Tag: pink floyd

Is this a Pink Floyd’s finest moment? They sure were on a roll – it started with Meddle, then DSOTM, and then this – you can add Animals to that as well – as these four albums were what Floyd were all about. This album still gives me goosebumps after all these years, and I bought it on its first week of release. Sonically superb, and this 2016 remaster sounds wonderful. Weirdly enough, original Floyd frontman, Syd Barrett, turned up to the sessions for this album and his physical appearance shocked the band.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond is dedicated to Sid and opens up the album – it’s my favourite track. It’s a superb recorded work – from the drawn out opening with Gilmour’s haunting guitar, and the groovy middle section with that epic sax solo – it’s one of the best pieces of music ever recorded. That’s just the first part, as it returns to play out the album on Side 2. Welcome To The Machine is just incredible with (what was at the time) basic synth effects to create that huge mechanical sound of the machine. Have A Cigar is the only somewhat normal tune on the album, as it still has normal strong structure.

It would have been really cool if they got Sid to say a line on the title track – it’s a track that barks back to old Floyd. Band’s just don’t get the time to conjure up something as deep as this today, as we want everything three weeks before it’s created. A genuine masterpiece.

10/10 from The Grooveman.

For me, this is where Pink Floyd became interesting. I didn’t care too much for all the psychedelic nonsense – even though on Obscured By Clouds there were signs to the direction they were going, but it wasn’t until Meddle that the path became clear. It’s also the last album where the whole band contributed, before Herr Waters would wrest control of the band and the arrival of all the tensions in the group.

I love the production on this record as the clarity and separation are amazing. Basically it’s an album of 2 Sides (aren’t they all). Side 1 is all song orientated, and Side 2 is given over to the epic Echoes. It contains the bringing together of instrumental passages that were written by all the band. It’s now become a requirement of every Prog band worth their salt to have one track lasting a full side. If ever you want to test your audio equipment, this is the perfect track to do so as they use the whole of the stereo spectrum.

The opening burst of One Of These Days is one of the greatest opening tracks, with that hypnotic driving Waters’ bass riff that powers the whole song. Fearless is a classic melancholic Floyd melody with the added bonus (if you’re a Liverpool fan) of the Kop at Anfield singing You’ll Never Walk Alone. I think the band did not know where they were headed when they recorded this, as there is also a lounge lizard jazz tune in San Tropez, and the odd blues of Seamus.

It gets 9/10 just for the inclusion of Echoes from The Grooveman.

There is a reason that everyone calls this album one of the best albums ever recorded, and that’s because it is. The ground work for this release was made with the previous album, Meddle, as that was the first proper album where the ghost of Sid Barrett was finally put to rest, and the psychedelia with it. Of course it helps when your record company lets you spend all the time you want in the studio to perfect your music. I’m not sure an album of this magnitude will be ever made again, at least not under a record company banner. Maybe now home recording is much more accessible and cheap, artists might do it with their own dollar, but no record company will ever do it again.

People always look at Floyd as this great technical behemoth, but in reality the songs are quite basic, it’s how all the instruments are layered and separated in the mix that creates this amazing aural experience. The band produced the album themselves with the great Alan Parsons as engineer, and to my ears, it’s one of the great sonic masterpieces of the seventies. 11 pieces of music and 6 songs, every second is perfection. Of course, they were still a band at this point before tyrant Waters wanted to belittle everyone other than himself to take total control.

Most people would agree that Money is the great track from the album, with a superb solo full of feel and tone by Gilmour. In fact, IMHO, all the songs where Gilmour sings are Floyd’s finest moments. One of the great songs not mentioned too often is The Great Gig In The Sky, with the superb wailing vocal from Clare Tory, I absolutely adore this track as it’s full of feel and expression.

So I don’t need to tell you that you should already own this, if you don’t then I suggest you rectify that immediately.

10/10 from The Grooveman.

To me, this is the last great Pink Floyd album. It’s the last album where they were a band, and not a Roger Waters dictatorship. I was never a fan of The Wall as I thought it was overblown self obsessed nonsense from Waters. Sure, there were some good songs on subsequent records, but this is the last true Floyd album. This was released in ’77 and was the 10th Floyd studio album. It was a concept album based social and political unrest in Britain in the mid-seventies. Two of the songs were actually leftovers from Wish You Were Here and reworked/renamed: Sheep and Dogs – they just happen to be the best two tracks on the album. This is prime time Floyd – huge overblown songs that go on forever, deep lyrical content, and killer production.

There’s only two tracks on Side 1, the short intro piece Pigs On The Wing, and Dogs. Dogs is such a huge song that if you switch off in the middle, there are virtually no reference points to remind you what song it is. Again, beautifully written and played – lots of room for the music to breath.

Side 2 starts with Pigs (three different ones) a Floyd classic. Lyrically there are lots of veiled (and not so veiled) digs at establishment figures of the time. Also, some great guitar from Gilmour to lift the song to another level. The last full length track on the album is one of my favourite Floyd tracks ever, Sheep. It starts with a beautiful Fender Rhodes intro from Rick Wright, with a subdued bass line played underneath – very reminiscent of One Of These Days. One of the most up-tempo songs the band recorded, and again, some great playing from Gilmour. The album closes out with the bookend piece Pigs On The Wing (Part 2).

There’s no denying the genius of Pink Floyd as a band, but it all started to unravel when Waters thought he was the band. It’s a shame when band’s fall apart like this. At least we have the music.

9/10 from The Grooveman.