by George Root

Created on: April 08, 2009

The soundtrack to the film More is Pink Floyd's first attempt at a movie soundtrack. While it is not their only attempt at a movie soundtrack, the band would later say that it was the beginning of the end of soundtracks for Pink Floyd. Released in 1969, the soundtrack by Pink Floyd would do much better commercially and critically than the movie, which is one consistenecy Pink Floyd maintained with their movie soundtrack work.

More was released a year after A Saucerful of Secrets, and the period between the release of Saucerful and More was a very turbulent time for the band. Immediately after the release of Saucerful founding member Syd Barrett was released from Pink Floyd, and David Gilmour was announced as Syd's full time replacement. More is the first album Pink Floyd released that did not have any contribution from Syd, and it caps a whirlwind period for the band that saw them in and out of the studio in less than one month.

Unlike their later movie soundtrack effort Obscured By Clouds, the soundtrack for the film More contains very few songs that can actually stand on their own as complete pieces of music. The album starts out strong with pieces such as The Nile Song, Cymbaline, and Green is the Colour, but mixed in with those songs are pieces written specifically for the movie such as Cirrus Minor and Up The Khyber. The remainder of the album is all instrumental music that was obviously written to accompany some portion of the movie. The entire second side of the album is weak and unable to stand on its own as any discernable piece of music.

Considering the duress the band was under when they wrote and recorded More, they were able to create some gems that remained part of the Floyd live set list for several years. Cymbaline was a mainstay in the set list up into the early 1970's, and Green is the Colour became known as the intro song for the popular mood piece Careful with that Axe, Eugene. But throughout this album, it is apparent that the band is searching for an identity, and the absence of their main songwriter is extremely evident. Roger Waters would not become a lyrical force for another 3 years, and David Gilmour was still recovering from a full year of trying to play Syd Barrett's parts which left him little time to work on any musical contributions for the album. But More marks the beginning of a very important period in the history of Pink Floyd, and it also sounds the end of a very emotional period for the band as well. An emotional period that would carry them all the way to The Wall.

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