MEDDLE

One of the cooler Pink Floyd songs starts the album: "One Of These Days." Beginning with a driving bass line, soon doubled by another, a brisk pace is soon set, complemented by Gilmour's wailing guitar. Past the bridge, the only set of lyrics in the song, a rather disheartening line, is grumbled into the microphone: "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces." The listener is soon greeted by the more light and soft ballad, "A Pillow Of Winds," after the previously vigorous and ominous track. There's nothing entirely special about this song, but I can at least say it's nice. "Fearless" is a favourite of mine. It's in the same vein of "A Pillow Of Winds," but just.better. A great acoustic guitar line, complimented by a light electric guitar dominates most of the track. The jazzy "San Tropez" picks up the pace a bit with a bit more down-to-earth feel with both the lyrics and music. It's a rather weak track, especially in comparison to the three that precede it, but it's not horrible. "Seamus" is flippant little tune with a typical blues progression and a barking dog. That's about it. This song usually gets blasted right and left, but it's just a joke. Finally, the infamous "Echoes" closes the album. This brilliant track is one of Floyd's best ever. Taking the listener from the ocean (compliments to submarine "beeps") to Water's insightful lyrics, an impeccable instrumental line follows, that's just awesome. The song then takes a diversion to creating a very dark atmosphere along with some creepy birds squawking until everything finishes out. The virtuosity the band displays here is absolutely brilliant, creating musical atmospheres rather than just "playing" (if that makes any sense whatsoever). It's worth buying the album just for this track alone.

Besides a few mediocre songs on "Meddle," the only other flaw is it's sub-standard production. It often has a very "muddy" feeling that I wish could be polished up a bit. The sonic textures created in this album would benefit so much more. But hey, it was recorded in 1971, what do you expect? But overall, "Meddle" contains some very strong material that even stands up against the later majesty of such albums as "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals."

Share this PINK FLOYD review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Arsillus
• Report this review (#46914)
• Buy PINK FLOYD music online with PA partners
• Show all PINK FLOYD MP3/Stream
• Go to PINK FLOYD page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Meddle page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for PINK FLOYD related discussions