The success of The Dark Side Of The Moon weighed heavily on Pink Floyd along with the pressure of needing to come up with a follow-up. Initial attempts were made to record music using just household objects, until the band realised that the time and effort involved in this was simply not worthwhile. Disillusionment with the record industry, growing personal issues, and general fatigue, lead to the theme of absence being identified and explored.

Welcome To The Machine and Have A Cigar both are clear critiques of the first of those concepts - record company executives who didn’t even know “which one’s Pink”! The artwork for the album is entirely concerned with absence, and indeed it was shrink-wrapped in black plastic without a printed album or band name to continue that concept (with the eventual compromise of an added sticker showing a handshake - itself often an empty gesture).

Syd Barrett still weighed very heavily on the band members minds, and from a small, four-note guitar phrase that David Gilmour came across, the epic Shine On You Crazy Diamond - a homage to Syd - resulted.

The title track of the album is a song with love at the heart of it, in a general sense, and with another nod to Syd Barrett, too.