MEDDLE

Everyone knows and recognizes that the Dark Side of The Moon is Pink Floyd's masterpiece and an album that characterized the glory days of prog rock. For me personally, it's interesting to notice the albums that precede Dark Side of The Moon. Why? Well, this is probably very personal and you might disagree with me, but it's fine. To me, the period before Dark Side of the Moon was when the band tried to shape the kind of music they intended to have for the true Pink Floyd music. There was period when they're really a psychedelic band with the like of The Beatles - i.e the period with Syd Barrett. Post Syd Barrett era remarked the band movement to another shape that they might not know at that time. But if I observe in deep, there has been a tagline that underlined "the sort of sounds" they want to craft the future. Take a look on the title track of "Atom Heart Mother", for example. If you notice quite in deep, you might find that the track has key ingredients of Pink Floyd sounds, in this case that the bed where the music lays has evolved into "Us and Them" of the Dark Side of The Moon. You might find also how "Obscured By Clouds" has also evolved into another forms of Pink Floyd music. That's just an example, and the list would grow later with other tracks as well.

"Meddle", by no exception, has contributed significantly to the solid music of Pink Floyd in their music career. Take "Echoes" which obviously defines the music of Pink Floyd in terms of structure, composition, as well as style. Yes, it's heavily influenced by blues but the band has repackaged the track into music textures where the blues influence is not the main characteristics of the song but it enriches the song in its overall appearance. Another track worth observing is "One of These days" which mostly comes from the dual bass lines with Roger Waters playing on one channel, while David Gilmour on the other. What come next are two tracks which show the unplugged, folksy side of Floyd. These two tracks are possibly the band's best performance with this kind of style - which unfortunately do not favor me.

Overall, this album isn't the best album by Pink Floyd albums, but is well worth the effort to collect. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW