Third (Soft Machine album)

Third is the third studio album by the English rock band Soft Machine, released in June 1970 by CBS Records in the United Kingdom and Columbia Records in the United States. The album was recorded from January to May 1970, partially at IBC Studios, based in London, and was produced by the band themselves. It is a double album with a single composition on each of the four sides, and was the first of two albums recorded with a four-piece line-up of keyboardist Mike Ratledge, drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt, saxophonist Elton Dean, and bass guitarist Hugh Hopper. Musically, Third marks a shift in the group's sound from their psychedelic origins towards jazz rock and electronic music.

"Facelift" is a live recording by the previous line-up of the band, a five-piece with Lyn Dobson on saxophone and flute alongside Ratledge, Wyatt, Hopper and Dean. The remaining tracks are studio recordings by the four-piece line-up, augmented by a few session musicians. Jimmy Hastings (brother of Pye Hastings from Caravan) makes substantial contributions on flute and clarinet on "Slightly All the Time", free-jazz violinist Rab Spall (then a bandmate of Wyatt's in the part-time ensemble Amazing Band) is heard on the coda to "Moon in June", and Nick Evans (who had been a member of Soft Machine during late 1969 when they spent a short time as a seven-piece band) makes brief appearances on trombone in "Slightly All the Time" and "Out-Bloody-Rageous".

Upon its release, the album was positively received by music critics, mainly for its instrumentation and sound. Commercially, it charted at number 18 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming their highest-charting album to date. It would also peaked at number 5 on the Dutch Album Top 100. In 2007, the album was reissued with the live album Live at the Proms 1970 as a bonus disc.