MEDDLE

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.