It's about time. For a work as historically important as Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii (as it was called when originally released in 1972), it is remarkable that it's taken more than 50 years for this music to get a standalone release. To accompany the theatrical rerelease of the film (the dizzyingly iconic cinematography of the band playing in an audience-free amphitheater at Pompeii has been remastered in 4K from the original 35mm footage) a proper soundtrack album is finally seeing the light of day. Although an edited and remixed version was included as part of the massive The Early Years 1965–1972 box set in 2017, it was treated as something of a companion piece to Obscured By Clouds; in fact, Pompeii very much should be taken on its own. Filmed just as Pink Floyd was about to release Meddle, Pompeii captures one of the most interesting phases of a band who had many interesting phases. Having moved past the baroque psychedelia of their Syd Barrett era and also fully explored a sort of pastoral kosmiche sound that was utterly unlike any other band's, the Pink Floyd of 1971 was still working in two clearly distinct vocabularies: gentle, trippy melodicism ("Fearless," "Grantchester Meadows," "Fat Old Sun") and consciousness-warping, full-bodied sonic expansiveness ("Atom Heart Mother," "Echoes," "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun"). Although Obscured by Clouds—recorded just a few months after the band was in Pompeii—would find them coalescing around more streamlined songwriting (leading, ultimately, to the fully-honed Dark Side of the Moon), Live at Pompeii is Pink Floyd at their indulgent, space-rock peak. Restored to its original running order—with "Echoes" split into two parts, and the previously unavailable "Mademoiselle Nobs" (a radically different version of Meddle's "Seamus") getting an official premiere—the soundtrack accurately reflects the weird and highly specific energy that Pink Floyd had at the time. While remixed by Steven Wilson, the band's peculiar, in-concert combination of wild-eyed exploration and languid trippiness comes across marvelously here, full of dynamics and warmth. Two bonus tracks—an alternate take of "Careful With That Axe, Eugene," and a stunning, unedited version of "Saucerful of Secrets"—round out the tracklist, giving this essential work a long-overdue definitive presentation.

© Jason Ferguson/Qobuz