Mudmen," are some of the finest wavy, lavalamp psychedelica I have ever heard. "Childhood's End;" "Free Four" (the first song in which Roger Waters, deals with the death of his father in WW2) and "Stay," (sung seamlessly in keyboardist, Richard Wright's dry hum) feature on a new, humanistic approach to the band's songwriting. The clear, trancelike sound and down-to-earth subject matter are fine precursors to the style employed on Floyd's legendary works, Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. If you love those albums, Obscured by Clouds is certainly well worth considering.


Far More Than Just a Soundtrack   January 16, 2005
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

Wedged between Meddle and Dark Side Of The Moon lies the almost-forgotten Obscured By Clouds. Because this was the Floyd's second outing as composers for a Barbet Schroeder film and not an actual Pink Floyd-intended project, Obscured By Clouds can't really be considered the true follow-up to Meddle. However, despite its "soundtrack status", it is a vital chunk of the Pink Floyd catalog.

The entire album was written and recorded in a two week blitz at the Chateau d'Herouville just outside of Paris. This time around (the recording of More being the first), the band insisted that director Schroeder's influence (interference?) over the sessions be severely limited. This gave them a full two weeks of freedom to treat the state-of-the-art 16 track studio as their own musical laboratory. The results are surprisingly good for such a short amount of time.

A mood is immediately established with the combination of Obscured By Clouds and When You're In, two mesmerizing instrumentals that start things off. The former is heavily synth driven (embellished nicely with Gilmour's trademark slide guitar), while the second (almost an Obscured By Clouds Part II) is propelled more by power chords and Mason's drums. Burning Bridges is a ballad immersed in the beautiful vocal exchanges and harmonies of Dave and Rick and contrasts nicely with The Gold It's In The..., an uptempo rocker that shows the band just having fun. Wot's...Uh The Deal follows, complete with Dave's angelic vocal harmonies and a sensitive piano solo by Rick. Mudmen (one of the highpoints of the album) is an instrumental once again spotlighting both Wright and Gilmour. Rick's languid keyboards paint a dreamy backdrop before Mason's drums usher in Dave's Floating fuzz-toned guitar. The keyboards and guitar intermingle in a glorious fashion, further cementing the dream-like feel. This is followed by Childhood's End, a Gilmour composition, which is arguably the best song on the album. It has a driving rhythm, great vocals, and of course a load of tasty stinging guitar licks. Free Four is next, an upbeat stomp-along song, boasting lyrics that hint at subjects Waters would obsess over in years to come. Unfortunately, though some of the lyrics ARE quite good, they are rendered slightly impotent by the song's bouncy, jovial atmosphere. After a somewhat disjointed Gilmour guitar solo fades out, Stay (another album highlight) starts up. This gorgeous ballad, with a wonderful lilting chorus, is a great showcase for Wright's piano and vocal talents. It also contains some magnificent wah wah guitar by Gilmour, who all but steals the show. With nothing but a toned down Stratocaster and a crybaby, he manipulates the pedal in conjunction with bends and vibrato to give his guitar an extremely expressive, vocal-like quality. Finally, the album closes with Absolutely Curtains, a predominantly synthesizer-based composition colored slightly with percussion. It has a calming but dramatic feel to it, and ends the album quite nicely (though somewhat strangely, as a New Guinea tribal sing-along fades in as the actual song fades out).

Obscured By Clouds may not contain any powerfully sublime moments, but it's floating stark beauty - a harbinger of things to come - is certainly worth the price. Don't let the fact that this is a soundtrack to a dated French film hold you back. Each song is a well-crafted and terrifically executed piece of music capable of standing on its own. Fans of Meddle, Dark Side Of The Moon, and Wish You Were Here will especially love it. This is truly a fantastic album.