OH BY THE WAY...

Review Nº 827

"Oh By The Way" is a very special compilation of Pink Floyd and was released in 2007. This is an amazing box set that contains all the studio albums released by the group in their incredible and very extensive musical career. Despite "Oh By The Way" contains remastered versions of the original albums it hasn't anything new to offer on it like bonus tracks, early singles or even some rarities. It hasn't also an extra disc with documentary material, photos from the band or even lives images from their live concerts. What we have here is just their fourteen studio albums digitally remastered.

As I've already reviewed all these albums previously on Progarchives, in a more extensive way, I'm not going to do it again. So, if you are interested to know, in more detail, what I wrote about them before, I invite you to read those my reviews. However, in here I'm going to write something about them in a more short way. So, of course, I'm not going to analyze them track by track, as I made before, but I'm only going to make a global appreciation of all those albums.

"The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" is a unique album in all Pink Floyd's discography. It's the only studio album under the leadership of Syd Barrett that explores the psychedelic music with some touches of blues. "A Saucerful Of Secrets", despite have many psychedelic parts, represents the beginning of their future space rock sound, which only would be firmly consolidated on their sixth studio album "Meddle". It represents also a more mature sound. "More" is the soundtrack of a film with the same name. It's an album with some interesting musical moments but it seems to me more a bunch of experimental and psychedelic songs than a real cohesive musical work. "Ummagumma" is an album divided into two parts, the live and the studio albums. On the live album all the live versions are superior to its studio versions. The studio album isn't a musical collective effort of the band. I never was a great fan of those types of albums. "Atom Heart Mother" is a very important transitional album for the group. It's an album with many progressive features and that would be the turning point of the band's music, and which will culminates in what is their first masterpiece "Meddle". "Meddle" was the album that started the turning point of the band's sound, from the psychedelic to the space sound. "Meddle" launched the roots of what would be the trademark of their music, which would influence so many bands in the future. "Obscured By Clouds" is the soundtrack of another film "La Vallée". It has a very interesting group of songs but its music is more close to the psychedelic period. I always have the feeling that I'm in the presence of an album chronological wrong in the band's musical discography. "Dark Side Of The Moon" is very well known and is simply one of the best albums ever made. With it, Pink Floyd reached the stardom and became in one of the most influential progressive bands and in one of the most famous bands ever. "Wish You Were Here" is also one of the best albums ever made and shows the sentimental side of the group. It was dedicated to their founding member Syd Barrett and represents a farewell tribute to him. It represents also a critic to the musical industry. "Animals" is another great album. It's absolutely brilliant despite the conflicts that were beginning between band's members, with Roger wanting a new direction for the band's music. It closes the trilogy started with "Dark Side Of The Moon". "The Wall" is the most ambitious, complex and powerful album released by Pink Floyd. It's a personal project of Roger Waters that became as the most famous album of the band and that was to culminate in several live presentations, of which the most famous was "The Wall ? Live in Berlin" in 1990. "The Final Cut" is their last album with Roger Waters where all the songs were credited to him. It's a very personal project of him and for me, it can't be considered a Pink Floyd's album and should never have been realized as a Pink Floyd's album. "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" is also a very different album from Pink Floyd. It suffers from the same problems of "The Final Cut" because it's a Gilmour personal project. It also should never have been realized as a Pink Floyd's album. "The Division Bell" is a great album without a weak track. It's the best album released by Pink Floyd since "The Wall". It's undoubtedly one of the best albums of Pink Floyd and represents a great way to end the musical career of an exceptional band, one of the greatest progressive bands ever.

Conclusion: How to rate a compilation with the entire career of a band when we have individually all their original discography? By the other hand, the entire career of Pink Floyd never was totally uniform and balanced all over the years. It's almost consensual consider the band released five great masterpieces "Meddle", "Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here", "Animals" and "The Wall" and four very good studio albums "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn", "A Saucerful Of Secrets", "Atom Heart Mother" and "The Division Bell". But, we know too that "More", "Ummagumma", "Obscured By Clouds", "The Final Cut" and "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" are minor studio works from them. So, sincerely, I really think the right thing to do is rating "Oh By The Way" with 4 stars because it has many great things.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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