A COLLECTION OF GREAT DANCE SONGS

Besides the odd song here and there, this was my introduction to Floyd. When I was about 10 years old I listened to my uncle's vinyl copy of DSOTM. I thought the music was too mellow, had too much sound effects and generally didn't care for it. When I was a teenager a friend lent me their copy of this compilation. I was more prepared at that point. Floyd is first and foremost an album band. Their music does not benefit from compilations and this one is no exception.

"Money" and "Another Brick...2" were the only songs I was familiar with. The version of "Money" here is a re-recording from 1981. As would be expected, it's not as good as the one on DSOTM. "Another Brick In The Wall Part II" is the single version which starts with a drum beat. "Shine On..." is an edit of the whole suite focusing on the vocals parts. The majority of the instrumental parts are left out.

The two songs that really caught my attention and made me want to dig further into their discography were "One Of These Days" and "Sheep". It's strange how "Money" is a new recording yet the Meddle version of "One Of The Days" is used. I guess Columbia could only get the rights to use OOTD but not anything from the sacred DSOTM(the band's last album for Harvest). I had never heard anything like OOTD before. It began with two basses and no drums (!!!). The only vocals were a weird sounding voice in the middle. I had to hear more music as crazy as this. The vocoder part in "Sheep" also made me curious as to other music that was similar.

The best thing about this compilation, other than indirectly introducing me to 'prog', is the wonderfully ironic title. These guys never had a compilation that did their music justice. They even have two box sets which feature whole albums. Definately a band that needs to be listened to album by album. Even if some of their best albums have some filler on them. Really only for completists but it got me into Floyd. 2 stars.