In the alternative, snobbishly anti-populist Pink Floyd schema — the one that dismisses the famous albums like Wish You Were Here, The Wall and Dark Side…, that counts the Syd era as a different band altogether, and doesn't even acknowledge the existence of the post-1980 albums — I believe Meddle is highly regarded; perhaps even rated as 'the best'.
That's why I bought it eight years ago, within a few weeks of Ummagumma and Obscured by Clouds.
But. As with Obscured by Clouds, the opening of the first track impresses, only for things to slide away after that. The Boy was actually quite disconcerted by the throbby bit and the spooky voice half way through One of These Days. I liked them. Then there's some passable-but-unremarkable folk and blues songs. And finally comes Echoes, all 22+ minutes of it. This is the point where you can feel Dark Side… is just round the corner, an accident waiting to happen. To me, Echoes has everything that is wrong with Pink Floyd: ponderous 'movements', drumming that aspires to being clever but never makes it past turgid, an anodyne melody under sixth form lyrics, sung in a style that is an object lesson in how boring and lifeless you become if you smoke too much weed.
Clearly my opinion counts for zip, as this style turned out to be so popular that, if grandpa avoids ostentatious frittering, will mean that three generations of Floyd-offspring never have to bend to the will of an employer or an audience.
 MusicBrainz entry for this albumWikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to none of this album at Last.fm Listen to this album in full at We7 |
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