MEDDLE

For change I make a very untypical choice for an album to review: a beloved classic, reviewed hundreds of times. My personal opinion is of course quite unnecessary with these cases, why I don't much review the greatest classics. (And I see that I have some stupid need to explain all this... sorry! Onto the album.)

I think Meddle is one of the best PF albums of all time, even though there is one silly filler ('Seamus', bluesy simple song featuring a dog as a background singer). The second weakest track is 'San Tropez' which shows Waters in an unusually carefree mood. Also 'Fearless' is very positive in atmosphere; you don't hear Floyd in a happy mood too often, so actually this track (which is also rather simple but with a delicious bass pattern) makes a nice addition to their oeuvre. Hmmm, three tracks out of six and no reason for great applauses yet. The main question is, can I rate this with five stars?

The opener is one of their most famous instrumental pieces, which was still featured on concerts in the 90's. 'One Of These Days' has that Floydian intensity at its strongest. The drums and the heavy bass go on and on hypnotically and Gilmour makes his lap steel howl. And more trippy psychedelia is added by the drumless middle part with the ghostly growl "one of these days I'm going to cut ypou into little pieces". The next song 'A Pillow Of Winds' is perhaps underestimated and too badly known. Maybe because it's so serene.

And the best is saved till last: the side-long 'Echoes', which definitely is among my most loved Floyd tunes ever. Right from the start with the slow dink... dink... dink... keyboard strokes it veawes me into a spellbinding atmosphere. And then as the whole band has arrived into the music, the vocals enter: "Overhead the albatross hangs motionless..." etc. The down-tempo vocals throughout the track (which for the most part is instrumental however) never change the melody lines, which is why it's so effective. The lyrics are fantastic, very melancholic and dealing with "strangers passing in the street, by chance two separate glances meet" (if my memory serves). I am more familiar with the 16-minute edition featured on the Echoes compilation, so I'm not quite sure if the full version really fills the 23+ minutes the best possible way. But all in all, even if all the material on this album is not on the highest level (similar case as with YES's Going For The One), this is a Prog Masterpiece. Full stars. Amen.