MEDDLE

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.