MEDDLE

MEDDLE is one of my favourite Pink Floyd albums, but it's very different from my other three faves, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, WISH YOU WERE HERE and ANIMALS.

This fabulous disc is much more diverse in direction than those that would follow. Roger Waters' anger and paranoia don't yet rule the day; there is profound beauty here, on great, shorter songs like "A Pillow of winds" and "San Tropez," while the whimsical track "Seamus," with its barking dog, actually reveals a sense of fun! Such emotional variety would be notably absent on later releases; not that those albums are any less indispensable for that! I whole-heartedly agree with earlier reviewers who enjoy the power and psychedelia of "One of These Days" and the epic "Echoes." Those ARE essential examples of the sound fans normally associate with Floyd. Yet "Fearless" is not only one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs, it's also uplifting: "I will climb that hill in my own way, and every day's the right day...."

In closing, fellow Floydians, after blasting "Sheep," "Money" or "Welcome to the Machine" you can kick back and relax to the oft-overlooked gems on MEDDLE. Don't just program in "One of These Days" and "Echoes" -- enjoy MEDDLE in its glorious, multi-faceted entirety!

The metal of the medal in a medley

Even though it (sort of) copied its layout AHM's successor did not top the charts, but instead it brought Floyd on the brink of greatness, just behind the bend. For some reasons, Meddle doesn't suffer of the same controversy than AHM did, which is rather strange, because it if has much higher and outstanding peaks, it is also much less even, because the lows on this album are simply awful. With that bizarre yet fascinating Hypgnosis artwork of mixing an ear and waterdrops on rippling the surface of calm waters, Meddle has not only a weird unnatural name, but the album was released in early 71 like its predecessor with the name and title on the cover, something that Crimson or Zep were also doing with success.

Actually Floyd reversed the scheme of AHM, presenting the song side first and relegating the sidelong suite over the flipside, thus bringing more light on the shorter numbers, something that lacked to Fat Old Sun, Summer and If on AHM. And do they ever open the album with a killer track: One Of These Days is a wild and violent instrumental track (if you'll forget Nick's spoken words), definitely groundbreaking despite a fairly simple layout. Behind heavy wind noises, an echoing bass slowly opens and soon starts an ostinato the cymbal crashes, elusive organs, wild slide guitar soaring way above the albatross on the flipside, the whole stopping fairly abruptly. After such start, it's only reasonable to slow down a bit and Pillows Of Wind is an acoustic track that's reminiscent of If and Fat Ild Sun on the previous album. Fearless is much the same, but drowns in a stupid idea of football rally chant that would kill some 30 people in a stadium some 14 years later. Sadly the poor ideas are not over: San Tropez is an unconvincing jazz pastiche, while Seamus is a blues sung by a dog, and not well I may add. While both filler/missteps are short (I'd prefer them totally absent), they ruin the album's cohesiveness. If the former was a rather clumsy pastiche, they'd done it before with the atrocious Jugband Blues , proving that Floyd could repeat its mistakes, especially that Floyd would hit the nail far in the coffin's walls, by repeating the singing-dog trick in their Live At Pompeii film.

The sidelong epic filling the flipside is what this album is all about. First a series of snippets, it was tried on stage under the name presented as Nothings, but as the track was nearing its final form, its named evolved jokingly as The Return Of The Son Of Nothing and then a more serous Echoes. Unlike many epics of that era, Echoes chooses to be mainly instrumental, just developing two sung passages, one in the first third, the other in the last third, much in the mould of Caravan's Nine Feet Underground. Although nowadays this track epitomizes the beauty of music, it wasn't always the case: as a kid of 8, I remember first hearing (with headphones) this track with the sinister sonar submarine note (courtesy of Rick Wright), creepy seagulls (Gilmour's noise by reversing one of his effect pedal, already been used on stage in Embryo or Cymbalene) and what I perceived as gloomy ambiances, and I remember making a nightmare that night. A few years later (around age 11), after hearing it again, I laughed at this incident, wondering about the perception of art. Echoes is probably less ambitious than the other sidelong epic AHM, but it works better as the musicians are not overstretching themselves in this one.

Despite its flawed last quarter of the opening side, Meddle nears perfection on this album, whose main merit is to propel Floyd into another dimension with its following Dark Side album. Despite some heavy critics (always the same RnR keeper-of-the-rules, nostalgic of the Barrett days), one can not accuse Floyd to have formula and repeat it or even playing it safe. This is another completely different album, quite distinct from every other ones. Very few bands managed to rework their sound so thoroughly with each passing album and still maintain their personality and distinctive edge and sound!! Just with that feat, Floyd is incredibly progressive.

Clearly for me FLOYD's early catalogue is one of my most enduring and beloved albums from my collection... Like so many of you I grew up with albums like "Meddle" and "Dark Side Of The Moon" which to this day still hold up as superior albums in every way. Without a question "Echoes" would be one of my all time favourite FLOYD tracks with its sheer brilliance in perfect combination of Blues and psychedelia genres. Another one of my favourite FLOYD numbers is also "A Pillow Of Winds" with its melancholy Dobro guitar and hammond organ backdrop. "Meddle" also houses some humorous moments with "San Tropez" and "Seamus" taking some very unusual shapes and twists. "Fearless" is another magical FLOYD moment with its allusion to "Obscured By Clouds".

Another must-have, their second "progressive number", whose jewels are represented by "Echoes" and "One of these Days", simple but stunning pieces of art music... but also the rest is not bad and, for sure, it's another example of their versatility (despite of being not any virtuosities within at the instrumental section)

Recommended anyway!!

This is the first FLOYD album in chronological order that I really like. The epic "Echoes" is a progressive song of over 20 minutes long, full of smooth high notes electric guitar, background organ, acoustic guitar and mellow vocals. There are psychedelic parts in it, rather experimental and scary, and it should not leave the listener indifferent. For bass amateurs, there is "One Of These Days", a solid bass-keyboards oriented track. The remaining track are relaxing folky-bluesy songs with mellow lead vocals.

One of PINK FLOYD's most exquisite piece of work. "Meddle" is a six track melodic yet psychedelic record, that from the opening Nick MASON's distorted voice in "One of These Days" till the 2:13 minutes of "Seamus", drive all the way home to listen to the "Echoes", one of the most significant PF's songs and of the most enigmatic too; over 23 minutes of euphoria and synchrony, "Echoes" overdrives the whole meaning of this album. In 1971, "meddle" created a prelude to PF's next masterful album and that's without a doubt, "Dark Side of the Moon". I think this album opened PF's fans minds up to caught their attention to what was next of their career, and "Meddle" is that, the previous step to what I think is this master prog band best album, or at least one of them. To understand, to question, to magnify PF's creation to an upper level, "Meddle" is the key that will open up the lock to meaningful prog ways. If you must have it, have it then.

"Meddle" includes "Echoes", my all-time fave by Pink Floyd, I think it's the most progressive, epic and best work they ever made, it's outstanding! Look to the stars at night and listen to "Echoes", you'll think you fly in strange galaxy-spheres. Self-testet!

Your head'll appreciate "Meddle". It's here that PINK FLOYD nearly perfects their soporific soundscapes, aptly described in "A Pillow of Winds." What makes "Meddle" different from its predecessors is the distilling of a signature sound. "One of These Days" could pass for "Dogs", "A Pillow of Winds" for "Pigs On The Wing", "Fearless" would be revisited on "One of These Turns." However, by the time Animals and The Wall were released, the band had hermetically sealed themselves off from everything but an idiosyncratic sound. "Meddle" by contrast is still experimental, finding time for a delightfully Kinksian turn through "San Tropez", an ill-conceived throwaway like "Seamus" or the side-long electronic voyage of "Echoes." It's this last track that often captures the most attention on "Meddle", though it had more of an influence on TANGERINE DREAM than PINK FLOYD, who never wrote another song like it. Unfortunately, "Meddle" doesn't feature a lot of technical flash; Richard Wright's keyboards and David Gilmour's guitars are relatively understated (in fact, GILMOUR and Wright seem to challenge one another on "San Tropez" to see who can come up with the most restrained solo). It would be tempting to call "Meddle" a transitional album between their more experimental past and the sonically rich future, but it's not that simple. Better to think of this as the band's first epic recording. As much as I enjoy some of the band's early psychedelic triumphs, it's the occasionally lean and muscular attack of "Meddle" that allows WATERS' cynical wisdom and GIMOUR's biting guitar to shine.

If you're looking to get into the pre-"Dark" days, definitely buy this album before meddling with "Umma Gumma" or "Atom Heart Mother".

"Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart"

In retrospect, Pink Floyd's transition towards the band which made "Dark side of the moon" was largely completed with the release of this album. The attention to detail which made that album so extraordinary is missing here, but the music is generally more tight and focused than on previous releases.

"Echoes" is the feature track on "Meddle" occupying the whole of the second side of the LP. The track takes the instrumental finesse of "Atom Heart Mother", and combines it with the lyrical and vocal beauty of (the subsequent) "Shine on you crazy diamond", creating a charmingly understated piece which glows brighter with each listen.

I hesitate to compare "Meddle" to ELP's "Tarkus", but there are similarities. The side numbers are reversed, with the feature track in this case appearing on side two, and side one containing "all the rest". Of the tracks on side one, only "One of these days." really impresses. It has an inspired riff, which pulsates and morphs until interrupted by the only lyric, i.e. "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces". From there, the main riff crashes back in accompanied by Gilmour's soaring guitar. It's downhill really for the rest of the side, with "Fearless" even including a rendition of "You'll never walk alone" by the Liverpool Kop (football/soccer fans). The tracks are OK, but not up to the standards we expect of the band.

The album is well worth getting for "Echoes" and "One of these days" alone but don't expect too much of the rest.

Another step in PINK FLOYD's evolution towards "Dark Side Of The Moon". If you like the latter album you'll probably like much of the music on "Meddle", as four of the six tracks are in a similar vein, albeit not as polished as the music on "Dark Side Of The Moon". "Meddle" saves the best for last: the atmospheric 'Echoes', a superb 23-minute track demonstrating PINK FLOYD's well-known early 1970s style. The album is probably worth having for 'Echoes' alone.

The instrumental 'One Of These Days' has a hard edge to it that I like. The bass riff at the start introduces the track's head-banging beat, with the FLOYD's characteristic keyboards and guitar over the top. 'A Pillow Of Winds' is mellow - it's a pleasant song but nothing special in my opinion. 'Fearless' is a sedate song, again pleasant, and I like the soft vocals. In true FLOYD fashion, 'Fearless' has unusual backing: the supporters of Liverpool Football Club chanting and singing their anthem 'You'll Never Walk Alone' (from the Rogers & Hammerstein musical Carousel). Strange as this may sound, it does not spoil the song. The song 'San Tropez' bobs along in an English tea dance sort of way, and in my opinion is mediocre. 'Seamus' is a short, laid-back blues number, presumably done just for a bit of fun, with a dog barking and howling on top of the singing, acoustic guitar, bass and piano. As with 'San Tropez' this is a throwaway track, but I quite like it as it brings back memories of my teens when I and a guitar-playing friend used to perform it for a laugh. And then comes 'Echoes', the pièce de résistance, which manages to push this album from a 3-star effort to 4 stars in my opinion. However, if I had to choose between "Meddle" and "Obscured By Clouds", it would be the latter.

Meddle saw pink floyd excelling themselves musically and evolving their musical abilities and putting a more than perfect effort into this album. Meddle uses a similar concept to the previous "Atom Heart Mother" by having a side-long epic, although Echoes is not a suite. but Echoes is the last and best track so we shall save it till last.

The album kicks off with a funky, progressive instrumental called "One of These Days" which shows off their skills and abilities to play in unicen and is almost just a jam to kick off the album. This has every member playing at their best and clearly shows the grasp of starting quietly and building up to an explosion of music. It's also nice to see nick masons vocal debut with the classic line "one of these days i'm going to cut you into little pieces", even if it does seem a little out of place as this is quite a serious piece of music.

The trippy psychadelia is still present with the recording of liverpool fans singing "you'll never walk alone" at the end of fearless, which adds a great british feel to the album, and the questionable use of a howling dog in bluesy nonsense "seamus". These are brilliant pieces whether or not they are terribly progressive but they do show off the excellence of the band.

Of course none of this can compare to the epic "Echoes", which could well be the best pink floyd song ever, and is definetly one of the best prog rock pieces ever. Echoes has it all, churning sound effects of the sea, wind and a submarine siren echoing through the ripples of the water. The lyrics build up an adventure with albatrosses and submarines in the listeners head. This song will probably also be favourable amongst the crazy or stoned fans of the floyd. Each band member contributes 110% on this track. The best moment of the album has to be the epic build up to the glorious solo before the third verse. This keeps you captivated and wondering where the build up is leading to and once it explodes into the epic piece followed by the third verse, you know you are in prog rock heaven. If you have a collection of pink floyd albums and Meddle is not in it then there is something very wrong!

"Meddle" can be seen as a transitional album, but I think of it as a climax; a final statement for PINK FLOYD "vers. 2.0" before changing the way they present ideas on an album. In the same way that "Red" completes KING CRIMSON's second cycle, "Meddle" wraps up the loose ends of the post- "Piper", pre- DSOTM period- with refinement of past ideas and a glimpse of things to come.

On "One of These Days" we hear the final expression of PINK FLOYD's trademark creepy crescendo song ("Careful With that Axe, Eugene", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", "Saucerful of Secrets"). One of the classic heavy PF songs, it features the classic Gilmour slide guitar and Waters proves you don't have to be a bass virtuoso to play a memorable riff. It also foreshadows the upcoming side-long track "Echoes" in miniature.

"A Pillow of Winds" continues the mellower acoustic trend from side two of AHM, slipping from vaguely comforting to eerie and back again with liquid ease. I appreciate that some of Gilmour's more fumbling slide moments were left on- it gives a bit of friendly immediacy to an otherwise ethereal track. "Fearless" brightens this loose acoustic feel with a simple, memorable riff and chorus- despite the laidback mood, once you hear this song you won't forget it. I've never quite figured out the point of the crowd sample at the end, though.

"San Tropez" is my least favorite track on the album, a light jazzy vocal piece that (though written by Waters) could have fit on Wright's "Wet Dream" album. "Seamus" is kind of fun, the same sort of throwaway blues that we heard briefly on the "More" soundtrack...but with a dog solo this time. Neither are likely to head many fans favorites list, but at least they're not embarassing (unlike some of ELP's 'comic relief' songs, for instance).

However, the entire first side could have been twenty minutes of snoring and it wouldn't take anything away from the majesty of "Echoes". Many of their previous long- form compositions had uneven pacing, pointless jamming, or experimental indulgence separating the great moments. "Echoes" is their first seamless masterpiece; from the melancholy opening to the dramatic chorus of the first movement we might deduce that the mellow feel of the previous side (well, minus the first track) was going to dominate; not so, as the following passage goes from funky (AHM's "Funky Dung" refined) to freaky with the screaming smooth lead guitar providing the magic carpet. There's also some exceptional organ work here by Wright, but it's a little buried in the mix (curse you, Alan Parsons...well, to give him credit, the production is comparatively more crisp detailed than we've yet heard, maybe even more so than DSOTM). Once full-on weirdness sets in, it's both soul-wrenching and otherworldly to an extent that the band had not shown thus far- and that's really saying something after "Ummagumma". This is the perfection of the pure aural insanity that was introduced all the way back in "Pow R. Toch" and developed through "Saucerful", "Narrow Way", and many others. Just when you want to pull the covers over your head, the organ gives us a mournful lifeline and we are slowly brought back to song territory. The gradual crescendo of this movement is based around the staccato pulse that opened the album (and reappeared in force throughout "The Wall"). The tension builds with some rolling percussion and a heraldic burst of echoing guitar; powerful bassy slides and crashing cymbals segue into a reprise of the opening theme, including a final climax which ascends into a spacey, bluesy fade-out...not far off from the opening to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".

Okay, I have to drop a star for the occasional loss of excellence on the first side, but "Meddle" definitely deserves to hang with the more obvious achievers in the FLOYD discography. This album puts a cap on their post- Barrett meanderings, and if they'd stopped here, it would have been a very respectable closer. Luckily they had more ideas brewing...

This is the WATERS-era PINK FLOYD's first album. It only hints of the four massive hit albums to come, however, with the 20 minute epic Echoes. But we'll get to that later.

The album begins with the haunting sound of wind blowing, through which a single bass note echoes in high delay. Then another bass note, and another, and then we have a full bass riff going. Then a second bass joins in, double tracked. What happens is an axe-grinding madness underscored by WRIGHT's synth skills. It builds and builds until it goes into a very sharp, distorted single bass which broods for a while. Then you hear someone pounding on a door as the climax comes, and a monstrous voice says "ONE OF THESE DAYS I'M GOING TO CHOP YOU INTO 'LIL PIECES!"

Then the song continues with a guitar added, and eventually fades into the wind. This wind continues until the first acoustic riff of "Pillow of Winds" begins. It is a nice little song, and the transition between the two songs hints at the FLOYD's later obsession with connecting the songs together.

Following the relaxing number "Pillow of Winds" is "Fearless," another great song. Then there's the lazy "San Tropez," which is slightly less interesting, followed by what is possibly the FLOYD's worst song ever: "Seamus." It's a mediocre blues number made much worse by a dog barking (literally) in the foreground. It was meant to be a joke by the band, but come on! Fortunately it is very short. This album seems to begin wonderfully, then steadily get worse, then spring back up with "Echoes."

Ah, "Echoes." Very high-quality stuff. It starts with the "ping" of a submarine and then becomes an underwater, slow rock masterpiece. The lyrics are the first sympathetic lyrics from WATERS, and prove to not be his last. After some beautiful music, the band goes into a sort of jam which lasts just a little too long in my opinion. Then the band is silenced as GILMOUR's guitar screeches out eerie, piercing notes and seagull caws. It is here that we are pulled from the comfort of the watery beginning into the freezing air above. Not the best part of the song, but it is thankfully short. The pings of the submarine are agains heard, and we are slowly pulled back to earth with some progressing guitar riffs. Then the original theme is reprised in a drier setting, and the whole thing is eventually sucked into a pinging wormhole of sound. Excellent.

Now, with the great reviews I gave "Echoes" and "One of these Days," you might be wondering why I gave this an average 3 stars. If this album were the only way to obtain these wonderful songs, I'd definitely have raised the rating. But the album "Best of Pink Floyd" also has these two songs as well as some other great material. The only difference is that "Echoes" was edited a little bit, but the parts cut out aren't that great anyway. But if you really like "Echoes," you may want to get this album. "Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless" are worth a few listens as well, but not necessarily essential. Good for fans of PINK FLOYD or people wanting to start into their earlier material.

The beginning of all the epic studio albums from PF. Meddle is without doubt an absolute masterpiece. From the opening ageless ' One of these days', the dreamy ' Pillow of winds', the fearless ' Fearless' ( no other way to describe the song really) to the epic ' Echoes' which takes up the entire side 2 of Meddle. Echoes is special, there is nothing outthere quite like it not even other PF pieces, it transcends dimensions which is what Floyd were beginning to do from 1970 onwards right thru to 1994 with varying degrees of success. Meddle is pure genius.

Before The Wall, before Dark Side of the Moon, PINK FLOYD created a very different kind of masterpiece. While their later albums were a triumph of concept, it is on Meddle where one can hear the musical peak of PINK FLOYD's career. This is not a concept album--it is a musical journey showing off a variety of musical styles. The lyrics do not demand--they suggest, and allow the music to do the rest of the talking. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about Meddle is the fact that the band was truly functioning as a band here. Everyone's talents can be clearly heard, and no one shouts anybody else down.

There is no such thing as filler, on Meddle--this album is absolutely, completely perfect. Not a single note should be changed...not even the canine soloist of "Seamus". Bookended by the mindblowing tracks "One of These Days" and "Echoes", the four "interior" tracks are severely underrated by some. "A Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless" are both pleasant, leisurely guitar-driven songs, and seem fairly well appreciated by fans. However, I believe that the much-maligned "San Tropez" and "Seamus" are also deserving of appreciation. "San Tropez" is particularly notable for some very unique ROGER WATERS vocals--rather optimistic and even a touch bluesy...a style he unfortunately never pursued after that point. "Seamus" gives a rare glimpse of the fun side of PINK FLOYD, as well as a flashback to the band's origins as a blues cover band. This was never a song meant to be taken so seriously as some do. "One of These Days" is an explosive, energetic instrumental that perhaps foreshadows the angry, driven rock of Animals, but with only one lyric--a rare appearance by NICK MASON, whose electronically-processed vocals growl menacingly, "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces!"

The album's final piece, "Echoes", may be PINK FLOYD's greatest work ever. From first to last "ping", this brilliant quasi-symphony is fantastic. Each bandsman's talents are clearly audible, even the simple-yet-effective contributions of NICK MASON and ROGER WATERS. The vocal harmony of DAVID GILMOUR and RICK WRIGHT is mesmerising. Without question, this song contains the best verse WATERS ever wrote: "Strangers passing in the street, by chance two separate glances meet, and I am you and what I see is me. And do I take you by the hand, and lead you through the land, and help me understand the best I can?"

Unfortunately, this reminder to walk a mile in the other man's shoes was a lesson WATERS forgot in later years, at the price of devastating consequences to the band's output and to the members themselves. This moment in PINK FLOYD's history is therefore one-of-a-kind, completely irreplaceable. The entire album can be summed up by the "jam" sequence in "Echoes". Never before, never again do the pieces fit together so seamlessly, each a joy on its own and in combination.

This was the second Floyd album I bought, after buying "Dark Side Of The Moon". I have always liked this one and would put it in the top five Floyd albums, probably at number three, behind "Dark Side" & "The Wall". It is a tribute to their talent that it sounds very different to "Dark Side", which was the next release after this. This is very laid back, in typical Floyd fashion, and is excellent to sit and relax to. The opener, "One Of These Days", is the most aggressive track on the album, starting off with the sound of the wind, and then building up nicely. An instrumental, the pedal steel played by Dave Gilmour is used very effectively and in a totally different way to the usual insipid and predictable doodlings it is forced to produce for the standard, bland country music scene. Here it is a powerful tool! Second track, "A Pillow Of Winds" is a very laid back track, with good singing, interesting lyrics, and effective guitar. One notes here, and throughout most of the album, the subtle and effective use of acoustic guitar, sometimes to the fore, other times filling out the background to the songs. Nice slide work here too. Then comes "Fearless", probably my least favourite on the album, but nevertheless a good track. The way the - again acoustic - guitar is played, brings to mind a person, ascending a hill, or stairs. This ties in nicely with the lyrics. Well thought out this one. "San Tropez" is the fourth track, and instantly brings to mind sipping cocktails around the pool when on holiday in some exotic clime. Again, this is the effect it is meant to produce. Nice - yes, you guessed it! - acoustic guitar again! Ending what was the first side of the old vinyl record is the shortest track, a bluesy little number about a dog called Seamus, basic and funny this one, bringing to mind an old farmyard, in which sits an old man in dungarees, musing on an incident from his past. Finally comes the well known high point of the album, the much celebrated, "Echoes". Not much I can say that hasn't been said before. Nice lyrics, almost Coleridge like in their poetic form. Beautiful, distant, electric - yes, electric! - guitar filling out the background, whilst Richard Wright's keyboards have full reign here, dominating the song with interesting soundscapes. Indeed, to my mind, there instantly comes a vision of shorelines and solitary, soaring birds; a seascape of barren beauty, complimenting the aural splendour of the piece. A classic track from one of the three 'classic' bands of the 70's. The three most influencial prog bands of the decade - Floyd, Yes and, of course, my personal faves, Genesis! Any fans of Floyd, and ambient, partly acoustic music, will love this, but then again, they will probably have it. For those who haven't heard this yet, trust me and buy it! You won't be disappointed.

"Meddle" is not quite a masterpiece of Progressive rock music. But is as close to a masterpiece as you can get without actually getting the 5 star rating, if for no other reason than 'Echoes'. When 'One of These Days' and 'Fearless' are added, well it just makes this album even more essential. The one mistep on the album, 'Seamus' brings this album down from its pedestal.

'One of These Days' is as dark as 'Fearless' is uplifting (and not just for Liverpool fans). Both these songs are absolute gems in their own right. 'A Pillow of Winds' is only decent, and 'San Tropez' is slightly too poppy and upbeat, but not a complete waste. Even 'Seamus' has some comedic moments in it and thankfully doesn't last long.

But the real reason you own this FLOYDIAN marvel is found on Side Two. Whether you envision 'Echoes' as the underwater exploration that it is, or the space-rock number it originally was meant to be, both settings work real well with this album. With musical allusions to Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" or Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" prepared to be transported to another world.

Like when Pavlov rang his little bell, and his subject dogs started salivating; so do we, when we hear that short, sharp, single reverberating sound...

'PING!'

Say no more...

A Masterpiece, to me, is an album that goes above and beyond - that provides something more than its component parts - a complete work of art that is as near perfection for what it is as it can be.

And here, in Meddle, we have near-perfection.

I don't believe that a historical understanding is necessary - and if you've never heard Pink Floyd before, then this is not a bad place to start at all. In fact, the icy winds will draw you in and encourage you to crank up the volume until that opening bass hits you. Simple. Powerful. Effective.

One Of These Days continues to build, and there is something besides the music here - something almost tangible, as the double-tracked bass rings out in each speaker, and the synth hits punctuate the ever more wildly whistling wind. Subtle percussion by means of reverse cymbals imitates and intensifies the windy feel, and then the guitar! Oh yes! The guitar! Snarling, winding, turning upside down, intensifying - the whole texture building to that famous delayed bass riff, until the song proper kicks in around 3:40 into the piece. And yet the intro never feels too long, as Pink Floyd are masters of using space. The rest of the body of music pulses along, with Gilmour's trademark multitracked dive-bombing - and seems to end all too quickly.

A Pillow of Winds is the perfect light to the shade of the former, and we get sung vocals for the first time, in a very organic and pastoral mode, with acoustic and electric guitars and bottle neck decorations. There is an underlying dark tone that pre-empts the tone of The Wall, which suddenly moves to a major key, as if the sun has come out on the rainy meadow. This is also pre-emptive, of Brain Damage on DSOTM, but Floyd maintain the major key feel for this latter part of the song, to provide a kind of Yin- Yang balance.

From the opening chord of Fearless, we know we are in for something more powerful - Floyd showing here their mastery of form for the album as a whole. But the music is pulled back, to develop a kind of ebb and flow - with wafts of chanting that we can't quite make out. The attention to detail here as everywhere else on the album is utterly masterful - the more you listen, the more you hear, as tiny details in the music make themselves apparent. Gilmour pulls some really neat tricks, and Wright puts in some superb understaded piano details to make this one of the most incredibly textured pieces on the album. The chanting is brought back - but to the fore this time, and we hear that it is the anthem of the Liverpool Football Club - "You'll Never Walk Alone", whose lyrics tie in nicely with the Floyds and create a slightly surreal texture.

As with a classical suite, Floyd choose a piece with a completely different feel to follow Fearless; San Tropez is a lazy Sunday Afternoon encapsulated - a dream of the life of the idle rich. Beautiful lounge-jazz elements - especially from Wright on the piano - and bluesy bottle neck guitar create a unique, laid-back feel which is a real treat.

This side (I'm reviewing from a vinyl LP - the best way to hear the Floyd, IMO!) closes with the quirky Seamus. Almost unprecendented and never repeated in the Floyd catalogue, this is a tempting one to skip - but, as usual, PF give plenty to enjoy in the detail and texture with careful and laid back blues piano, bottleneck guitar and plucked guitar, with just a shade of bass. This maintains consistency with "A Pllow...", and the dog howling just reflects Floyd's humour.

Echoes is what this album is all about, however, and is worth buying Meddle for alone. From the opening ping to the closing ping, this is a 23-minute organic unfolding of events almost unprecedented in rock history, and a flawless journey of expermimentation that hints at later Floyd music; e.g. the sublime little guitar runs hint at "Shine on You Crazy Diamond". As with One Of These Days, Floyd grow the texture organically, the scene-painting lyrics entering around 3:00, and a newer, darker texture is hinted at around 3:40.

The song-writing abilities of Floyd are showcased to the max here, as the instruments show incredible restraint around the vocal passages, and only unleash a little at a time - feeding the listener little bit by little bit, and leading gently on through a nautical atmosphere that can be lived simply by closing the eyes. But there's more than just song-writing abilities showcased in Echoes - how does one keep a piece interesting for over 20 minutes?

Around 7:00, Floyd drop us into the darker chasms that have been hinted at earlier. Waters, Gilmour and Wright maintain a groove that is utterly grin-inducing, while Gilmour sends seagulls soaring, demonic denizens of the deep diving, and creates pictures of all manner of sea-related stuff, from sunlight glinting on the waves to waving forests of seaweed, to schools of whales. These can all be heard - if you listen for them! I particularly like the icy cavernous depths of around 11:15, where the accompaniment is dropped away, and only texture remains. This whole section is reminiscent of the experimentation on Ummagumma - but this time with a greater purpose. We float for a while in this new world, marvelling at the scenery, but the seascape changes beneath us all too soon, and we continue on our journey, once the familiar ping is heard again.

The heavy guitar and crystalline cymbals announce the imminence of another growing and intensifying passage, through dark caverns, but gradually approaching the surface - as light appears, breaking through the waters in columns - and when the vocals re-emerge, it's like we don't even know where the time has gone - it feels like seconds since the last verse.

Utterly magnificent - no collection is complete without it! There's not a single note to change on this album, no filler, nothing out of order - an album to revisit as often as you like and never get tired of hearing.

At last, Floyd got it right. Not all the tracks are 5 star; indeed Seamus is pretty throwaway, despite some excellent dog noises. However, what remains and the overall feel of the album elevate it into the hallowed ranks of genius. One of These Days is a frenetic, bass guitar led instrumental with a short, mindlessly violent vocal insert. Pillow of Winds, Fearless and San Tropez are much more gentle, soothing songs. But it is Echoes that leaves the lasting memory: a full side of music, flawlessly constucted and played with great keyboard and guitar solos. It creates a sense of the underwater, starting with pinging of a sonar, later dying away into synthesised waves, seagulls and ship noises before a gently building reemergence through the bass and keyboards. The short vocal sections are well done and the lyrics are great. This track was Floyd's finest moment ever, by far. Worth buying the album for this one track alone.

Similar to 'Atom Heart Mother' only far more accomplished this time around and Pink Floyd would continue this style for the next ten years; long, grandiose and moody compositions (see "Echoes") and strong songwriting in general. The first half of the album might not be among the band's strongest material but more than good enough for musical pleasure, with the haunting "One of These Days" being a standout and sets the tone for the album perfectly. "Echoes" is a long and cold underwater journey that still send shivers down my spine when I hear it and is Floyd's first truly successful epic musically, displaying great dynamics and once again brilliant writing. At 23 minutes it's never boring either and the creepy midsection really adds to the piece. Excellent album overall, worthy for any PF fan or newcomer.

OK, this is the second album review I need to rewrite.

This is a fantatsic Floyd album, showing the truly evolving yet still slightly immature (a.k.a., pre-Dark Side Floyd). As far as I'm concerned, it is the best album besides the main 4, Dark Side thru The Wall. It shows Floyd still searching for their sound, the sound that became legendary one they found it. I believe it was on this album that they hit on who they were.

It partrays a range of different genres for the band. From the crazy opener to the mellowness of some other tracks, as well as the blues and upbeat stuff, and of course, Echoes. Echoes is a five-star song, with no doubt. The first side hovers between a 3 and a 4. I believe 4 stars is good for this great album.

One of These Days: Fantastic opener. The second best song on the album for. The driving bass combined with Wright's tasteful keyboard additions set the stage for the song. It was one of those songs that's great on first listen, but still gets better as time goes on, and also works well when followed by the rest of the album, especially because of the slow-down in:

A Pillow of Winds: Nice acoustic song here. Fairly nostalgic and does a nice job of calming down the atmosphere of Meddle. Although it isn't anything like the song Wish You Were Here, it succeeds in its own simple purpose. Not too much can be said about it.

Fearless: Fantastic song. Gilmour's work here is my favorite on Side 1. Also, the verses/lyrics strike a note with me. They seem, dare I say it, positive. The reason this strikes me so is that... well, go listen to or watch The Wall. Nothing positive exists there.

San Tropez: Floyd still experimenting. A short little happy upbeat ditty thinger. That is actually how to describe it. It is so obviously un-Pink Floyd, but hey, the band was still searching for themselves in a way. They were transferring themselves from the entire psychedelia scene from their underground and early recording days. Evolving for a band is indeed tough.

Seamus: Floyd looking for themselves again, this one being even more off than San Tropez. It's a short little blues song with some of the most absurd lyrics I've ever heard. The most un-Floyd thing Floyd has ever done. Sharp, sharp contrast to:

Echoes: Floyd finds themselves. This is the band that would appear 2 years later. Echoes is a complete masterwork. The song is able, right from the opening keyboards, to whisk you into another world. You forget this land, this planet, this world. You are somewhere else, somewhere far far away, and nothing matters. Words cannot express this feeling. There are only a few songs/albums that do this for me, but Echoes, I must say, is at the top of that list, and for that, you must give it it's due.

Do not start your Floyd venture here. A better idea would be to start with 73 and on Floyd, then go back to their roots, in a way. If you are already a fan of the Floyd, this should already be in your collection, and if not, it should be very soon. It does constitute an excellent addition to your collection. 4/5 stars.

Meddle was the first pink Floyd album I listened to in totality for myself after being subjected to constant plays of Dark Side Of The Moon over and over at strange and dirty apartments and flats that had a party raging on into the very small hours. Of course this would only come on when everybody was completely zoned out and would annoy the [%*!#] out of me no end. Watching the sun come up while my eyes are several shades of purple and my mouth feels like an ashtray is no comfort when "Money" is thrown in the equation and my wallet seems to be lost and my liver has abandoned me due to neglect. Now, I have never been to keen on DSOTM (you don't say?) and it's commercial leanings, mainly because over time I have noticed that the majority people who own DSOTM have little else by Pink Floyd except for perhaps The Wall or The New York Philharmonic does DSOTM or something to that effect in the most extreme of cases. You know the people who might have Harvest, Hysteria, Thriller, Celine Dion's Greatest Hits and what ever mullet man Michael Bolton did in their collections. Basically the safe multi platinum options. I spoke to a guy about Meddle one time and claiming to a HUGE Pink Floyd album had never ever heard Meddle! And gave me an odd look. I dared not mention Syd Barrett's name.

I do enjoy the Meddle album even though it's inconsistent and the sound mix is actually very low, which is a pity as this lessens the sonic blast of "One Of These Days" which should have been ripping. Floyd have never attempted to recreate a song with the ambition and creative yet stoned quality of a song like "One Of These Days", but remember, this is coming from a Dark Side.. and The Wall hater so please forgive me. "Pillow Of Winds" is decidedly dreamy with a very flowing rhythm and though "Seamus" sounds barking mad , it's worth it's place but the highlight and obvious center piece of the whole affair has to be the schizoid mood of "Echoes", which starts out melancholic and emotive which for a second threatens to be sweet but builds big walls (ahem) of brooding darkness and freakiness that only druggies could come up with but is a song of epic proportions. I have a friend who works as a mortician and he tells me that there is nothing he likes better than to have a spliff, go in to work, play "Echoes" and [%*!#] around with a few corpses for the day. Needless to say, I don't envy him.

While this album is flawed, it is a very good addition to a prog collection. The album is not a masterpiece, but Echoes is for me their best song and ranks up there with Tarkus, and Close to the Edge. This album combines folk, rock, and psycheledic music. In fact, this album is similar to Tarkus by the fact that there is a masterpiece long epic, and the rest is mostly filler.

One of these days 9/10 : what a perfect song! dark, scary, sinister. The best part of it is its middle section with a bass using an echo pedal.

Pillow of Winds 6/10 : Follows with a pretty acoustic guitar driven song. Nothing essential, but it helps the flow of the album.

Fearless 6/10 : A good soft rocker with a memorable ascending riff. Nothing to blow you away though, and the ending has a stadium like cheering that annoys me a lot.

San Tropez 4/10 : A silly poppy roger waters song that doesn't do anything for me. Very weak.

Seamus : 1/10 : This is HORRIBLE! it is a bad uninspired common blues piece with a dog barking all over it. What were they thinking? this is the worst Pink Floyd song (even worse than the worst songs of the first 2 albums)

Echoes : 10/10 this song for me ranks up there with the best psychedelic songs. An obscure psychedelic masterpiece from the band's Pre-Dark Side of the Moon history. Lasting about 23 minutes, starts with a highly vibrating piano note, continues mellow with a slow and brilliant buildup, then it gets denser and stronger with loud descending/crescending guitar riffs and incredibly good vocal harmonies until a long slow guitar solo comes, and it transports you into a trippy section of sound effects until it builds up again into the main theme and ends.

So if you want to buy this album, do it only for the opener and closer tracks. The rest is mediocre.

My Grade : B

With the winds introducing the chaotic intro of "One Of These Days" we are led to one of the most wonderful FLOYDIAN journeys through four tracks of full brilliance and two other underrated ones that aren't bad but clearly weaker.

Meddle is the kind of album that has to be listened with an open mind. "San Tropez" and "Seamus" aren't among the best songs on PF's catalogue, but they also don't ruin the album at the point of making it be less than a masterpiece, though they do seem out of place here. In my opinion, the other four are so impressive that i really don't care for the pop side of "San Tropez" and the joke done on "Seamus" - this one being taken too seriously as another reviewer has pointed. I have learned to enjoy those two songs, they sure break the dreamy atmosphere which is the album's main characteristic, but they also give more variety in terms of musical content to the album. "San Tropez" can be a delightful song if you follow the rhythm of Waters' words and forget that this is just a pop number. It IS a poppy song, but it is at least well done. "Seamus" is just the band having some fun. This song adds nothing to the album, but it also doesn't ruin it. What really matters here are the other four ones, "One Of These Days" is one of the best intros ever made, it has a double bass work done by Dave and Roger and a scary modified vocal line by Nick Mason saying "one of these days i'm going to cut into little pieces!" leading to the rocking second part of the track. I love the "shwah!" done by Rick's synths through the song, which adds a lot to the chaotic feel. After this great number we have "A Pillow Of Winds", which is very different from the album's opening. It is actually one of the FLOYD's more mellow and moving works, and it has a hypnotizing feel that's built through the Dave's amazing guitar chords and sweet vocals, especially at the short instrumental section at the middle. I'll describe the exact image that comes to my mind when i listen to this song: i feel like i am in a forest in the middle ages, and a cloudy sky cover all the land. It works much better than BLACKMORE'S NIGHT music in my opinion. "Fearless" is not so good as the previous two songs, and also brings the hypnotizing feeling. It's still very dreamy but i don't like the "You'll Never Walk Alone" anthem too much. The last one is the mighty "Echoes". PING! Welcome to the ocean and let its waves lead you through PINK FLOYD's most trippy song ever done. The opening notes by Dave and Rick show that this is something really special...! This epic contains both wonderful music and lyrics. It originally had a space theme, but then the FLOYD decided to make an oceanic one. The embryo lyrics mentioning something that would be a "planets' dance" were also quite good, but these new ones of the released song are simply amazing. It also features the funky part done on the Atom Heart Mother suite, and when its second part arrives with the return of the "pings" and the guitar notes borning from Dave's fingers leading to that short semi-chaotic and touching at the same time guitar work (definitely the album's climax) you'll feel that those were some of the best moments your ears ever had the honor to be pleased of. After more awesome lines "...and call to you across the sky" and the windy ending, you sure will realise that even a pop song and a joke one can't drop an album containing an epic of this level from its pedestal.

Would the album be better without "San Tropez" and "Seamuz"? Even though i said before that those two songs don't bother me anymore and i am discovering a new pleasure on hearing them, i still have to admit that without those two the album would maintain its dreamy feel from begining to end, and would sure be worthy of being on my "6-star FLOYD albums" special category, which has as "members" Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon. But Meddle can be considered a masterpiece and does deserve the 5 star ranting due to the level it lets me reach. I feel mesmerized by this album, and it touches me deeply emotionally, so i consider this a very special album for me.

The first Floyd masterpiece!

"Meddle" is arguably the first fully developed and perfectly produced PINK FLOYD album, following the unsuccessful experimentation of "Atom Heart Mother". Everything works fine here, even the unusual combination of several easy mostly acoustic songs flavoured with folk and some bluesy touches, surrounded by two premier space rock anthems, the opening "One of These Days" and the epic "Echoes", makes much sense and offers more than a pleasant and adventurous listening. Without excessive psychedelic sound effects (the "ping" from "Echoes" is more than just an effect...) and orchestral arrangements, the foursome delivered a strong sonic texture that ranks among their finest achievements and is a refreshing and interesting listen every time you put the disc on, equally in 1971 as today. Truly remarkable piece of music and a must for any prog collection.

I wasn't very convinced by this album. I guess it has signs of their imaginative 1960's era changing towards to the more calculated 1970's sounds. The weight on the scale seems to be shifting towards more coherent messages dominating their forthcoming "Dark Side of The Moon" era, but there are still great moments on this record certainly. Long main suite "Echoes" has a beautiful Lloyd Webber reminding theme and a long bluesy instrumental part. The album opener "One of These Days" is also a good song, playing with echoed bass pulses, backward driven effects and things which might cut you to small pieces (Eugene?). Otherwise I found this album quite boring to listen, "Seamus" even managing to annoy me a bit. Also I first liked the covers of this album quite much, as I thought it being abstract design. As I realized what the gatefold is actually representing, the picture it didn't please me anymore as I probably had an association of earwax from it. Relates to the "Echoes" and sound pulses very well though. Also the band portrait within the inner sleeve is quite cool.

Echoes! pays for the entire album..being a gem within a gem!!! Things have started to glue together!! Outstanding stuff in this one... With the passing years, I have learned to love this album, and have become one of my favorites over all.

Another amazing album by floyd! This is almost perfect except for the annoying song Seamus. It seems like a few of floyds classics have some irritating filler. I just wasn't digging the dog groanings, unsettling to the nerves. Still One of these days (one of the best opening tracks) and echoes alone bring this album to 4 star rating. They are two largely instrumental and find floyd fine tuning there sound, showing everyone whats to come in the future. The other songs together squeeze out another quarter star for a 4.25 star album!

Well, I went to the shop to buy the album "Atom Heart Mother" and I saw this one - I didn't ever know that this work existed... and like I had some money still with me I bought "Meddle" too - a complete blind date (the year: 1972; my age: 15).

Going home I started to regret thinking that money could be better applied... but wow, when I listened it for the first time all my doubts disappeared almost instantly. This is an album for ever, forever!

The tracks: 1) One of these days - amazing, attractive; that moment when everything runs edging perfection. 2) Fearless - nice and pleasant; good guitar and singing with some original effects. 3) San Tropez - hearing it first I felt myself lying in some Mediterranean beach (and look, in terms of beaches I haven't to complain here in Brazil). If a song can transport you to a distant place then it shall be exceptional. 4) A pillow of winds - the most beautiful ballad of Pink Floyd's stock; no more comments since they are not necessary. 5) Seamus - for me, only a filler, but not sufficient to disturb the majesty of the album. 6) Echoes - another EPIC in the same level of 'Atom heart mother', maybe better. Well, it is great indeed and shows a much more continuous display than the last. Also a piece to fill my pantheon of great songs.

I could remove 0.5 star due to the weak 'Seamus' but it would be unfair with the complete album, so the final rating is 5.

Everyone knows and recognizes that the Dark Side of The Moon is Pink Floyd's masterpiece and an album that characterized the glory days of prog rock. For me personally, it's interesting to notice the albums that precede Dark Side of The Moon. Why? Well, this is probably very personal and you might disagree with me, but it's fine. To me, the period before Dark Side of the Moon was when the band tried to shape the kind of music they intended to have for the true Pink Floyd music. There was period when they're really a psychedelic band with the like of The Beatles - i.e the period with Syd Barrett. Post Syd Barrett era remarked the band movement to another shape that they might not know at that time. But if I observe in deep, there has been a tagline that underlined "the sort of sounds" they want to craft the future. Take a look on the title track of "Atom Heart Mother", for example. If you notice quite in deep, you might find that the track has key ingredients of Pink Floyd sounds, in this case that the bed where the music lays has evolved into "Us and Them" of the Dark Side of The Moon. You might find also how "Obscured By Clouds" has also evolved into another forms of Pink Floyd music. That's just an example, and the list would grow later with other tracks as well.

"Meddle", by no exception, has contributed significantly to the solid music of Pink Floyd in their music career. Take "Echoes" which obviously defines the music of Pink Floyd in terms of structure, composition, as well as style. Yes, it's heavily influenced by blues but the band has repackaged the track into music textures where the blues influence is not the main characteristics of the song but it enriches the song in its overall appearance. Another track worth observing is "One of These days" which mostly comes from the dual bass lines with Roger Waters playing on one channel, while David Gilmour on the other. What come next are two tracks which show the unplugged, folksy side of Floyd. These two tracks are possibly the band's best performance with this kind of style - which unfortunately do not favor me.

Overall, this album isn't the best album by Pink Floyd albums, but is well worth the effort to collect. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Pink Floyd in 1971 had changed drastically from it's psychedelic/pop roots with Syd Barrett and soon after his departure they became a highly experimental band who took no prisoners with their sonic bombardments. Meddle is the realization of all the experimentation they had done at that time and perfects it. The group had not yet become the mega-famous group they are now, at the time, they were rapidly growing a fan base and becoming increasingly popular. The musicianship on this album is phenomenal, with each member really shining on essentially all tracks. And if that weren't enough, the lyrics provided on this album are top notch, with Waters really coming a long way after his contributions from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

The album opens with an ethereal instrumental known as One of These Days. The pounding bass rhythms and the spacey slide guitar are augmented by wavy keyboard lines and pounding drums. The moment when all hell breaks loose is when Mason utters his famous phrase, "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces"... and then all goes into madness, and the song ends with a real bang. A Pillow of Winds is a dreamier piece, with some spacey Rick Wright vocals and some nice keyboard work from Wright as well. It's not the best song on the album, but a strong one to say the least. Fearless is another astoundingly strong piece. Great ascending guitar riffs and vocal/lyrical work are highlights. Gilmour's guitar work is astounding on this track. San Tropez is more of a joke track than anything else, in the vein of The Nile Song off of More. It's a strong joke track, to say the least. The vocals are well done and the jazzy music that accompanies it is very strong as well. Seamus is a considerably weak tune, and the only thing that really keeps me from rating this album as a masterpiece. Nick Mason's dogs are featured on this track, and that's the only thing really worth noting.

Echoes in the finale of the album, and the 24 minute epic really shows that Pink Floyd were all about taking everything to the next level. This atmospheric and moody piece is a total realization of everything that Pink Floyd had done up to that period and gives it a respective twist. The spacey aquatic themed tune is begun with some great keyboard work from Wright and some great solo work from Gilmour. The main theme to the song is astoundingly strong and the lyrics and vocals are also incredibly strong. The breakdown between the vocals is a great descending riff and one of the strongest riffs Pink Floyd had come up with at the time. The breakdown section in the middle features some strong rhythmic overtones from Waters and Mason, who provide the groove for Gilmour and Wright to solo over. Add more spacey and ethereal sections, and you have yourself a masterpiece of an epic.

Overall, this was Pink Floyd's strongest album to date. The work on this album is astounding, and the only reason I can't rate it as a masterpiece is because of the weak track Seamus. Otherwise, you must get this album and listen to some truly revolutionary music. 4.5/5.

This is a very interesting album and one of their best albums, IMO. It still has some experiments and some arrangements inluenced a bit by Psychedelia. It also has one of the best long musical pieces, called "Echoes".

The album starts with "One of These Days", which has a bass guitar played with a delay sound effect. It is a simple instrumental piece of music with added sound effects and David Gilmour playing a pedal steel guitar. "A Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless" are songs played with acoustic and electric guitars, mainly sung by Gilmour. "Fearless" includes a "choir" at the end of the song which it seems liket it was recorded during a soccer match, with the public singing "You`ll Never Walk Alone"! "San Tropez" is a Jazz influenced song with acoustic guitar and a piano solo, and sung and composed by Waters. "Seamus" is a blues song without drums which has the funny sound (at least for me) of a dog barking along with the song in the background, seeming like the dog was singing the song too!

"Echoes" is the best song in this album. It has several untitled parts which are played with energy by the band, and it also includes a part played with synthesizers on which they sound like noises produced by "prehistoric birds", giving a very good effect to the listener like being transported to "old ages"! Great arrangement! The song is finished with energy by the band, and then the song gradually fades with the same synths playing strange noises. "Echoes", IMO, is similar in several ways to YES ` "Close to the Ege" and ELP`s "Tarkus", and all these musical pieces are very important in Progressive Rock music.

In conclusion, this is a very good album, next to their "Dark Side of the Moon" album in quality.

When one of my class mates introduced me to MEDDLE, back in 1975, we were fascinated by the 'funny sounds' as well as the music. Pink Floyd were well-known for being a real 'underground band' specialising as much in weird noises as in anything else. The mysterious opening of 'Echoes' took our breath away, the spooky middle section gave us the creeps, and the spoken bit in 'One of these days' had us in stitches. In the course of time, of course, I also started enjoying 'Echoes' for its beautifully sung main melody, its guitar solos and its exciting organ-led climax. Compared to other 1970s epics it's flawed, of course (those creepy sounds in the middle should really have been curtailed), but it's no exaggeration to state that 'Echoes' was the Floyd's very first symphonic prog classic.

Most of MEDDLE's shorter tunes are eminently forgettable, but I happen to like 'San Tropez', with its cool, jazzy piano solo splendidly performed by Rick Wright.

This is the album in which Pink Floyd began to deliver a more focused sound and their writing skills became more refined, although there are still unmistakable traces of their early psychedelic era floating in the majestic atmospheres created for 'Echoes', arguably their most accomplished composition ever. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. "Meddle" is an album in which Pink Floyd decided to explore their rockier and bucolic aspects in a clearer frame of mind, giving distinct rooms for each attitude throughout the fisrt half. The recording kicks off with their anthemic rocker 'One of These Days', a catchy yet somewhat scary exhibition of minimal textures that gradually sets a room for emotional darkness until the infamous recitation, from which the band turns on full swing, with the drums setting a solid pace and the steel guitar exploding like a diamond in the sky that scatters its splinters across the cosmos. The sound of the wind connects the opener's end with the beginning and development of 'A Pillow of Winds', an extremely reflective piece in which the steel guitar reappears, this time as a painting instrument instead of a summoner of storms. But it is the acoustic guitar arpeggios that take center stage now, softly displaying their cadences over the dreamy organ layers. This is classic acoustic Pink Floyd. Portraying a more optimistic mood although keeping things quite constrained, 'Fearless' gives a candid message of self- confidence within the confines of a pleasant motif. 'Saint Tropez' and 'Seamus' continue the acoustic vein with disparate results. The former is a joyful, ironically-absorbed song in an old jazz mood, while the latter is a failed attempt at easy-going fun on an acoustic blues set. Perhaps a longer expansion of the 'Saint Tropez' song could have taken more advantage of the last two minutes of the vinyl's A-side, but well, things are as they are. And ultimately, it is good that things are as they are, since the second half of the album is occupied by the monumental suite 'Echoes', which is to many prog fand and PF heads, the ultimate PF song. And deservedly so. Everything in and about it is a definitive prog (and art rock) classic, and now comes a list that hopefully will be extensive enough. The dripping effects played on a distorted piano, the guitar leads that set the mood for the jams, the best vocal duet performance by Gilmour and Wright ever, the disturbing interlude played on mellotron overdubs and bizarre guitar effects, the reflective lyrics that portray the mystery of the ego's encounter with itself in the others, the ascending climax toward the last sung section, the hypnotic closure of mellotron choirs going in circles toward the higher notes while the final drips go fading away. These 23 ½ minutes are pure prog brilliance. "Meddle", while not totally filling the masterpiece's shoes, it almost does: one of Pink Flyd's absolute gems for the prog genre.

No beating about the bush - Echoes is damn near the best piece of music ever created by anyone at any time .... even all these years later it holds a power that few others can get close to. The psychedelic instrumental section, especially the pounding 'marching' theme [my head has built up a story to this that is quite independant of the lyrics, though they do seem to gel somehow] never fails to send shivers down the spine. This is also my preferred version of this song - everything about it is perfect. Simpler, but barely less powerful, is the Echorec endowed One Of These Days with Nick Mason's barely discernable vocal. Anything else really is a bonus. The remaining tracks are in a freeer style with lots of jangly acoustic guitars, bluesy licks, chanting football crowd and singing dog - in themselves pleasant enough but nothing outstanding, at least in a Prog sense. They are, however, a perfect foil for the two major tracks. Overall - masterpiece.

This was my entry album to the Floyd. Back in December 1971 (I was aged 12, almost thirteen). From the very begining I had a quite mixed feeling about it. A first quite boring side which I (almost) never spin as such and a fabulous second one.

Side one opens with "One Of These Days" which is, of course, a fantastic song. Quite "windy" for about a minute, the bass work is gorgeous throuthout the remaining part.The whole band then enters in such an unknown frenesy : almost hard rocking ! One of my all time fave from the Floyd that I frequently listen to, even thirty-five years after having bought it.

We enter then into a less memorable part of the album. "A Pillow of Winds" is a rather poor acoustic track. Boring all the way long. Useless.

"Fearless" is somewhat better. It ends with the famous anthem "We'll Never Walk Alone" sung by the Liverpool fans. Altough I prefer to hear it while attending a football game featuring the Reds (I had twice this experience in my life), it is quite interesting to mix it with a Floyd song (it is already noticeable earlier on in this song as well).

"San Tropez" is a jazzy little tune of no interest at all.

Altough some might find "Seamus" a great song, I can tell you : it is on par with the crappy studio work from "Ummagumma" and the B-side from AHM. To be in exctasy with the barking dog denotes some perception of music I hardly can understand. Very, very poor.

I really did an effort to listen to those ones for this review. I promise : for the next thity-five years, I will not listen to this crap again, for sure !

To confirm my feeling, I quote Roger : "Atom Heart Mother and Meddle are half good. I like "Atom Heart Mother" and "Echoes" themselves, but we made a right mess of it on the other sides."

The whole of side two is covered by the wonderful "Echoes" : another fave of mine. Over 23 minutes of great music. The sonar-like sound to start was an accident. I quote Rick : "I was playing around on the piano in the studio but it was actually Roger who said, would it be possible to put that note through a microphone and then through the Leslie? That's what started it. That's how all the best Floyd tracks start, I believe.".

After the intro, the Floyd offers a very nice & harmonious vocal section, a great guitar & keys break, an interstellar trip to the boundaries of the solar system (or underwater) and an incredible crescendo finale that last for about eight minutes. This is one of the most fabulous moment of prog music and the essence of our driving forces (well, maybe I'm too lyrical). Really this piece of music is fabulous.

So, for once, let's depict how I worked to get the rating for this work. I worked as follows : instead of considering the amount of good numbers (two out of six, almost two stars out of five) I will rather take into account the minutes of music (which is more favourable for this album). Almost thirty minutes of a masterpiece level ("One Of These Days" and "Echoes" ). Six minutes of two stars stuff "Fearless" and eleven crappy ones. The average rating reaches 3,69. I will rounded up to four stars. Really because this album has a special meaning to me (otherwise, with such poor numbers, a three stars rating would be more appropriate).

As usual I would say, the Floyd delivered a rather controvertial album. Masterpieces combined with absolute crap : it is not the first time. Unfortunately, it won't be the last time.

Interesting to mention that one of the left overs form the "Meddle" sessions was a track called "Brain Damage"... at that time it was called "The Dark Side Of The Moon"... Meddle will peak at Nr. 3 in the UK (only Nr. 70 in the US). Four stars.

By 1971 Pink Floyd had done a good job of distancing itself from the considerable influence of Syd Barrett and started recording albums that better reflected their true identity. England loved them but here in the USA they were still being unfairly lumped into the dubious and suspect category of "acid music" and not being taken seriously yet. However, with this album they finally became more accessible to the masses and the tide began to slowly (but surely) turn in their favor.

The fact that the very first cut, "One of these Days," lent itself well to the still eclectic FM radio stations and, therefore, smoothly migrated into their much-desired heavy rotation was one of the big reasons. Even though it's an instrumental, it has that signature "Pink" sound that invariably draws even the most casual of listeners in. David Gilmore's slide guitar work is all over this album but here it's especially striking. The overriding pulsating guitar effect also sets it apart from the herd, as well. "A Pillow of Winds" meanders a bit here and there but it's still a nice, pleasant tune with more of Gilmore's interesting slide guitar. "Fearless" is an outstanding song with an easy, loping pace that I've always liked. The crowd singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" is so amazing as it drifts in and out along the way, giving the tune a unique quality. Next is an unexpected left turn, "San Tropez," by bassist Roger Waters. It's a little like the Lovin' Spoonful's "Daydream" in texture but it's the tasteful guitar and Richard Wright's cheery piano that really stand out. It's a delightful change of pace. "Seamus" is a hike off the beaten trail, as well. The dogs (literally) sing quite well over the country Dobro and honky-tonk piano and the whole thing has a nonchalant Stones-ish aura to it. The sidelong "Echoes" definitely shows where the band was headed in the future. Starting with what sounds like sonar pings, the guitar and organ take over before long and then the harmony singing begins. There's a definite "Time" (from Dark Side of the Moon) element at work here but not as well defined as in that great song. There's an intriguing lead guitar being played by Gilmore but you have to listen intently as it's buried in the mix. A funkier rhythm propelled by drummer Nick Mason enters and takes us to some cool guitar feedback layered over Wright's tactful organ work. A spacey section follows where it sounds like wind blowing through a huge cavern and tiny creatures screaming. Next is a segment that is reminiscent of "One of these Days" but with the throbbing effect much more subdued. At one point Gilmore constructs a layered, echoing guitar passage that is brief but excellent. The long epic comes full circle with a reprise of the original melody before the whole thing fades away. The clearest way to describe this 23-minute composition is "genuinely psychedelic."

Overall it's a good effort but as a group they weren't quite "there" just yet. However, it's obvious that they were headed for the Promised Land. I'd rate this one a 3.4 on the five-star scale and say all Floyd fans should definitely have it in their collection. "Meddle" reveals a work in progress that would eventually take over the world and find the band becoming a household name.

I always thought the album cover looked like it had a nose on it, but that was looking at it upside down. Although the title "Meddle" can mean nosey. PINK FLOYD were always about creating new paths and discovering new worlds musically.They were the explorers, the leaders not the followers. So as they entered the studio to record this new album they did so not knowing where it would lead. There seemed to be something akin to writers block with the whole band as none of them seemed to have any good ideas. Mike Butcher an engineer at Morgan Studios remembers the sessions there well. "It was like a Monty Python skit, one of them would have an idea, present it to the band and then someone would say "No we can't do that". And that was it, the idea was dead". This went on from 2 pm to 4 am. The material that was gathered from the first "Meddle" sessions at Abbey Road Studios was if anything lacking inspiration. The single biggest inspiration for this whole album came from a single note that Richard Wright had played on his piano through a Leslie speaker. Some of the band were reminded of a sonar pulse. It sounded like it was in the distance. And this idea of space as in outer space rekindled and reminded them of what was once an inspiration even on their debut as in "Intersteller Overdrive" and "Astronomy Domine".

The block was gone and this experience got them excited again about what they were doing and obviously that carried on well into the future. I should mention that while they were recording this, EMI's budget release arm Starline released a compilation album called "Relics" of their earlier work. A positive that came out of this struggle to find inspiration was that the band co-wrote all the tracks.They worked as a team even if Roger Waters was clearly involved in creating each track.

"One Of These Days" is an instrumental with Waters' bass being played through an echo machine, and it sounds amazing ! Wright adds his expertise on the synths as Gilmour lays down some good guitar melodies, including a scorching solo later on while the drums pound away. Can't forget Mason's manipulated vocals either. Gilmour would later state that it was the most collaborative work the band had ever done. What an opener ! "A Pillow Of Winds" is one of my favourites on this record. I just love the way it opens with the wind blowing as acoustic guitar and reserved vocals come in.This song is to me a dreamy song that would be perfect to listen to on a warm, lazy summer's day. "Fearless" features some beautiful guitar and fantastic lyrics. The subject of mental illness would be addressed further on the "Dark Side Of the Moon". "San Tropez" is a fun, upbeat song, with a nice piano melody to end it. "Seamus" is a bluesy number that is both short and silly.

"Echoes" is a side long suite that is truly an epic. This had taken a long time to create as they painstakingly assembled it from small segments. Richard Wright really shines on this song with his synth work as well as his organ play. Mason pounds away methodically, while Gilmour is prominant especially in the jam section. "The song was a monument to the experience that had given rise to it : much as they had done in their earliest experimental pieces, with "Echoes" PINK FLOYD had found a way forward working together". By the way Nick Mason has stated that he didn't think the band could have done "Echoes" without having first done the "Atom Heart Mother" side long suite. It prepared them for "Echoes". And certainly doing "Echoes" prepared them for "The Dark Side Of The Moon". Something to keep in mind for those who dump on FLOYD's earlier albums. These guys kept searching and trying new ideas from album to album, doing what no one else was doing at the time.

This would be their first studio album without Norman Smith helping to produce and while it didn't chart as high as "Atom Heart Mother" it would be their most important record to date. Oh but we all know what was coming next. Up to this album this is my favourite just edging "A Saucerful Of Secrets".

"fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd, smiling"

I love that line! Meddle was the soundtrack of a few hazy summer days for me and my pals in our youth. It has much nostalgia value to me but I set that aside for an objective rating.

I find Meddle to be a bit over-rated here and I believe the average star rating would be a full star less were this album the work of a lesser known psych band of the era rather than everyone's favorite, Pink Floyd. While "Pillow of Winds," "Fearless," and half of "Echoes" are very good, and "San Tropez" is nice, I think that "One of these Days" and "Seamus" are both less than classic and frankly a bit juvenile. And a good hunk of Echoes is not exactly up there with Dogs or SOYCD. The mid section is just allowed to drift a bit too long for fans not into the chemical experience. That's not necessarily a bad thing but I would simply question whether making the piece more concise and perhaps using some of those drifting mid moments elsewhere else might not have been even better. I can't put the album on the same level as their masterpieces but do think it is very good overall and a solid piece of their legacy. I think that "A Pillow of Winds" is the standout track on this album and wish they had expanded that piece more. The textures here are just incredible and Gilmour's vocal and guitar are exquisite. As mentioned by a critic in the Meddle "critical review" dvd, Pillow sounds like the band sitting on the banks of the Thames lighting a monster joint. Meddle is a decent spin but below Floyd standards, though some see it as a step on the way to albums like Dark Side through Animals. It has its moments, but lacks the excitement and daring of the albums preceding it, and the gravitas of the albums that would follow it.

Meddle is one of several floyd transitional albums, and this marks the change from rambling psychedlia to something more. waters is beginning to display some of the lyrical brilliance that make make him so hard to hate despite his general attitude towards others. Gilmour has fully amalgamated himself into the band and together they start the bal rolling for Floyd

The stunning instrumental "One of These Days" opens the album by gradually building until it reaches its zenith, which it sustains for nearly half the song. "A Pillow of Winds" has a dreamy atmosphere that reflects the title, and for whatever reason it never grabbed a hold of me. "Fearless" picks back up with great lyrics and a better riff. "san Tropez" is another laid back tune that is more enjoyable than Pillow, but "Seamus" is by far the low point of the album.

Then, comes "Echoes." A 23 minute culmination of the band up til this point.It is a stunning tour de force with Waters' best lyrics at the time (and one of the best things he's ever pinned), and incredible instrumental work that alternates between traditional sounds and random bits where synths and Gilmour's guitar mimcik animal sounds ranging from prehistoric birds to whales. The lyrics deal with man's empathy, but various meanings have been derived (take a gander at inpraisoffolly's review for his impressive insights). When sifting through Floyd's impressive catalog to pick their greatest song, this should be somewhere at the top of your list.

Meddle has its ups and downs, and in a way it reminds me of ELP's Tarkus and Rush's 2112, where a stunning epic is supplmented by several shorter tracks that cannot hope to compare to it. However, Meddle, like 2112, has shorter songs of a higher quality than that on Tarkus. Every fan of Floyd should pick this up for the first and last tracks, but I'm sure quite a few would love the whole album. Highly recommended.

Grade: B

Meddle was a groundbreaking work for Pink Floyd, chiefly because of the amazing 23+ minute Echoes featuring some of the most wonderful guitar experimentation ever done. Gilmour was a genius on this instrument and Echoes showcases some of the most unusual sounds ever produced by one. Pure space music. The section with the soaring echoed parts and wind will take you off to some far-off unexplored planet. Gilmour also makes effective use of delay, a precursor to much of what he did on The Wall and possibly one of the earliest uses of this technique to make this sound (maybe Hillage did it first?).

In addition to the side-long track, the group puts together five short tracks for side A of the album, starting off with the driving instrumental One of These Days, one of their most popular tracks and concert favorites. A Pillow of Winds, Fearless, and San Tropez are also great songs with San Tropez being a piano-driven lounge-like song. The only weak track is Seamus, which is slow and lazy featuring dog barks and howling. A far cry from their future release of Animals; here it's just filler.

With or without Seamus, Meddle is easily a five-star masterpiece, chiefly because of Echoes. Highly recommended and a great place to start if you haven't heard any of the group's pre-Dark Side material.

(Seamus, that's the 3.5)

Meddle was, of course, the album that shows the Floydsters FINALLY pulling themselves from out of Syd's shadow, and figuring out exactly what they wanted to do for the next decade. Gone are the experimentations with post-psychedelia, orchestral suites, and mindless avant-garde tuning. The Floyd formula is in place, a pleasant mesh of all of those elements (sort of psychedelic-art-pop, with an edge). And in that way, this album is even more revolutionary than Piper At the Gates of Dawn.

...Okay, I'm [&*!#]ting you, I've NEVER heard any Pink Floyd albums before this one. However, I have glanced at some histories of the band, read some liner notes for Division Bell, and downloaded a "Wish You Were Here" ringtone, and I THINK that that makes me qualified to be a Floyd historian...I also own Barrett, but that's another review I guess.

Meddle contains arguably the worst opener of all time: "One of These Days," the ULTIMATE Pink Floyd song, in my opinion. The Floyd never got finer than this, an absolutely melody-less piece (I couldn't hum the tune if you put a gun to my head, save for a few slide guitar riffs) of pure, hard rockin' mayhem.

It starts slowly, the instruments unsurely meshing with each other. Then, it drops off for just a little while with some furious bass pounding, the track's infamous only line is uttered, and then it's a free for all, everyone playing their respective guts out. Truly amazing. And at the end, it all falls back to wherever the hell it all came from. Freaky, the whole damn thing. So what makes it so horrible you ask? Well, it's horrible because the album NEVER lives up to it. Tries though, gotta give it that.

But not for a while; ballad "A Pillow of Winds" is awful. A largely tuneless bore, the lyrics are okay, but why all that noodling? What, is this supposed to be lullaby-esuqe? It's putting me to sleep. "Fearless" is a better, if overlong, acoustic number. The tune is good, pleasant even. I like the descending riff; still wonder if those footballer noises were necessary though.

The lazy lil' "San Tropez" is actually a really fun number. Once the Floydsters crawl off their serious pedestal, the album gets a lot better! Well, a little at least. The tune itself is no great shake, but the lyrics are hilarious, the guitar solo is pretty solid, and I swear that the piano at the end is Rick's finest hour. Heh. And then there's "Seamus," obviously designed to be the set piece of the album. At less than two minutes, it's a furious example of nicely-if-not-astonishingly played, dog-based blues.

Of course, if you've got a short number, and you're listening to a prog album, odds are you've got an epic REAL close to it, and...OH! There's "Echoes!" "Echoes" is, of course, the very good, but still very overrated, epic that encompasses side two of Meddle. It's overrated because parts of it are horrible, in fact, some of the worst on the album. However, it's good because some of the best material on the album is here too (very "Supper's Ready" that).

Take the opening movement...well, actually, it's probably the second movement. This sucker supposedly contains about six million and twenty-two musical themes. I hear four or so. What? "Think Like a Brick" is WAY more complex than this thang.

Alright, alright, Floyd not Tull, sheesh...the first movement sounds like a bunch of silly twanging. However, it actually sets up a very nice, very cold, watery atmosphere (I call this movement "That Opening Part," or, "The Cold, Watery Part" on a good day). Then, when the actual SONG begins, it's really quite good ("Echoes"). I love the lyrical imagery, and I love the guitar solo that follows. One of Dave's best, actually.

But then, then it all turns into this ridiculous, crappy, funky organ solo (which I call, "Crappy, Funky Organ Solo"). What's up with that? I mean, on its own, it's not that bad, but it just lasts FOREVER! What, were they, competing with Iron Butterfly? And if you thought it couldn't get any worse, it magically transforms into this really stupid sound collage. Everyone tells me those are supposed to be whales, but it just sounds a bunch of doggies ("Dog Noises"). Sick doggies. VERY sick doggies. I guess it works from a freaky point of view, what with the screaming and the crow noises (okay, crows AND whales? Now you're [&*!#]ting ME), but why does that part have to be so long?

Luckily, the lads are clever enough to pull us out of this with some bass trickery (which is also too long, but definitely more tolerable), a movement which I have dubbed "One of These Days Part 2," because, well, it sounds like "One of These Days." Then we get back to the main theme ("Echoes Pt. 2"), and then it all fades like it started. Good one lads, way to destroy a hopefully good song, then redeem yourselves slightly at the end. That's just what you did with the whole album.

And, all in all, it should be a fairly average album. I mean, "San Tropez" and "Seamus" ARE both filler, however pleasant and amusing they may be. And, c'mon, TWO ballads? No one thinks of ballads when they think of the Floyd! And one of them sucks too...

However, the better moments of "Echoes," and definitely "One of These Days" pull it out of that; the album is hardly essential, but any fan of the Floyd NEEDS that song. Unfortunately though, I think that that's the point. Does anyone feel like the lads wanted to do "Echoes" really, REALLY badly, so they cobbled together a first side? Thank God we got the first track out of that...

And, uh, that pretty much sums up the entire album in a nutshell. Pretty much all the emotional resonance, the sparkling musicianship, and the best material is located in the first track and the first (second?) movement of "Echoes." The two filler numbers are fun, and the two ballads are unnecessary at best, boring at worst.

You know what, I'm sorry, I'm listening to the album again. "San Tropez" is clearly the best song here. Screw that dreadful "One of" thing, THIS is the finest Floyd number...okay, maybe not, but it's better than "Echoes," right?

With this album PINK FLOYD signal they are through their transitional, post-BARRETT period and have formed their own unique sound.

'Meddle' and the next album, the OST 'Obscured By Clouds' showcase this new sound: simpler, less pretentious and virtually effect-free, with very little remaining from their psychedelic era. 'Echoes' aside, their compositions are relatively short and of a standard rock structure, with verses, choruses and bridges. I ascribe this to the rise of GILMOUR's influence in the band: he gets his first meaningful vocal load on these two albums, and his guitar features far more strongly, taking over from RICK WRIGHT's keyboards as the main melodic driver.

It is important to consider this album in the context of its immediate predecessor, 'Atom Heart Mother'. That album had a side-long symphonic prog piece, with an opening theme, a funky section, a psych freakout and climactic close - as does 'Meddle'. It also had a side of more orthodox soft rock songs, as does 'Meddle'. I see 'Meddle' as an attempt to re-do 'Atom Heart Mother' without the overambitious encumbrance of the orchestra. For many people the result is an improvement: certainly the sound is more accessible and far 'rockier'. For me, however, it falls some way short of AHM's brilliance.

I will say this about the excellent 'Echoes'. From the first sonar ping, the sole remnant from an unrecorded project, the song has an energy missing from PINK FLOYD's studio work since their debut album. And in the section immediately following the second verse, they write their first really dynamic rock piece, a genuinely strong and powerful section that blazes through the speakers. The funky section is an improvement on 'Funky Dung' from AHM, but clearly derivative of it. The only negative for me is the length of the psych freak-out 'cawing birds' section of the track: half the length would have been more than enough.

I'm far from impressed by the first side of 'Meddle'. Of course, 'One of These Days' is excellent, a rock take on their psychedelic days, and a pointer to what they'd become: the combination of driving rock and special effects presages albums like 'Animals' and 'The Wall'. The rest of the album consists of gentle blues/rock, with GILMOUR at the helm. These tracks are fine on their own without being outstanding, but the genius of latter-day PINK FLOYD was to take simple song structures and invest them with meaning by the use of samples, solos and segues (the three S's of PINK FLOYD music). None of these four tracks feature the three S's (save 'Fearless' which has the Anfield faithful sending their own 'fearless' message, and the wind segue between the first two tracks).

Both GILMOUR and MASON saw this album as the emergence of the modern PINK FLOYD (Nick Mason, Inside Out), as do many of their fans. I believe their signature sound was already evidenced on 'Atom Heart Mother' - MASON'S fills, GILMOUR's guitar and so on, as well as the symphonic/space-rock song structure - but it was obscured by the choir and orchestra. This album is, in my view, AHM II, and the loss of the embellishments means, for me, this is a lesser effort. I'll happily admit that my taste is perhaps not that of the majority, for whom my ratings for this and AHM could be reversed.

For those of you who have only heard the famous FLOYD albums, you'll enjoy this one. I'd encourage you to go back one further and try 'Atom Heart Mother' as well. Just don't expect the acidic, petulant lyrics and themes of the late 70s. Instead you'll get contemplative, pastoral music with some rockier moments. And there's a beauty here sorely missing from the WATERS-dominated albums.

I like the warmth of this album. It relay should have been named "A pillow of winds", after a track. It's like a pillow, warm and cuddly. It suits me the most to listen to this album while I'm in my bed, or around it. Pyjama prog, the finest example.

Excuse me; pyjama rock. I don't consider PINK FLOYD to be a (very) prog rock band, certainly not on this album. But this is rock of high quality. And there are some other things, much more relevant then a technical quality.

The opening track is closest to prog, that's all you have to know, because you already know everything else. So I will skip it in my review, although I like it a lot and I think its historical significance should be more renowned. The Floyds are most of the time overrated, but when they are great, they don't get enough recognition.

A self-titled track (cuddly album version) is enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. "Fearless" is enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. Actually it's not guitar sliding, it's more like a solo on a chorus. It's a bit folksy (not to say country 'n' western) + meditative. "Saint Tropez" is enjoyable rock tune...if you consider CREAM's "Four Until Late" or "Wrapping Paper" rock songs. But it has some guitar sliding. "Seamus" is enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. Honestly. Go pay attention to acoustic guitar. But who listens to guitar when the dog is singing? Forget the sentence at the beginning of the paragraph: this is the closest thing to prog on this album - if you think about a concept of music in general, and only human beings as capable of doing and appreciating art...and we have a dog here as a performer. Cool. By the way, it's not a rock tune unless you consider that form a slow rock , which is something else. The word "blues" is stolen today for something entirely else.

Side B contains a side-long "Echoes", a really enjoyable rock tune. It is not an epic (because PINK FLOYD are not prog band), it's a bunch of ordinary (yet enjoyable) rock songs glued together with some hilarious seagull calls and scary atmospheric sounds. Performed with a guitar sliding. And a sexy funky middle part. (The solo is missing, but don't blame a non-prog band for that.)

So, in general what do we have here:

1. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. 2. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. 3. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. 4. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. 5. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. 6. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. 7. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding.

What's wrong with this album. Is it THAT boring?!?

No. Actually it's, as you may guess it, enjoyable. As far as the eclecticism goes, we have a scary space rock as an opener, tune or two of good straightforward rock, a blues piece, a side-long suite and a jazzy one (music hall?). Quite diverse. And do not forget, all the tracks are good. Really. Some people complain about the "Seamus", I don't have a clue why, unless they're Irish.

This album contains six tracks, but I got carried away with copy and paste, the one of the most useful things of 20th century.

I would like to say a thing or two about evolving of the band, about the transition between the two periods and so forth, but why bother? It's obvious that I like this album quite a lot. Actually, it's one of my favourites from the band of which I don't have very high opinion (regardless of yes-prog non-prog nonsense).

So, if by some cosmical coincidence you are reading this and you don't own the album, get it. It's enjoyable, with some guitar sliding.

Pink Floyd's MEDDLE straggles the line between a superb album and a masterpiece. Surely side 2 of the LP covered the entire groove with the 23min31 epic entitled 'Echoes'. For the inquisitive ; I was heavily into 'The Wall' during the end of 1985 - from then on it was everything 'Floyd'. At the local Video shop was 'Live At Pompeii' for hire - me, thinking that it was Floyd performing 'The Wall' I got my Dad to hire it out. I wasn't to know that the Pompeii video was from 71/72 and not 1979/80, as was 'The Wall'. I was greeted with the most amazing music I've ever heard with 'Echoes' (Part 1, the first half) - I just didn't know what it was I was hearing....It was from this performance I knew that the Bass Guitar was the instrument for me - Roger Waters was so confident, self profound and adequate on the instrument it totally blew me away enough to go out and purchase a Bass Guitar. Nothing too complex, but so tasteful and effective it didn't really occur to me that music can be complicated and incredibly clever. Moving on, I received 'Meddle' (on Cassette) as a Birthday gift and listened to it religiously for weeks, months even.... this, after intense analysis over a period of time, became an extremely nostalgic album and something of a 'comparison' for all music I listened to thereafter. Side 1 of the record opened with the superb instrumental - 'One of these Days' - some multi-tracked Bass-guitar (complete with 'Delay' effects) kick off an incredible composition which no other band have equalled ever since. It is Drummer Nick Mason who yells out a distorted vocal line 'One Of These Days I'm Going To Cut You Into Little Pieces'. This intense track leads into a tastefully mellow song 'A Pillow Of Winds' - complete with Fretless Bass playing (Gilmour, no doubt) but so 'warm' and likeable that no-one should dislike this tune. 'Fearless' follows with a catchy riff and accessible song - difficult to put into words but it does interpolate the Rogers/Hammerstein classic 'You'll Never Walk Alone' (one for the Soccer fanatics) and then followed by the Burt Bacharach-like 'San Tropez' (as I've read somewhere) which offers some jazzy piano playing from keyboardist Richard Wright. The side is finished off with 'Seamus' - a blues tune designed to get your pet dog wailing along to - quite experimental and amusing, but not something many listeners would see the point of. 'Echoes' is a progressive-rock masterpiece if there ever was one. How to compose a catchy tune and extend it over a lengthy period of time without losing the listener's attention - this is (partially) what it's all about, and Mason/Waters/Gilmour/Wright succeed no end in doing so. I give it 4.5 stars, as they have achieved consistently stronger moments throughout their career.

I made a pretty bold statement just a moment ago when I maintained that Atom Heart Mother was a more attractive epic to me than Echoes on this release Meddle. There will always be some people that agree with that but I feel a larger number of prog and Floyd fans will disagree. Maybe we should make a poll about it in the forum, hmmm...

Anyway, same as on the 1970 album also on this successor from a year later the epic is the main track clearly. But contrary to the earlier album I feel that on Meddle the shorter songs have more substance and more variation. First track One of these Days already proves that in my opinion. An energetic and interesting instrumental, very catchy and one of the bands favourites at live gigs. Very suitable for those I believe. A Pillow of Winds is more like what they produced on Atom Heart Mother with the shorter tracks. A quiet song with nice instrumental parts. Fearless is a bit more monotonous but still it sounds really nice with Liverpool FC supporters at the end obviously. San Tropez is a pretty accessible track, almost poppy more like typical sixties music (except for the jazzy end). Not bad but nothing special. Seamus is the shortest song here and dogsounds are the original feature here. Nice laid back little tune.

Echoes is a classic of course. And with my earlier statement I don't want to degrade this one into a poor effort by any means. But it's not as superb to me as it as to many others. The reason is the lack of impressive melodies that were to be found on the earlier epic but are absent here. Ok, some melody in the first half but it's not really captivating in my opinion (the second quarter of the track is by far the best but then again the only really great of all four). Instead of it it's more dragging along and many parts are more experimental and less psychedelic than on AHM. Or to put it in other words: it's simply less suited for my personal taste since I'm usually not too keen on experimental music. For many it's the main feature in progressive rock. If that is so then maybe I'm just a half progger because I'm not waiting for these experiments without harmonic melody. So no enjoyment for me with Echoes, it's also a bit boring if I compare it with their other famous epics.

All things put together result in a three star rating with the adjustment that it's just my opinion. I know it's an aberration but it's really how I feel. Still a very good album objectively and I do even understand if people consider it a masterpiece. Four stars seems the most likely outcome but I'll leave it at three.

Review 64, Meddle, Pink Floyd, 1971

StarStarStarStar

My first real step (aside from one early, and preferably forgotten, expedition. A rather unfortunate Teutoberg Forest-style incident) into the nebulous world of reviewing Pink Floyd comes with the album that widely seems to be regarded as the start of their classic period. While I think there was a lot of merit, certainly, in the preceding Atom Heart Mother, and there are certainly many admirers of the early psychedelic stuff (I've yet to delve into this, since Floyd is relatively expensive), the view is understandable as the product, the complete booklet, stunning cover art and musical perfectionism does really glimmer from Meddle almost as brightly as it does from the timeless Dark Side Of The Moon. Meddle is often regarded as an album with two unforgettable Floydian gems, rarely, if ever, bettered by the band, while the remnants of the first side are somehow unworthy of these two pieces. I think this view is somewhat fair, if a little exaggerated, and so am taking a slightly different approach to the review's format to try to bring a new angle in.

Echoes is, in my mind, the crowning triumph of Roger Waters as a lyricist. It holds the single finest set of lyrics I have yet heard (and I am very much into the lyrics of our nebulous genre), and so perfectly delivered by the joint Wright-Gilmour vocals. Mysterious, mood-altering and brilliantly, simply phrased, Waters transports the listener to the three-part world of his poem.

The first verse locates the listener in the submarine world, using locative words and atmospheric word choices to ensnare them at the ocean floor, looking up (hence the initial 'overhead'), feeling like a speck in this temporal ocean (everything is green and submarine, and the singularity of the (motivating?) echo and the (inspiring?) albatross compared to the plural and inanimate sand, caves, labyrinths, waves and air). The verse extension introduces the song's theme with the existentialist idea of no-one, no god, no inherent gene pool, guiding our development and understanding how the world works, and yet some thought, some ambitious urge, within us developing (note the sea-land development here. As in the first creatures coming from the sea) and aspiring. Beginning to make the journey towards a greater goal, although it's unsure of exactly what that goal is.

The second takes the idea onto land and into human form, with a chance, uncertain (Do I?, which could also be a nuptial reference) encounter between two strangers, one being the narrator, the other 'you'. Both of these people are in essence the same, but divided by circumstances. The narrator shows an awareness of the meaning, of the understanding, in cooperation, in helping others, and, indeed, in love. Again, the 'no-one', the creator-shaped gap in this reality, encourages or bars us, but this time no-one cooperates or aspires, and no progress is made. The reality of the ultimate, uncaring capitalist ethic is implied as simply mediocrity embodied.

The final, magnificent verse raises the above ideas to their peak, softly, powerfully, the 'you' of the previous verse, whether the sun, or a person, encourages and offers motivation to move on, to grow, to try, and this cooperation (ambassadors) and motivation (sunlight) and open-ness ('through the window in the wall' - a link, a receptiveness to the outside) cause development. And finally, the protagonist in turn calls out and inspires his own muse, throwing the windows wide, and he can do this because there is nothing, no apparent god, no gene pool making him avoid this. The message, then, is to grow and cooperate, that working together with other people will advance you, while selfishness won't have any effect, and this is the single most inspiring piece of socialist/pro-cooperation writing I have ever read. This is my humble view on the subject, and I'm sure there are other interpretations out there. I leave this section with the final verse extension:

And no-one sings me lullabies And no-one makes me close my eyes And so I throw the windows wide And call to you across the sky

The music can only introduce itself, it is majestic, slowly developing, climaxing magnificently and beautifully, inspiring and yet at times lowkey and never remotely pompous. Perhaps the organ solo winds on too long, perhaps the desolate guitar screeching in the middle is too dissonant for the mood, perhaps the actual piece is quite simple and extended without rapid changes in style. However, I do not mind, because the overall atmosphere, delivery and lyrical content is so incredibly overwhelming that I leave the semblance of a fair critic behind from the first notes.

Now, back to the first side: One Of These Days opens the album superlatively, with an immersive windy feel and kicking bass, as Wright adds all sort of brilliant keyboard textures, sharing some of the ideas with Mason's cymbals. Mason too contributes brilliantly with both thudding drums and very subtle percussion. At about the two minute mark, the piece really takes off with Gilmour's gritty guitar wails, a tense section vaguely resembling the Doctor Who theme with very dark ideas and a spoken, thoroughly distorted vocal ('One Of These Days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces) initiates the full-blown chaos of the following section, with everyone simply playing. The Floyd rhythm section simply rocks, while Gilmour and Wright add loads of stunning ideas over the top. Superb, but also irritatingly indescribable. Another wind effect closes the piece off.

A Pillow Of Winds, a rather sweet, relaxing acoustic-dominated ballad with so many stretchy edges (acoustics, subdued electric, bass throbs, keyboard swirls) and a gentle vocal. Intense layering and deep choices feature throughout, and the end result is an odd mixture of haunting textures and relaxing ones, and uplifting choices. Damned weird, but very interesting, and with a good set of matching lyrics.

Fearless, sadly, had amazing potential. If it didn't, I could forgive the ending, which single-handedly kills any risk of the album hitting the fifth star. A great set of lyrics, a good acoustic melody with jaunty rises and accompanying excellent vocals and a tasteful rhythm section, as well as a brilliant break including an acoustic/bass all suggest that the song would be great. It nearly was. Unfortunately, someone in the band decided that it would be a good idea to stick in the most obnoxious football chant possible as an irritating end that breaks all real immersion by what is, presumably an attempt to give it relevance. Urkh!

San Tropez very much suggests a Simon And Garfunkel influence, with a bouncy set of lyrics and music, although both are absolutely top notch. A cheerful bass thing holds up the piece, while Wright's piano substantiates and emphasises, and Gilmour takes a quality solo. Utterly cheerful, and not at all filler.

Seamus is simply brilliant blues, with dog howling and a bit of harmonica incorporating itself into the band's general fun on piano, guitars and bass. I can't see what's so despicable about it. Very soulful.

So, do I give this the five stars of a flawed masterpiece, or the four of something that didn't quite make it? I'm torn, admittedly, but the following Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here albums, though not losing any of the warmth of this slightly weaker effort, do have a complete perfectionism and stunning polish that establishes their brilliance. Meddle doesn't, however excellent it is, reach the same artistic height consistently, and so merits 'only' four stars. Nonetheless, an absolutely essential album for any Floyd fans, and even those who aren't the band's greatest devotees. Brilliant stuff, and deserving to be seen as an excellent album in its own right rather than a mere prototype of Dark Side Of The Moon.

This is when things started to change.

I don't consider "Meddle" a masterpiece in the same level as the four releases that succeeded it. I think that the album is still uneven, with a few weak moments. But there's no doubt that it's the point when PINK FLOYD turned from a very interesting band to one of the best of all time.

The main reason for my saying that is this record's last track, the fantastic "Echoes". This is the first taste that we would have of the band that gave us "Shine on you Crazy Diamond". David Gilmour's trademark, narcotic, celestial guitar melodies and solos make their first true appearance proper. This long epic also announces the arrival of a force never before heard in music. Atmospherics and notes flowing in the space were the new focal point, not kinetic energy. All the magic that was to come in the next albums was already here.

But this time around, the rest of the album has also several brilliant moments. The opener, "One of these days", is just a majestic crescendo piece with a constant idea being developed dynamically from a starting point in the deep corners of our minds to a sudden explosion driven by psychedelic rock. Like most of the previous album, "Atom Heart Mother", this track is vocal-less, purely instrumental. And we really wouldn't have it otherwise. "A Pillow of Winds" is ethereal, pastoral, with Waters-Gilmour's glorious hallucination-inducing voices striking with delicacy over soft sounds coming from above the clouds. "Fearless" is a more straightforward rock piece, with an interesting riff and with some bluesy- overtones. It's a very soothing song, very pleasant.

"San Tropez" is, in my view, the weakest link in the "Meddle" chain. It sounds a little like THE BEATLES, a little like THE DOORS, psychedelic but rather irrelevant. "Seamus" is another low point in the album, a boring guitar-and-vocals dirty little song that thankfully lasts only a couple of minutes. After this, the sonic world of "Echoes" is unleashed upon us, and we can be certain that the Monster has been created. Many have tried to sound like them, most every band sounds "floydian", but there's only one PINK FLOYD, and here it appears in all its glory.

If only for the superb "Echoes" and the fantastic "One of these days", this album deserves recognition as one of PINK FLOYD's best. A few weak tracks stop it from getting 5 stars from me. Nothing would stop the next four glorious albums. And in "Meddle" we get an excellent sneak preview of those.

Interesting opposition of Atom Heart Mother! The structure of the album is almost the same, but there is one big difference. The epic composition of the album - Echoes - is situated at the end of the album, instead of eponymous Atom Heart Mother situated at the beginning of its album. The other difference is about the quality of the music. It's definitely in favour of Atom Heart Mother - indisputable 5 stars masterpiece, while I'm still wondering what will be my mark about Meddle. The epic compositions are both charming, but the difference came from the other songs. All songs on Atom Heart Mother contain the power in its full phase, while Meddle's middle songs give way to the middle songs of AHM. The comparison between One of These Days and Alan's psychedelic breakfast is another equal giants' one. So, we have four Meddle's middle song, two of them melancholic works, a jazzy one and a bluesy one, but they don't meet the requirements for 5 stars. 4 and a quarter stars for me!!!

Meddle is one of the better Pink Floyd albums in my opinion. The psychedelic style and sound was still very much present on the previous Atom Heart Mother album, but with Meddle they moved away from psychadelia for the first time (only to revert to it on the next album Obscured By Clouds).

The album begins with One Of These Days, a rather hard rocking instrumental. Well, there is actually one vocal line in it that I think is out of place and adds nothing of value. This song is not progressive in my opinion since it is based on one single riff that moves through the whole song. As you probably guessed already, I'm not too impressed with this one.

A Pillow Of Winds is a very nice, folky acoustic song that I find quite enjoyable. However, this is hardly the stuff that will blow the Prog fan away. Fearless has a typical Pink Floyd melody, but untypical of them is that it is acoustically based. San Tropez is a more fun, jazzy song. This song also is acoustically based with acoustic guitars and very jazz grand piano parts. I judge this as a throwaway song, but it doesn't distract from the overall cohesion of the album. Seamus is a pure blues number, also acoustically based. It is an instrumental apart from the addition of a "singing" dog! This addition is the only thing that makes this one stand out.

Echoes is in many ways a very typical 70's Pink Floyd song and clearly a predecessor to Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Echoes takes up the whole second side of the album and I think it is quite a bit too long for its own good. There is a too long experimental part in the middle that just goes nowhere. Still, it is one of the better long Pink Floyd songs of all time.

The strong acoustic leaning they adopted for this album is what makes it stand out from most other Pink Floyd albums in my opinion. However, apart from Echoes the song structures of these songs are conventional. The influences are more varied than usual with Pink Floyd; folk, jazz, blues, but they seem not to be able to fuse these influences together. Therefore the music here is not particularly progressive. Thankfully is it also not very psychedelic, making this album stand out from all previous ones and some latter ones.

Meddle was clearly the best Pink Floyd album since the debut and a large step forward for a band that seemingly lost their direction after Syd Barret left (or became insane or whatever). Dark Side Of The Moon would become their commercial breakthrough but Meddle is more interesting musically. It is, however, very far from being a masterpiece of progressive music.

Good, but hardly essential unless you are a Pink Floyd fan (which I am not very much).

While not nearly my favorite Pink Floyd album, Meddle has over time become one of those strange albums I find myself gravitating toward with more (no pun intended at all) frequency. It is an album for both lovers of jazz and psychedelic music.

"One of These Days" The album begins with a pillow of winds, as it were, and Waters's echoing bass (perhaps hinting at the final track). The composition is repetitive, but uses that repetition to build by bringing in the various instruments, but it is without a doubt the wild bass guitar that stands out. Gilmour's slide guitar plays a more prominent role toward the end, but one may still be tempted to focus on the bass (and Wright's punctuating keys). The music ends with the sound of wind leading into the next track.

"A Pillow of Winds" This lovely track looks far into the future, seeing a time when Gilmour would make an album centering around this pleasant sound, which would be called, On an Island. If one is a fan of said album, one should not be disappointed by this satisfying acoustic guitar-based song, which also features slide guitar.

"Fearless" "Fearless" is one of those tracks that I always seem to forget about when I put on its album until it begins, and then I am filled with both delight and pity- delight because I have rediscovered something a song I enjoy, and pity because I find it impossible to refer to it as a memorable track. That said, I really enjoy the layers of guitars, the happy riff, and Gilmour's singing. The singing of "You'll Never Walk Alone" by the Liverpool Football Club is a nice touch.

"San Tropez" This Waters-penned piece reminds me quite a bit of Burt Bacharach, with it's easygoing but upbeat jazziness. Gilmour has a slide guitar solo, while Wright gets an opportunity to delight listeners with some jazzy piano at the end.

"Seamus" This is a short, acoustic blues song featuring the ever-annoying wailing of a Borzoi.

"Echoes" A piano through a Leslie rotary speaker begins this epic Pink Floyd song. Gilmour's guitar is subtle, although less so than the rest of the instrumentation until the drums come in. Three minutes in, the hypnotically beautiful vocals enter, full of mesmerizing lyrics. The guitar riff after the verses is intriguing, fitting the enigmatic nature of the song. Following several minutes of guitar soloing, a funkier, bass-driven ride gives Gilmour more freedom to run about on his guitar. Things take a turn for the strange, though, as the funky groove gives way to out-of-this-world psychedelic noises, all of which are the result of heavy experimentation or sheer accident. Waters used a steel slide on his bass and fed the signal through a Binson Echorec. The ear-piercing screams occurred because Gilmour accidentally had his cables switched around on his wah pedal. Wright contributed to the sonic experimentation by pulling certain drawbars on his Hammond organ. When the music becomes coherent again, reviving the Leslie-induced piano, Gilmour palm mutes rapid notes on his guitar while playing a lovely melody, and the sound builds with Mason's steady cymbal work. The music climaxes in this part to some creative guitar work, but unexpectedly brings the verse section back around. One of the greatest audio illusions ever, a Shepard tone, concludes the piece.

This is Meddle, the begining of the new Pink Floyd, which is more progressive, and less psychedelic. Meddle contains the epic echoes, one of Pink Floyd's biggest achievements, and 5 other songs, most of them being fairly unknown to most people. This is the follower of Atom Heart Mother, which did also excist out of one 23 minute epic and several shorter songs, it was although far more experimental.

The first song is "One Of These Days", a song based around a powerful bassline. The song contains great keyboard playing of Richard and great slide guitar of David. The song is very powerful and fun to listen to, but it's far from being a masterpiece.

The next song is "A Pillow Of Winds", which is excactly the opposite of "One Of These Days", it's very mellow, has relaxing vocals, smooth acousting guitar picking and typical Floydish slide guitar. Many people don't really seem to care about this song, it's just one of the few shorties of Meddle, I don't think of it that way at all, it's a beautiful song.

The next song is "Fearless", it basically is a nice song, It's got a nice riff, catchy vocals, nothing wrong with it right? Well...in fact there are some problems here, I don't have a clue why, but we here singing football supporters on the background, not a big deal, but it makes the song feel like it goes about nothing.

After the dissapointment of Fearless it's time for jazz with "San Tropez". San Tropez is a nice song, it's a pleasant listen, very smooth, very jazzy, but still very Floydish. The songs has some nice piano parts and slide solo's, yes, this album has lots of slide guitar. A nice song which shows Pink Floyd's wide musical skills.

The next song is "Seamus" (also known as "Mademoissele Nobs". It's a simple blues song with a dog barking into the microphone. A pretty funny experiment, but not very interesting except for the dog.

The final song of the album is the epic "Echoes", often seen as one of Pink Floyds true masterpieces. The song starts out with high piano notes through a Leslie speaker. Soon the piano is joined by soft guitar playing of David Gilmour and the song goes on for a while. After about three minutes there are some very mellow vocals, it's sung very lovely, but I don't have a clue what the lyrics are about. After the first verse there is one of the most catchy bridges ever, very lovely. After the second verse we get to hear one of David's best solo's, a haunting piece of guitar playing. After the solo a simplyfied version of the bridge is played, a couple of years later this riff was simply copied by Andrew Lloyd Webber for the soundtrack of Phantom At The Opera. After this we reach the funky part, it's a jam based around a funky guitar and organ riff. David plays some of the finest licks I've ever heard at the funky part. After the lovely jam we hear evil, dark sounds that go on for a while, a while too long if you ask me. After that we get some fine arpeggio's of David Gilmour and a reprise of the vocal part. A lovely song, though maybe a bit too long.

A good album, though far from the band's best.

|C+| A very pleasant album, but nothing more.

Meddle is probably one of the better albums by Pink Floyd, or at least of their discography preceding Dark Side of the Moon. I enjoy this album from time to time, but from the first time I heard it all the way until this review I never really saw the light in terms of why it is considered by many as one of the quintessential album by the band. It's a nice collection of quite experimental and delightful tracks, especially the wonderful though somewhat drawn out epic, which almost pushes this album to a four. Unfortunately, there are a few tracks I really dislike on the album as well, which really stain my opinion of the album overall, however much I like its better moments. Pink Floyd shows us what they've always been quite good at in this album, atmosphere, only a bit more well structured, a progress which would cause the band to later explode with great material by Dark Side of the Moon all the way to The Wall.

The first track One of These Days is pretty cool, a little insignificant, not really anything special to mention. Wind sounds start of the track, in comes some cool bass work and that classic Pink Floyd psychedelic keyboard work, though this really lasts a bit too long, but the distortion guitar certainly helps keep it a bit interesting, as well as the sound effects that enter in the background. It's a bit too repetitive of a track overall though. A Pillow of Winds is a pleasant track, soft and dreamy, good acoustic guitar and soothing vocals, though again nothing really too special about it. Fearless is a classic Pink Floyd track, no doubt about it, it's much like the rest of the album with the acoustic and blues influences, though this track stands out for its various mood changes and sweet, catchy nature, and awesome ending! I wish I could say the same good things about the following two tracks, San Tropez and Seamus, but these are really what bog the album down in my opinion. Just a couple ditty bluesy tracks that don't interest me in the slightest. They just have little essence to them, maybe something easy to listen to every now and then when you're bored at home or something. Hearing Seamus makes me think of myself listening to the song on vinyl when I have a headache and I need something to calm my nerves. Than again I might think those things just because I've never been a real fan of blues music overall. Echoes really makes up for the slump, and perhaps then some, and is a great precursor to the epic material they would produce later on. My only complaints is that it takes so long for the band to really make their musical statements, but than again the whole point of a song such as this is to take time and consideration to make its point. A very slow but very blissful track. "And I am you and what I see is me." What a great line!

Overall it's hard for me to even conceive anyone rating this a masterpiece rating, especially with those two pretty meaningless tracks before the epic, but people have their opinions and I respectfully disagree with them. This is an album worth getting, though, there is some incredible material here, and any fan of Pink Floyd and more psychedelic music overall 'ought to check this album out, even if it's just to hear the wonderful epic. Personally, I could do without this record, but it is nice to hear every so often.

"Meddle" is the 6th full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Pink Floyd. The album was released through Harvest/EMI in October 1971. Pink Floyd´s transition from a groundbreaking psychadelic rock act to one of the most influential progressive rock acts of the seventies began with the previous album "Atom Heart Mother (1970)" and while there are still psychadelic rock elements on "Meddle", the transition is almost complete with this album.

"Meddle" features six tracks and a full playing time of 46:42 minutes. Side 1 of the original LP release contains five shorter tracks while Side 2 of the original LP release features the 23:27 minutes long track "Echoes". While the most significant highlight on "Meddle" is arguably "Echoes", the five shorter tracks on Side 1 are almost equally as intriguing.

"Meddle" opens with the dark, hard edged, powerful, and predominantly instrumental "One of These Days". It´s followed and contrasted by the soft, mellow and acoustic "A Pillow of Winds". It´s a track that´s designed to soothe the ears and ease the mind. "Fearless" is a great track too with lots of acoustic slide guitars and soft vocals. It´s not a mellow track like "A Pillow of Winds" but it still features that relaxed and laid back feeling that Pink Floyd are some of the best exponents for. "Fearless" features a field recording of the Liverpool FC Kop choir singing their anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone", which fades in and out several times throughout the track´s playing time. The most prevalent interpretation of the use of the sample is of course that Pink Floyd are Liverpool FC supporters, but that´s actually not the case. At least not for bassist/vocalist Roger Waters (who plays acoustic guitar on this particular track) who co-wrote the song with guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour. He had been an Arsenal supporter since childhood. Some people have interpreted the use of the sample as Pink Floyd´s way of displaying uncompromising unity with a socialist ideology. The last two tracks on Side 1 of the original LP are often scolded and called weak but personally I appreciate the variation those tracks bring to the album. The lounge jazzy "San Tropez" with it´s relaxed atmosphere and the bluesy acoustic "Seamus" with the barking dog sounds in the background might not be the strongest tracks on "Meddle" but both are a part of the great whole and without them the album just wouldn´t be what it is. So shoot me! I enjoy those songs.

"Echoes" with it´s 23:27 minutes long playing time, takes up the entire second side of the original LP and what a side long track that is. From the opening echo pings produced through amplifying a grand piano and sending the signal through a Leslie rotating speaker, to the fantastic guitar solo by David Gilmour, to the brilliantly arranged vocal section, to David Gilmour imitating whale sounds on his guitar though his wah-wah pedal this is simply a fantastic composition.

The sound production is warm and pleasant. Very well sounding and organic. It´s a bit raw and unpolished too which is a sound element the band removed from later recordings, which are more clean in nature. "Meddle" is a consistently high quality release with a great flow but at the same time featuring nice variation between the tracks. Transition albums are not always the strongest albums in an artist´s discography but to my ears "Meddle" is among the most intriguing albums by Pink Floyd and a 5 star (100%) rating is fully deserved.

A hit and miss album

I always seen "Meddle" as a transitional album, PINK FLOYD had already abandoned the most radical ideas of Syd Barrett and the four guys were giving their first steps towards the classic sound of "Dark Side of the Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals", but still they carried in their backs a strong Psychedelic inheritance that they would never leave totally behind.

This makes of "Meddle" a very eclectic album not fully Prog, Psyche or Rock, but with elements of the three genres blended with taste by Waters and Gilmour working as friends and peers. I don't believe it's as outstanding as most of the people believes, but already a very good album that leads from the trippy Psyche years to the mature Prog era.

"One of this days" opens the album in a superb way, after some wind noises, Roger Waters bass announces a frenetic song while blending, the excellent organ performance by Rick Wright. After some seconds with the bass hammering on our brains and a powerful drumming by Nick Mason, is David Gilmour who takes the lead with his distorted guitar, and then...the sonic explosion, the band hits us with everything they got,playing some sort of Psychedelia and early Space Rock, one of the best tracks by PINK FLOYD, and the highest point of the album in my opinion.

"A Pillow of Winds" marks a radical change, soft mellow and atmospheric but I believe too repetitive and gets a bit boring by the end; unlike the Beatlesque "Fearless", in which the powerful guitar work by David Gilmour is simply spectacular, and at the end the chants of the Liverpool fans (You'll Never Walk Alone) that blend perfectly with the music of Pink Floyd, another good moment.

But "Meddle" has also some weak moments and "San Tropez" is the weakest of all, the band takes the influence of the Beatles and creates a lame track with absolutely no interest, if the opener was average, "San Tropez" is one of the worst tracks of PINK FLOYD.

"Seamus" is a good chance to press the skip button, I believe they required a couple minutes to complete the album and added a rejected track they had in their portfolio, but at least we know that after this comes "Echoes"

After a weird intro, "Echoes" leads us in Psychedelic territory, the music is dreamy, trippy or oneiric, (choose the word you want) but the sound is typical of the late 60's, less aggressive than early PINK FLOYD but with the same spirit, only that more delicate and elaborate, simply delightful.

But this is a 23:30 minutes epic and the journey is only starting, the characteristic voice of David Gilmour and the nice work by all the band (specially by the bass and keyboards) demonstrates us this band is in the road towards huge achievements. The song goes in crescendo and the instruments keep joining and making it more complex, the tortured guitar of David Gilmour takes us through the eras of PINK FLOYD, from their early acid years, to the classic era, all in a lapse of minutes.

The interplay between Wright and Mason is elaborate and the arrangements are spectacular, each section leads us to the next with perfect coherence and extreme beauty, from the soft and calmed introductory vocals top the wild instrumental in the end, a great song.

People say that everything is well if it ends well, and "Meddle" can't end better, but the fact is that the album is uneven, I admit that "One of this Days" and "Echoes" are outstanding, that "A Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless" are good very good, but the "San Tropez" and "Seamus" are way bellow PINK FLOYD'S average and don't allow me to rate the album with more than 3 stars, that should be 3.5 if our system wasn't so rigid.

Good but non-essential.

Pink Floyd themselves weren't all that enthusiastic about their avant-prog piece 'Atom Heart Mother' (which I think was a high-light of its era) and with Meddle the band would refrain from implementing avant-garde influences altogether. 'Meddle' has two major progressive rock pieces; the bass riff led spacey instrumental 'One of These Days' and the twenty-three epic 'Echoes' - perhaps their most typical progressive rock recording. Both would be featured in my introduction to the band; the 'Live At Pompeii' film. Echoes would introduce the bluesy and psychedelic type of slow-pace progressive rock the band would investigate further in the future. The psychedelic moods and beautiful guitar leads by Gilmour make this a very memorable song. The comeback section after the soundscapes features one of symphonic prog's finest moments. You probably can't help but loving that echoey galloping guitar riff and those beautiful organ chords. There are two charming psychedelic folk songs 'A Pillow of Winds' and 'Fearless' on side one as well. 'San Tropez' is a comedic jazzy tune and 'Seamus' a simple blues with the performance of a dog (!?). This makes up for quite a mixed bag and a not too exciting record for the fifteen year old version of myself that first listened to it. I've learned to appreciate the folk songs quite a lot, but I still prefer the version of 'Live at Pompeii' of the two most progressive tracks.

Every album that Pink Floyd made before Meddle supplied ample proof of their genius. But never had they succeeded in creating a fully focused masterpiece. That's what too much hallucinating drugs do to you. On Meddle they really got their act together. With Echoes they even created one of the most compelling masterpieces of rock music.

Not everything here is as astonishing as Echoes of course. But still it makes up a consistent album that goes through many different styles. One of These Days does not need an introduction here; it's an archetypical space-rock drone and one of the best ever. A Pillow of Winds is a beautiful melancholic piece from Gilmour, very subtle and understated. His gentle picking around minute 2.00 has served as a blueprint for many future generations: Porcupine Tree, Anathema, Tiamat, Radiohead and so many more have found their inspiration in this soft and textured approach.

Next on is a batch of 3 songs that are often disregarded. I think that Fearless is a very nice blues number though, it evolves into some kind a soccer anthem. It's a style they would revisit on The Wall. San Tropez is slightly out of place. Roger Waters does something in the psychedelic rock style of 4-5 years earlier. It's not bad but it would have fitted better on a Syd Barrett album. Seamus is a real fun blues though. Anyone who has seen the Pompeii video knows how they recorded that howling dog. It's a nice lighter touch that makes the majestic beauty of Echoes all the more overwhelming.

I think that this album contains the best music that Pink Floyd ever committed to tape. The five stars are entirely deserved by the strength of Echoes alone, but also the other tracks contain plenty of grace.

Meddle is first album from Pink Floyd Excellent serie of four great prog albums in rock music history. ( Obscured by Clouds is a different one and stays outside of this line, but TDSOTM,WYWH and Animals all are great).

After years of psychedelia, sound experiments, foly,bluesy,space ,etc. songs, Pink Floyd at least found there own face and sound which will stay in history of rock music for years as classic Pink Floyd sound. Meddley is first evidence of it.

Still soft in many moments, still a bit bulky, still with some traces of early band's psychedelia, their sound became more rhytmic, more organised, mid-tempo melodic. You can hear many future great moments right in all Meddley songs.

One Of These Nights and Echoes both are absolute classics. At the same time, Waters is still not an absolute leader there, so common sound is not so sad, depressive or dramatic.

This album ( near three great PF other ) is must have one in any progressive rock fan collection.

I'll paraphrase Hugues (Sean Trane) in one point: If there is one formula that's here about Pink Floyd, then it must be giving 5-star rating to their albums. Tracks are as following:

1)ranging from psychedelic roots, typical "stoned" track, works greatly for example on Live in Pompeii, but here too, simply not as much.

2)Nice guitar work on rather "mundane" song than some weird exploration, even the sound isn't usual (disharmony in harmony I would say)

3)Football chanting with cleverly combined repeated guitar riff (you know which one) and some nice brickwork (what?). A song with phases of slow and even slower pace.

4)With Roger Waters beautiful voice (which really fits here, does not sound like squeaky floor like usual) with jazz nostalgia longing, Marty says just: Oh yeah.

5)So, what do you want to hear, it's a blues song, ain't it ? However, dog's growling isn't annoying for me (I can imagine animal lovers and sensitive, or simply people with certain standards to be annoyed) and adds something more to this otherwise "normal" song.

6)Well, here we are talking about one of the first prog epics, aren't we ? Simply wonderful, beautiful, full of imagination, harmonic (virtually everything fits in the right place and over the years, I developed sense of liking "the middle piece"). Lyrics are monster. They're mostly nonsense as far as I understand whole sense of this song (and this is not like other epics, where it's more songs altogether, joined only by clever transitions, here it really works as one big track - yes, there are parts, but all about one thing, all in similar style and you can imagine how they work together, what's their purpose). Very interesting concept and again, works perfectly In Pompeii (everything is simply better there, it's like paradise, except it's burned place). Imitating raven's (and other birds perhaps) on synths is nice piece of work from Mr. Wright.

5(-), because of some less prog songs (you know), but it doesn't matter much.

"Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air"

It's hard enough to find examples of albums with Meddle's ecclectic variety-- but to find one which succeeds at everything it attempts is nearly impossible. Yet, here Pink Floyd blends spacy atmospheres, rousing guitar, and a non-chalant, "lazy day" attitude to create one of their finest releases (and that's saying something).

The album starts with unique, bass-led riffing and powerful guitar noise, giving way to a head- scratching series of beautifully understated mixture of jazzy subtelty and fun, day-dreamy tunes. Of chourse, side-B's "Echoes" steals the show, as a creative, spacy, minimalist masterpiece; one of the most easy to listent to 20+ minute songs of the classic prog era.

Meddle's pure, unpretentious beauty and creativity make it a clear winner. Why not 5 stars? While Meddle is a joy to listen to, it remains somewhat distant and challenging to connect with. This lack of emotion is the only thing tarneshing an otherwise stellar release-- don't let this one get lost in Dark Side's shadow!

Songwriting: 5 Instrumental Performances: 4 Lyrics/Vocals: 4 Style/Emotion/Replay: 4

If there's any Pink Floyd album that spells COOL, it's Meddle. This record is one step closer to perfection, and I view it as a sort of summary of it's predeccessors. It has the psychedelic drive of 'Piper...', the diversity in style of 'Saucer...', the [thankfully] brief experimentation of 'Ummagumma', and the maturity and format of 'AHM'. Meddle also shows a warmer, more unified band, working together instead of individually. The only thing that lets it down is it's artwork (although even that is quite COOL...)

There's a variety of styles, beginning importantly with some straight space rock. 'One of These Days' really rocks, and has a timeless quality to it that makes it seem futuristic even today. They even slip in a snippet of the Doctor Who theme tune for good measure! (If that's not COOL then I don't know what is). This is followed by the suitably calmer songs 'A Pillow of Winds' and 'Fearless' which employ plenty of acoustic and slide guitar to their advantage. By this point, it is clear that Pink Floyd have improved their compositional skills (and we haven't reached Echoes yet). 'San Tropez' is very COOL; with witty lyrics and a jazzy piano solo from Wright which is a bit of a treat. 'Seamus' is of course avant-garde: the lead singer is a dog. But it's generally forgivable, given the album space it takes up.

Echoes is by far the COOLEST part of the album (or should I say, coolest half of the album?). Who ever had the idea to "abandon the orchestra and work together" was a genius. This "underwater epic" is the best and most fitting way to end an era in the band's career. The intro is chilling, the verses thoughtful, and the chorus agressive, but nothing quite compares to the 7:00 entrance of the Pink Floyd "Mega-Jam" (If only it had an official title). This workout is cosmic, groovy, and totally improvsed. And all of it is achieved with a 'wet', 'splashy' feel that really puts the 'Blue' in 'Blues'. Following this, is another moment of underwater exploration; deep, chillingly atmospheric, and just the right length to provoke an eerie tension before re-surfacing for the verse reprise which triumphantly brings the song and album to a close.

Meddle is good. It's very COOL and it's even closer to 'the special one' than 'AHM' was. I've never listened to it underwater, but that's bound to be even better...

One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces!

One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces! The iconic cover with the sonic sound vibrations of an oversized pig's ear is a symbol of prog rock. The music is incredibly complex and well executed throughout. Floyd took a few jump starts to get going but once the machine was motoring and the wheels were in motion, there was no stopping them.

From the word go this album boasts one of the finest instrumentals put to vinyl. 'One of these Days' begins with a wind effect signifying the calm before the storm. An echoing bass and a chugging one note riff launches the track before the organ swells rise up and crash down like ethereal sonic waves. Wright is masterful on this and the dynamics and drama created by simple staccato chord swells is incredible. The extraordinary light show on the DVD 'P- U-L-S-E' would complement this. The half time feel is an effective delay bass heavy acrostic hook that creates an ambience that is ominous and foreboding. This is the part of the song where the pigs appear in concert. The drums crash down as we imagine someone bashing at the door to get in and then the monstrous voice roars, "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces!" As the door is broken down the murderer enters ready to kill, and then the music rises to a crescendo and Gilmour slaughters us with slide guitar slashes, performing torturous glissando runs and screaming bends with finesse. The wall of sound is glorious and then the freakout ends with the soul chilling delay effect. Quite simply, quintessential Floyd. After this opening there are four tracks that range from poor to OK. The worst being 'Seamus' and 'San Tropez' that are candy flavoured throwaways and really hinder this album from masterpiece status. 'Seamus' is literally barking mad and features a dog barking through the jazz infused music.

There is no better reason to buy this album than the title track. 'Echoes' has become a legendary opus that has been returned to by Gilmour as a solo artist and the band themselves in recent times. It stands the test of time as a prime example of space rock at its best. 23 minutes of headphone bliss. It begins with the infamous pitched ping that may be akin to a sub sonic sonar sound underwater. The lonely sound alienates the listener immediately and then an ambient keyboard swells in, Wright is superb on this track. The band were not only experimenting with sound, they tore the heart out of the music machine that was churning out manufactured bubblegum pop in the 70s. They showed that it was possible to create provocative music outside the box that was still listenable. The beautiful melancholia is enhanced by heartfelt vocals from Gilmour and Waters, and the lyrics are profoundly stimulating. 'Overhead the albatross, Hangs motionless upon the air, And deep beneath the rolling waves, In labyrinths of coral caves, An echo of a distant time, Comes willowing across the sand, And everything is green and submarine. And no one called us to the land, And no one knows the where's or why's. Something stirs and something tries, Starts to climb toward the light.'

The guitars ascend and descend a series of fractured notes with precision; very effective and haunting. The lengthy instrumental break is mind boggling, keyboards take off and drums pound, Gilmour's guitar is always ready to improvise riffs; undoubtedly this is the definitive lineup of Floyd and when the band take off in full flight they burn their firebrands right between the eyes. When Barrett was axed, the band were freed up to blaze trails of glory. And this was only the beginning. Having shed their trippy, psychedelia image, Floyd were yet to launch into the stratosphere and make world changing music with the cognitive classic 'Dark Side of the Moon', the legendary 'Wish You Were Here', not to mention the brilliant conceptual mindbender 'The Wall'. The flood gates were not just about to open, they were about to be blown off their hinges, and everyone would want a piece of Pink Floyd pie. This underground psychrock quartet were knocking at destiny's door and would soon be a household name worldwide. But it really started with 'Meddle' which shows what happens when you put four brilliant minds into a recording studio. This album indelibly changed the lives of the virtuoso musicians who created it, and indeed carved a deep wedge into the tombstone of the Rock music industry.

There are some albums that you really, really love...

This is the case of this fabulous piece of music which was fortunately created almost 40 years ago by one of those dinosaur bands that you may love, or even hate, called Pink Floyd.

A band that did not have the talent and psychedelic touch of Barrett, but a band that did not contemplate the limits and avoided the idea of being redundant an unoriginal and instead, decided in elaborate imaginative, creative, intelligent and vivid music to the pleasure of all the people who were (at the moment) looking for something unique and extraordinary, and for the pleasure or us, music lovers that really appreciate what great musicians composed four decades ago, music that I am sure inspires the deepest pleasures and people's feelings.

So there is this album entitled "Meddle", featuring 6 songs and a total time of 46 minutes, an album that once you start listening to it, you will not stop until the very end. Since I discover it several years ago, I keep it as one of my most appreciated CDs, a real treasure in my collection, and that has only one reason, its music.

An album with first an hypnotic even strange cover art, that comes from a psychedelic, progressive rock band, whatever you want to call them, and later with captivating music created by very talented musicians that used their imagination and creativity to brilliantly put together a mixture of sounds that secretly are growing into you while the album is being played.

The first sign of musical life will be found with a song called "One of These Days", instrumental, attractive and even visceral music, that sound of the bass is really provocative, enjoyable and lovable since the very first seconds, but that is not the only thing, actually what success the most is the elements the put together in order to "help" that bass sound and complement the song, the atmosphere created, the stops and even that raw vocal line in the middle of the track, will let you seated with your eyes closed enjoying a musical (but visual) trip. An amazing first track.

"A Pillow of Winds", after the storm comes the calm, it's how I would describe this beautiful track that is the first one featuring Gilmour vocals, great acoustic guitar and some gently slide guitar here and there, the atmosphere is really tranquil and in moments relaxing, so it is great how they suddenly changed from a provocative and strong opener, to a soft and calm second song, so enough are two tracks to appreciate their mixture of sounds and feelings.

The next song is named "Fearless" and it is one that I really loved since the very first time I listened to it; again, the use of a gently guitar sound that is progressing brings an inciting beginning so you will be trapped under its chords, in this song I can also close my eyes and let the music do the work, seconds later I see different things and imagine different scenarios that mainly have to do with some pleasure nature views, though the lyrics suggest different things, what I most appreciate in a song, is indeed, the music.

Now, I have to admit that there are a couple of "weak" tracks here both are the shortest ones and come next. The first one is "San Tropez" a kind of friendly song that in moment sounds comfortable but in others sound as a simple filler, it has some nice kind guitars and a sweet piano solo in the end, but after the first three songs, it is obvious that the strong part of the album is not here. The second track is "Seamus", a 2-minute piece that features a dog, besides all the musicians this animal is the main character here, this song is basically a blues, nothing especial, actually, it is an unnecessary track.

And finally?the mighty "Echoes", an impressive, outstanding, amazing, unique, spectacular, chaotic, trippy and in the end, beautiful song that can be described with thousands of adjectives and will leave a mark on you, one of those songs that you keep in your heart and in your mind forever, because it really transmits you something, it really does something on you, you are not the same person while you are listening to this magnificent 23-minute epic. It is a buffet of sounds, vast mix of emotions and thousands of sensations gathered in one long piece of music, a trip within a trip, it's like taking your bags and leave home in order to go to unknown places which you are about to explore, so you don't know what's coming next but you already feel ready for it. So the only thing you can do is continue your life and wait for the next episode, the thing is here, that each and every of the episodes will give you nothing but pleasure, this is something that not every song can provoke, at least with me.

So Echoes, plenty of musical intelligence put in one long song, all the instruments doing its work and fitting perfectly in every single second of the track, a song that may be divided in several parts because of that mixture of sounds and passages, I mean, there are parts that sound very different to others but in the end all really fit into one place. Despite its running time, I have never been bored by this song, ever! So that is also worth mentioning, just an extra addition to my praise for this song.

Now, don't really put attention to my rating, because to be honest I am not being as objective as I wish, because as I previously mentioned, there are a couple of weaker tracks here, and even one that I qualified as unnecessary, so for that, this album is not perfect; the thing is, what I feel when I listen to this album, all the things it provokes and does on me, that is priceless. And for that my final grade will be 5 stars.

Enjoy it!

If I had to describe this album with only one word then it would definitely be Echoes!

The basic formula of Atom Heart Mother proved to be successful with the British audience and so it was only natural for Pink Floyd to rehash this blueprint for the followup studio album. Still, it would be unfair to call Meddle a mere clone of its predecessor(s) since this album definitely improves on almost every aspect of the formula plus pushes the band even further away for the psychedelic era of their past.

One Of These Days is a magnificent album-opener famous for its double bass attack and groove. Contrary to popular belief, the bass tracks were actually played by both Waters and Gilmour making it quite amusing to hear how much of a skill difference there was between the two players. Even if I consider myself a big Roger Waters fan I will still get behind the opinion that his instrumental playing skills were never on par with those of either Wright nor Gilmour. But let's not forget that his talent lay elsewhere and he proved, time and time again, how crucial his contribution to the band's songwriting, sound experimentation and concept creation has been to Pink Floyd's success.

Unlike Atom Heart Mother and Ummagumma, this release doesn't feature a side full of single member compositions. Instead we actually get two tracks, A Pillow Of Winds and Fearless, that are co-written by both Gilmour and Waters. Even though the results of this collaboration comes off quite dissatisfactory to my ears it's the fact of the collaboration effort that counts more than the actually product. The Roger Waters-penned San Tropez has become a notorious hate track among the fans since it comes off sounding like a mellow pop song of its time but I happen to like it quite a lot. It might be far from a masterpiece but much better than the other three tracks that follow One Of These Days.

Richard Wright's mysterious absence from side one of the record makes it all the more welcoming when he introduces Echoes with the sharp keyboard sound effect that quickly sets the mood for the rest of these 20+ minutes of pure bliss. There's no way I can describe this composition since no words can give it the true recognition it deserves. Echoes is Pink Floyd pushed to their core basics but it's that stripped down atmosphere that sparks a totally new vibe with the listener. This is easily my favorite Pink Floyd masterpiece and knowing that there are quite a few to choose from it definitely says a lot!

It's clear that the impact of Meddle was unfairly overshadowed by the next few albums that struck a chord with the audience making the albums between Psychedelic The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and Space Rock style of Dark Side Of The Moon seem like a transitional phase in Pink Floyd's career. This is of course an unfair conclusion because both A Saucerful Of Secrets and Meddle are important pieces to a complete Pink Floyd experience that should be heard by all the fans of progressive rock music.

***** star songs: One Of These Days (5:56) Echoes (23:27)

**** star songs: San Tropez (3:43)

*** star songs: A Pillow Of Winds (5:13) Fearless (6:08) Seamus (2:15)

Pink Floyd finally became the band that we know them as today with this album. Particularly, the epic masterpiece Echoes finally shows us the powerful but spacy magnificence that would become their trademark. Taking an entire album side, this has always been one of the best Pink Floyd songs ever.

And the first side of the album is great as well, but not as good as the second. One Of These Days, sort of a sequel to Careful With That Axe Eugene, starts the album with Roger Waters' echoed bass, turning into a heavy jam. Another highlight is San Tropez, that almost puts you on a sandy beach.

While this album is not quite as polished as the next three studio albums, it's quite close to being as good.

After Atom Heart Mother that is strongly influenced by the presence and the arrangements of Ron Geesin, with Meddle Pink Floyd have finally found their way. The psychedelia of the beginings is going to disappear. The chaotic part of Echoes is probably their last excursion in the acid realms. At the same time Waters is not yet the band's dictator. Making a collegial work is still possible and this is likely the last album on which we can appreciate the effective cooperation of all the members in the songwriting.

The opener is one of the most famous Pink Floyd's songs ever. A single compulsive bass note follows an intro made of winds. "One of These Days" is also the only one Pink Floyd's song in which we can hear the growling voice of Nick Mason. The song is a crescendo until Mason screams "I'm going to catch you into little pieces!".

Winds are a distinctive element of the album. They are present almost everywhere. In "A Pillow of Winds" they are at least in the title. The sound of Gilmour's slide guitar will become one of the most recognizable Pink Floyd trademarks since now on. The slow tempo behind major chords is something that we'll find several times, even in Mason+Fenn's Profiles.

"Fearless" is something that Everton's supporters probably don't like, as the song is famous for the coda in which the Liverpool's supporters sing "You'll never walk alone". Apart of it, this is the kind of song typical of this period of Pink Floyd. Gilmour is again on the slide. The base is driven by acoustic guitar and everything is calm and relaxing.

"Saint Tropez" is a sort of a joke for what concerns the lyrics, but it's one of their most concrete songs from a musical perspective. It's jazzy and upbeat. For those who criticise the musical skill of Roger Waters. A curiosity about this song: in the late 70s a book of Pink Floyd lyrics was published in Italy but the author didnt get a copy of the originals. He just tried to guess and translate them from a tape reader. That's how "Ringing by phone" becasme in that book "Rita Pavone" who was an Italian pop singer of the 60s. It started a legend. Rita Pavone herself said in an interview that she was proud of having been mentioned in a Pink Floyd's song...

"Seamus" is just a filler. The dog who "sings" was Steve Marriott's dog. He gave it to Gilmour during a Humble Pie tour and it finished to be the singer of this almost improvsed blues.

Finally we have the greatest epic ever written by the Pink Floyd. My favourite song ever. "Echoes" has everything an epic has to have and I have really no words to describe it. Gilmour and Wright singing on it is fantastic. The bluesy part has one of the best Gilmour's guitar solos, the way the main theme "resurrects" after the chaos is unique...if I have to mention a masterpiece this is the first song that appears to my mind.

"Echoes" alone would be enough to rate this album 5 stars but at least half of the A side is at the same level. Even though Dark Side is the best seller and Another Brick the most known commercial song, Meddle is the real "must have" in Pink Floyd's discography.

Classic laid back Floyd.

Meddle marked the start of a new brand of Floyd, much more focused, refined and cerebral than their previous works. The album begins upbeat and vigorous with 'one of these days' which is a bit deceptive considering what is to come. The rest of the album consists of mellow psych rock at its finest capped off by the 20+ minute side long epic 'echoes', one of their greatest achievements.

One of the best things about Floyd is their music from this album onwards hasn't really aged very much at all. The super clean production, intelligent clean structuring and attention to detail are phenomenal and practically unmatched by any other artist of the era.

People will still be discovering and loving this band in another 40 years (it's been that long!).

For change I make a very untypical choice for an album to review: a beloved classic, reviewed hundreds of times. My personal opinion is of course quite unnecessary with these cases, why I don't much review the greatest classics. (And I see that I have some stupid need to explain all this... sorry! Onto the album.)

I think Meddle is one of the best PF albums of all time, even though there is one silly filler ('Seamus', bluesy simple song featuring a dog as a background singer). The second weakest track is 'San Tropez' which shows Waters in an unusually carefree mood. Also 'Fearless' is very positive in atmosphere; you don't hear Floyd in a happy mood too often, so actually this track (which is also rather simple but with a delicious bass pattern) makes a nice addition to their oeuvre. Hmmm, three tracks out of six and no reason for great applauses yet. The main question is, can I rate this with five stars?

The opener is one of their most famous instrumental pieces, which was still featured on concerts in the 90's. 'One Of These Days' has that Floydian intensity at its strongest. The drums and the heavy bass go on and on hypnotically and Gilmour makes his lap steel howl. And more trippy psychedelia is added by the drumless middle part with the ghostly growl "one of these days I'm going to cut ypou into little pieces". The next song 'A Pillow Of Winds' is perhaps underestimated and too badly known. Maybe because it's so serene.

And the best is saved till last: the side-long 'Echoes', which definitely is among my most loved Floyd tunes ever. Right from the start with the slow dink... dink... dink... keyboard strokes it veawes me into a spellbinding atmosphere. And then as the whole band has arrived into the music, the vocals enter: "Overhead the albatross hangs motionless..." etc. The down-tempo vocals throughout the track (which for the most part is instrumental however) never change the melody lines, which is why it's so effective. The lyrics are fantastic, very melancholic and dealing with "strangers passing in the street, by chance two separate glances meet" (if my memory serves). I am more familiar with the 16-minute edition featured on the Echoes compilation, so I'm not quite sure if the full version really fills the 23+ minutes the best possible way. But all in all, even if all the material on this album is not on the highest level (similar case as with YES's Going For The One), this is a Prog Masterpiece. Full stars. Amen.

Easily the Floyd's best studio album since A Saucerful of Secrets, Meddle sees the band both lay their old sound to rest and stumble upon their new approach with the epic Echoes. It is not, however, a wall-to-wall masterpiece.

It's well-known that the group entered the studio this time around with more or less no new material to work with, and had to create the entire thing from scratch. Various experiments - an attempt to make an album using only household items rather than actual instruments, an experiment in which each band member improvised individually without being able to hear the others, with only guidance for what sort of mood to play in and how long to play each mood for offered - yielded nothing particularly special.

Eventually, from this long period of frustration was born the album we have today - on which Roger Waters has a writing credit on all the songs, three numbers being whole-group compositions, two songs being Waters-Gilmour collaborations and one being composed by Roger entirely. This, of course, is the birth of the Waters-led songwriting process which would lend vital focus both to this album and to its followups - but would also lead to Waters personality dominating the group by the era of The Wall and The Final Cut, leading to the infamously acrimonious split.

Here, the results of Waters taking the lead are, I have to say, mixed. Opening track One of These Days is a real scorcher, and I have no quibbles with it. Echoes is, of course, wonderful - though I have to be really in the mood for it to appreciate the three minutes of synthesised wilderness noises in the middle. As for the middle tracks, San Tropez and Seamus are both novelty tracks - not a field the Floyd has ever been especially strong in - whilst A Pillow of Winds and Fearless are psychedelia retreads along the lines of Fat Old Sun or If from Atom Heart Mother.

Meddle is overall a good album. It's got a great opener and a landmark second side, but the remainder of the first side once One of These Days fades out is a bit patchy - on a level of "good but not great" and sometimes slipping below that. Still, at long last the light at the end of the tunnel is visible; this album marks the end of the post-Syd period of struggles over direction as the band tried to chart a "democratic" course only to find that this didn't really match their temperaments, and that (to put it charitably) some group members had better songwriting chops at this point than others. Waters taking the lead may, in the long run, have ended in disaster as far as maintaining friendships went, but at this point in time it was vital to prevent the band from simply dissolving due to a lack of ideas and direction. And the heights which would be attained with the next run of albums were surely worth it.

But as for Meddle itself? It's a transitional work, not a masterpiece. But it's tantalisingly close to being one.

This is a very important album in the history of this great band. It marks the transition between what had, up until then, been a mainly underground space rock/psychedelic outfit, much beloved by characters such as John Peel, and the mainstream, stadia filling, selling albums by the truckload, band they would become with Dark Side of the Moon.

It is recognisably a band effort, with all four members contributing in spades, and also found them confident enough to perform and produce a masterpiece like Echoes on their own, without the assistance of a third party such as Ron Geesin on Atom Heart Mother. That album, to me, was the sound of a band desperately searching for a fresh identity in the wake of Barrett's departure. On Meddle, at last, they found it.

Many rate it as a masterpiece, but to me it falls short of that. Sure, if we were to rate an album on the likes of One Of These Days, a bombastic, heavy, and extremely violent track, and the sublime Echoes, then, yes, it would deserve such a rating.

However, listening now to the album, I still, as I did all of those years ago on first listen, get the impression that the pleasant, laid back, A Pillow Of Winds (Gilmour led, but co-written with Waters), the dreamy love song that is Fearless, featuring the anthemic Kop crowd at Liverpool FC, the strange San Tropez, a Waters solo piece that sounds as if it is a throwaway from the Ummagumma studio sessions, and the frankly "barking" Seamus, featuring a singing canine, are all numbers put to vinyl in order to make up two sides of a record. Because, of course, back in those days, you couldn't release an album with one side only, as you can on CD now.

They are not bad. Far from it, in fact. They are all very good, and interesting curiosities, but masterpieces? Come on. Not even the band would dare to describe them as such.

It all leads up, of course, to Echoes, which is simply one of the most incredible pieces of music ever recorded. Where Atom Heart Mother was patchy, bitty, and full of so many holes it was almost a cheeseboard on vinyl, this was coherent, full of emotion, and sounded somewhat effortless in its performance.

Right from the very start, where Gilmour's lazy intro blends in perfectly with Wright's incredible staccato keyboards, it takes you to a far away place. Gilmour, in my opinion, really never sounded any better vocally, and his guitar work is simply stunning, leading the band. You also, of course, realise just how good a rhythm section Waters and Mason were. The drums pound away, and the bass guitar keeps the tempo fairly flying along. Lyrically, it was the last time you could take away from Waters' words what you, as an individual, wanted to take away, or you interpret it as you liked. Future releases, of course, had the meaning rather rammed down your throat (and I say that as a huge fan). As an amusing piece of trivia, Waters, years later, accused Andrew Lloyd Webber of plagiarising large parts of the track, hence the somewhat less than complimentary reference to him on Amused To Death.

In the hands of any other band, the mid section, especially Gilmour's incredible reverse wah-wah, would simply have melted away into boring obscurity. With this lot, however, it all builds up to a menacing, and thrilling, climax. I rated DSOTM, Animals, and The Wall as five star albums, and Wish You Were Here as a four star album. All are incredibly brilliant albums, but, truly, musically and collaboratively, the band scaled the heights with this one, and never sounded better than they did on Echoes. It also, in my opinion, set the true standard for all progressive epics in excess of twenty minutes length.

Four stars for this, an album which is, on its leading two tracks, as close to perfection as it is possible to get. Shame about the rest of it, really.

Having heard this album for the first time years after "Dark Side," "Wish You Were Here," "Animals" and "The Wall" is it any wonder that I found it laughable in its simplicity and "derivativeness"?! It is really difficult to try to listen to this from a perspective that might exclude any knowledge of what came after--but I want to! I want to try to appreciate this for the step in the band's evolution towards the masterpieces that were to come next. But I can't. the bass line, the organ play, the effected vocal "samples" and, yes, even the slide guitar work of the first song, "One of These Days" (5:57) are so far from the polish and "maturity" that was to come. 2. "A Pillow of Winds" (5:13) is closer to AMERICA, The OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS, and THE ALLMAN BROTHERS than "Dark Side of the Moon." (8.25/10) 3. "Fearless" (6:08) (8/10) is also nearer to a CROSBY, STILLS, & NASH Southern Rock acoustic ballad than anything PINK FLOYD that came after. 4. "San Tropez" (3:43) (8.25/10) sounds like it's straight off of a HARRY NILSSON album--like "Me & My Arrow" from "The Point" and 5. "Seamus" (2:16) (3/5) is almost impossible to take seriously--Does it have anything to do or compare with the music the band did later? Perhaps they just needed some lighter times after all they had been through with Syd Barrett. And the side-long epic of Side Two, "Echoes" (23:31) (8.5/10) is drawn out so much longer than it needed to be. Three minutes of plucking "echoes" before we get to the singing! Now, I know that the melody, chord progression, singing style and cadences here came before the two "Breathe"s and "Time," but, pleeeez! Can't they be more original? In fact, this song, for me, is just a warm up for the big stuff later--like a freshman basketball or football game when compared to the college or professional games that would come later. Obviously, these boys had a lot of growing to do before they got to DSotM! 3.5 stars rated up for the fact that so much of this stuff made it possible for the later stuff.

Probably the first "proper" Pink Floyd album. There are still the occasional psychedelic tinged "rock 'n rollers" and almost folksy tunes ("Fearless,", "San Tropez") that don't exactly fit in with the "Wish You Were Here" variety, but much like "Atom Heart Mother" before, the spotlight on this album shines on the opener and closer.

"One Of These Days" sounds like a demo that the band just noodled around with that could've easily feel at home on "Dark Side", I kid you not. It's one long build up, the demonic quote, and then just a good ol fashioned jam to close it out. I personally think it encapsulates the quintessential Pink Floyd sound that would be known worldwide for years to come.

I don't want to go so far as to say the middle of the album is very "meh", but like "Atom Heart Mother", these just sound like songs the bad HAD to make in order to be commercially viable, since we're still in the middle of their movie soundtrack period. They're not bad songs at all (I personally like "A Pillow Of Winds" and "San Tropez"), but you just wouldn't recognize the band as Pink Floyd. That is, until you hear Gilmore singing.

Clearly the star of the show is "Echoes", once again, a quintessential masterpiece, highlighting the best the band has ever offered, electronic soundscapes, ambient noises, wonderful vocals and kickass jams and guitar solos. It really reminds me of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a track they'd record 4 years later.

That's the interesting thing about his album to me. "Meddle" and "Obscured by Clouds" (though not their greatest effort) are albums that solidified this band's identity, written only a year apart, and a year after "Clouds" came "Dark Side Of The Moon", one of the all time classics, and even though compositionally "Clouds" is trumped by "Dark Side", the potential can be heard on "Clouds", and especially here on "Echoes".

I wonder if people ever predicted such a future for this band when Meddle came out. Would've been an interesting story to tell at the local bar, mind you.

The first of the generally-regarded Pink Floyd classics, "Meddle" is an album that will undoubtedly entice Pink Floyd's fanbase. But like its successor, Dark Side of The Moon, it leaves little of interest to other demographics.

Unlike about 99.999% of reviewers here, I firmly believe that side one is superior to side two. The album's first side starts with "One of These Days", an exhilarating but compositionally-lacking uptempo number. The next few selections are all slower, more mellow songs. "Pillow of Winds" is the album highlight, with its beautiful lyrics and instrumental harmonies. Side two contains little more than the endless, noodling "Echoes", a low-tier prog epic at best. There are few songs out there that match "Echoes'" sheer low density of musical ideas. The song is perfectly fine if you just want to zone out for half an hour but if you want more than just background music, look elsewhere.

I will give this album 2 stars, not because I think it's bad, but because it really is a fans-only album. For Pink Floyd fan's, this is a must-have as it is an archetypal, representative piece of their discography. For the broader prog fan base, however, this is one that wouldn't be missed.

Review Nº 62

This is my fifth review of a Pink Floyd's album. The others are their eighth, ninth and tenth studio albums "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals" which were released in 1973, 1975 and 1977 respectively, and their third live album "Live 66-67" released in 1999. Now it comes the time of "Meddle". "Meddle" is their sixth studio album and was released in 1971. The album was recorded at a series of locations around London, including the Abbey Road Studios, and at several occasions between January and August of 1971. "Meddle" reached gold record in 1973 and platinum and double platinum in 1994.

"Meddle" has six tracks. The first track "One Of These Days" written by David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright is an instrumental piece of music that can be considered the first song that would mark the future sound of the band. It became the final expression of the Pink Floyd's trademark, and it also features the traditional double-tracked bass guitars played by Gilmour and Waters. The second track "A Pillow Of Winds" written by Gilmour and Waters is an acoustic song, calm and something different from the usual characteristics songs performed by the band. The song also features slide guitar work by Gilmour. It's a very nice and relaxing acoustic piece of music that has the ability, if we close our eyes, to make us dreaming and painting a picture in our own way. The third track "Fearless" also written by Gilmour and Waters follows the logic of the two previous songs and also begins to change the usual musical atmosphere of the album, creating a real vivacious sound. Waters plays all the acoustic guitar parts on the studio recordings and all the strange and intricate guitar work presented on this track is performed by Gilmour. The fourth track "San Tropez" written by Waters is one of the two smallest and weakest songs on the album. The song reflects an idealized vision of Waters of what a day in San Tropez might be like. It's the only song on the album sung by him. On the song, Waters plays the acoustic guitar and the track also includes a Gilmour's short slide guitar solo and an extended Wright's piano solo work too. Despite being a good ballad, this song is somewhat dislocated from the rest of the musical context of the album. The fifth track "Seamus" written by Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright is the other smallest and weakest song on the album. It's a blues song about Seamus, the Gilmour's dog. It's sung by Gilmour and in the bottom of it we can hear the dog barking, as if he sang along with its owner. Fortunately, it's the smallest song on the album. Sincerely, besides having one of the most bad and absurd lyrics I've ever heard, it's also, in my humble opinion, completely dislocated from the rest of the musical context of the album. Finally, we have the last but not the least, the sixth track "Echoes". It represents the great masterpiece of the album and was written by Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright. This is one of the best known tracks from the group and it's also the third lengthiest song from the group with 23:29, behind "Atom Heart Mother" with 23:44 and the nine parts of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" with 26:01. This song would become the great discovery of Pink Floyd and would also become their secret key which allowed them to find their real musical roots. It represents the new real starting point of Pink Floyd and made that this was the band that would appear two years later with their great trilogy, "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals". This is the only reason why I give 5 stars to this album.

Conclusion: In my humble opinion, Pink Floyd released five studio masterpieces, "Meddle", "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here", "Animals" and their eleventh studio album "The Wall" released in 1979. However, there are slight differences between them. While "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals" are three absolute masterpieces, "Meddle" and "The Wall" are also masterpieces but with inferior value, but for different reasons. About "Meddle", if instead of "San Tropez" and "Seamus" had two other better songs, it would be certainly a better album. About "The Wall", I will explain my personal point of view when I do make the review of it. "Meddle" was the album that started the turning point of the band's sound, which became more evolved and original. "Meddle" launched the roots of what would be the trademark of their music, which would influence so many bands of so different styles of music, all over the time, and even today. "Meddle" launched the band, particularly through "The Dark Side Of The Moon", to the world of fame and stardom, beyond the realm of the progressive rock, having reached a so high level, that we can say that no more other progressive band reached, until now. Finally, I'll leave you with a phrase of Gilmour that, in my humble opinion, defines the importance that "Meddle" had for the group: «"Meddle" are among of my favourite Pink Floyd albums. For me, it was the beginning of the walk of Pink Floyd"».

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Often I'll find that it takes many listens before my definitive thoughts on an album are formed, with Pink Floyd's Meddle, this has proven to be false, as my opinion on this album is almost identical to my initial couple of listens. While I find this album relaxing and calm, with a very dreamlike atmosphere throughout, I find the majority of the songs here to be relatively mediocre or straight up bad. That isn't to say that this album is completely without merit, as both One Of These Days and the 23 minute epic Echoes are some of the highest points the band ever approached, the former definitely being one of my favourite songs by the band.

One of These Days is one of my favourite rock instrumentals of all time, with a great bassline creating interweaving rhythm, producing a downright infectious groove. The song then further improves once the guitar is introduced, giving it a more dynamic edge as instruments continuously fade in and out, all culminating in utter perfection after Nick Mason says "One of these days I'm going to chop you into little pieces", before the fully realised rhythm kicks in. After this amazing opener. The next two songs are both quite pleasant in nature, each with a great, dreamy atmosphere, heightened by some nice, subtle instrumentation, but ultimately never go beyond feeling pleasant, being slightly above average in places, but never quite impressing me. It's the next 2 songs that I have a lot of issue with, with San Tropez being somewhat nice, but incredibly repetitive and mundane. Seamus is where things reach their lowest point though, with an uninspired blues sound to it while a howling dog is constantly irritating the listener, and while I understand that it was made to be a bit of fun, I see nothing about it that's even mildly entertaining. Fortunately, after this is the masterpiece that is Echoes, a 23 minute psychedelic masterpiece that I find to be completely indescribable in any way other than using the word 'beautiful'. Honestly, this song alone gives this album some merit, and I highly recommend that it is an essential song to listen to.

This album definitely feels transitional in many ways, bridging the gap between the trippy, playful earlier albums, and the dark, brooding rock masterpieces to come, and at points, is executed masterfully. I genuinely find it to be a shame of unmeasurable proportions that other than One of These Days and Echoes, the album is mediocre at best, as this could have been an easy 4 or 5 if not for the fact that the entire middle section is comprised of waiting for Echoes for me. I'd definitely recommend checking this album out for its high points, but honestly cannot consider rating this above a 3.

Best songs: One of These Days, Echoes

Weakest songs: San Tropez, Seamus

Verdict: A really pretty album for its majority, but the entirety of the middle section never really reaches any great heights. Despite that, the first and last tracks are both songs that I highly recommend.

The wind, then a hypnotic bass ride that rumbles on one channel, then another bass turn on the other, keyboards that pass like blades, drums and electric guitar and here's the epochal beginning of the first song of Meddle ("One Of These Days"), which uses keyboards in a futuristic way , then picks up rhythm, with a very nice progression, until the final rush after the short spoken section (Mason). Vote 8+.

The second song is quite different as arrangement (largely acoustic, guitar without drums) and as a mood: it is a restless folk with a good melody but that does not develop and finally tends to be monotonous. Rating 7+.

The third, Fearless, with that guitar riff that repeats, alternates folk acoustic verses, very relaxed, similar in mood to the previous piece, with stage choirs, which give a sense of particular estrangement, but still well toned to the music. Vote 7.5.

Then comes the turn of Saint Tropez, a retro jazzy, swing, like McCartney's songs, cute, perhaps too long, could be the soundtrack to one of Woody Allen's films. Rating 7+.

Seamus is a funny, almost western song with dogs acting as laced coyotes. Rating 6.5.

The first side, after the promising start, beautiful and innovative, leans on a modest retro acoustic folk- jazz. Average: 7,35-

The suite "Echoes (23:27)" fills side B. It's more rock than Atom Heart Mother, in fact is completely played by the band, without strings or brasses. In my opinion after a very good beginning, grit, it become too lazy and repetitive in the instrumental part. Then, comes a desert landscape, we hear wind and howling coyotes, very suggestive moment, almost soundtrack of a film, echoes and sound of birds of prey screeching n the distance. Then, come back the vocals (wright) and the rhythm. with guitar and drums and then finish the song lazily. Very good suite for some atmospheres, but not a masterpiece. Rating 8+.

Meddle has the same structure as Atom Heart Mother (suite occupying one front, easy listening songs on the other), only that the facades are reversed and in general the quality of the suite is slightly lower, while that of the songs significantly lower. It's a more than discreet but decidedly non-innovative album (apart One Of These Days), which repeats a formula filling it with more traditional folk and rock content, with modest results in the case of folk songs.

Rating 7,5/8. Three Stars.

With the album Meddle, Pink Floyd takes a new turn in their musical proposal, endowing it with touches of forcefulness and solvency, still very incipient in their previous works, despite the symphonic effort in the Atom Heart Mother suite. Continuing with their constant interest in discovering and adapting new sonorous nuances, but much more mature, a couple of themes for posterity and fundamentals in Pink Floyd's basic discography are dispatched. The overwhelming and aggressive instrumental piece One of These Days, and the immeasurable Echoes, developing in its 23 minutes extensive experimentation, guided by Richard Wright's keyboards, which provide unique atmospheres to the entire development of the song. Less complex, Fearless football is a beautiful acoustic theme and is still chanted today by Liverpool fans, having included their famous sports choir "You´ll Never Walk Alone" in the song. Both A Pillows of Winds, San Tropez, a very digestible light jazz, and Seamus, howled by a dog of the same name as the song, complete the album with a discreet contribution. Meddle is the excellent beginning of a new stage of Pink Floyd, which would end up consolidating in all its splendor with the subsequent album and capital work Dark Side At The Moon.