Listened to Atom Heart Mother today and it struck me that Gilmour isn't so prominent in an obvious way as he is on other albums. Maybe because of the great bass/keyboard playing from Waters/Wright respectively, and Geesin's orchestral stuff, the album did not rely too heavily on guitar solos, as some albums e.g. Division Bell, Wish You Were Here have.

However, where Gilmour does play on AHM, he is excellent and adds a subtle texture that I believe is necessary to make the album sound believable as a top-notch PF release. His understated, simple solo on If is perfect, and the song Fat Old Sun, one of the few he wrote completely by himself, though often dismissed by Americans as "the worst kind of whimsical English folk" is at the end of the day, a pleasant song. Fans of Gilmour should not dismiss AHM off-hand, as I suspect many may have done. A few more plays and it might really grow on you.

you can't knock 'the old sun' cos it's a cool naive melody (this must be the place)

I love AHM, it's one of my 3 favorite Floyd albums.

-Matt

Glad you love Atom Heart Mother. I certainly do. If is one of the nicest songs ever to pick on the acoustic guitar, I find. The instrumental tracks at the start and end of the album, from Geesin, are just amazing. Wright's song Summer Of 68 shows him excelling himself in all respects, and Gilmour's Fat Old Sun is a charming enough song. Great album. May listen to later today.

not sure why it gets slagged off so much

cos its crap

No, it's a great easy-to-listen to album from that golden era when PF were all working together on all the songs in between the periods of heavy reliance on Barrett's visionary talents and control-freakery by Waters. 1968-75 their collective co-operation really reaped dividends.

good to eat yer breakfast to

like i said....it's nonsense.

Not something I like to listen every day, but it has an excellent mix of material with the whole band contributing before Waters control freakery set in. Very relaxing, dreamy record. If you can appreciate the subtleties of records then you will notice Gilmour's subtle but excellent guitar-playing at various points on the album. Especially since you're such a "big fan" of Gilmour, Freddie.