A COLLECTION OF DELICATE DIAMONDS - A TRIBUTE TO PINK FLOYD

There are myriads of, probably way too many Pink Floyd tribute albums (and bands), this 2-CD is the first album I've listened to, and I suppose it's from the better side of the scale. The main man responisible is Billy Sherwood (known from YES) who has produced the music - apart from the last five tracks that I need to handle separately later on - and who plays several instruments here and there plus sings on a couple of tracks. The cast is very vast, consisting musicians from Yes, Toto, King Crimson, etc., and such prog heroes as John Wetton ('Hey You' and 'Mother') and Ian Anderson ('Thin Ice') as vocalists.

(NB! To simplify things, I speak of this set first as if there wasn't the final "bonus" section.) Well, partly I enjoyed this but for the major part I didn't. Firstly, it consists only of Dark Side of the Moon / Wish You Were Here (though only about 20 minutes worth) / The Wall material. Some tracks, like the opener 'Speak To Me - Breathe' with Malcolm McDowell's loonie spoken intro and Adrian Belew's vocals, or 'Us and Them' or the songs mentioned earlier, work quite well - even though they lack any fresh artistic view. But especially on the first disc there's a string of songs ('Welcome to the Machine', 'Money', 'Have a Cigar', 'Run Like Hell' and 'Young Lust') that I find mostly irritating. They have bad, cocky vocals from e.g. Doug Pinnick and Bobby Kimball, and a strong emphasis on bold electric guitar playing. Of course also the way those three albums' pieces - and naturally including so many of their most straightforward, rockier songs especially from The Wall - are scattered haphazardly throughout two discs feels stupid. There isn't much of a flow between the tracks, even 'Brain Damage' and 'Eclipse' don't click together as the performers change.

Disc Two starts awfully with a ballsy version of 'Another Brick... Pt. II' (I'm not fond of the PF original either...). This disc has Billy Sherwood on a various playing role on most tracks. He frankly isn't a good vocalist! Nor is Gentle Giant's Gary Green on 'Time'. From the instrumental point of view the guests very seldom bring their own unique approach. Rick Wakeman's piano on 'The Great Gig in the Sky' has some nice difference to the original, but practically the guest list is overblown for a very little reason, apart from the merchandising values.

But the best is yet to come. At the end we're given glimpses of what a fantastic Pink Floyd tribute album could have been like. These 5 tracks are produced by the performers themselves and they do have a unique personal approach. ALIEN SEX FIEND's 'Echoes' (5:43) is highly interesting as it's very far from the mighty original, and so is UMMAGUMMA's (never heard of them) 'Obscured by Clouds' which actually reminds more of 'Time' for the first two minutes. LARRY FAST & ALAN WHITE serve yet another piece from DSotM, 'On the Run', but without a slightest feeling of "so predictable!" around. Excellent performances by PSYCHIC TV ('Set the Controls...') and NIK TURNER ('Careful With That Axe, Eugene') widen up the Pink Floyd output beyond the best-selling era backwards into their psychedelic and more innovative era.

Now, if only the whole 2-CD was made this way! The art work in multi-folding DigiPak naturally pays tribute to the Hipgnosis style.