Pink Floyd - Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd
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Free Music Notes for Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd
Free Music Review: Not a bad compliation for an album-rock band
Hit: 5 Stars
Pink Floyd's 2-CD set "Echoes" is the first official "best-of" released by this band, which spans the eccentric psychedlia-laden days of 1967 to the Gilmour-led "Division Bell." And surprisingly, for a band that put out such a long body of album-based music, this compilation holds up well, even though it pales next to their classic albums ("Dark Side of the Moon," "The Wall," or "Meddle" just to name a few). The tracks are not sequenced in chronologial order, which to me, is a great thing, since with a band like Pink Floyd, you never really care about what era a particular song is from and just concentrate on the music. The opening cut on disc one is the spage-age psychedelic piece "Astronomy Domine," (from the classic first album "Piper At the Gates of Dawn") and is a pretty darn good opener in my opinion. Syd Barrett's musical genius is reinforced yet again with the inclusion of "Astronomy" as well as a few other cuts he did with the band. This is quite amazing, since he only appeared on the first two albums (the second one in a limited capacity before being replaced by David Gilmour). Another neat feature is the use of sound effects to transition from one song to the next. I think this only made sense since transitions were a huge part of Pink Floyd's albums. The helicopter noise taking us from 1967's "See Emily Play" to 1979's "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" is one particularly good example of this. The wind noises used to transition Meddle's "One of These Days" to Dark Side's "Us and Them" also work quite nicely. If this was issued in chronological form, I don't think it would have had nearly the same impact.
This is the perfect place for anybody who is just starting to get into Pink Floyd (though I'd also strongly recommend "Dark Side of the Moon"). It covers all eras of the band and their evolution is noticeable throughout. It also contains a rare cut ("When the Tigers Broke Free" from the Wall movie soundtrack). This was actually my first Pink Floyd album, although I had heard a lot of their stuff before (from the radio or old vinyl records) and liked it. After this, I quickly became a fan, and for the past two years, I have amassed a decent Floyd album collection (along with two t-shirts). And I must admit that I don't listen to this album much anymore after hearing their proper albums.
However, as an experienced Floyd listener, there are a couple of flaws that I've noticed regarding some of the tracks here (don't pay any attention to this if you are only a casual listener). I think "The Fletcher Memorial Home" should have been removed. I don't particularly like the album it came from (1983's The Final Cut), and I think that it is far too bleak, both musically and lyrically. I realize that Roger Waters frequently wrote pessimistic lyrics, but I think by that time he had taken it too far. Also I wish they would have included stuff from the More soundtrack instead of just focusing on the more well known albums. But these are just minor nitpicks. I don't expect everybody to agree with me.
If you are just now getting into Pink Floyd, then I encourage you to pick this one up. I would also recommend Dark Side in addition to this so you can get a feel for an actual album.
Free Music Review: MOTT'S 5 Stars
Anything that is titled "Best Of" is always suspect to the usual problem of why isn't so and so on it or what is so and so doing off it. Well lets get that bit out of the way. Firstly in this Dog House Best of any Pink Floyd album would contain "Saucerful of Secrets" from "Ummagumma", "Remergence" (the end of Atom Heart Mother) and "Mudmen" from "Obscured by Clouds". And certainly would not include the dreadful "When Tigers Broke Free" who's only inclusion must be because it not available any where else on C.D, as it has only ever been released before as a single (failed) in 1982 from additional material written for "The Wall, The Movie". Also, nowhere on a `Best of Pink Floyd'should there be anything from the awful last album by the Roger Waters led Pink Floyd "The Final Cut" represented here by the extremely boring "Fletcher Memorial Home". Still, enough of griping, the rest of the two hours thirty- five minutes you get here is wonderful. Three from "Piper at the Gates of Dawn". "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" (the only track ever recorded by Pink Floyd as a five piece, before the lovable, but totally mad Syd Barret scuttled off into the sunset,) and "Jugband Blues" from "Saucerful of Secrets", "One of these days" and the mighty "Echoes" (magnificently edited down to a more manageable seventeen minutes from the original twenty three, although keeping all the beeps, bonks, clangers and David Gilmour's soaring guitar solos - probably amongst the best he ever laid down in the studio) from "Meddle" fortunately the best half of the tracks from "Dark Side Of The Moon" five in all, two from "Wish You Were Here", one from "Animals", four from "The Wall" (about as many as you need, lets face it when you are "Comfortably Numb" who cares), and four tracks carefully selected from the last two Waterless albums (Momentary lapse of Reason and Division Bell). But unfortunately nothing from their 3 wonderful live albums.Altogether this proves that Pink Floyd still reign as the finest band in space, best of all though is that the album is topped and tailed by two fine Syd Barret songs, which not only bring a bit of light to the generally gloomy Pink Floyd thoughts. But should hopefully bring a few pennies into Syd's coffers as I'm sure they will be more than welcome, at his reclusive home in Cambridge.
Disc two climaxes with the soaring "High Hopes" which looks like being the final expression of their moody majesty, the last track from the last Pink Floyd album. But there's one final twist in the tale as the closing chord decays, a bell rings and up pops Syd to sing "Bike" a genuinely cheerful, pleasantly bathetic coda to a brilliant career. Which is what makes this such a wonderful "Best Of" as songs from 1994 slip faultlessly into 1967 songs without missing a beat. Wonderful, that's Pink Floyd, Bye Bye, Thank you for sharing, Have a nice retirement.
Mott the Dog.
Free Music Review: All Sorts of Shapes and Sizes
Hit: 5 Stars
An interesting and not altogether disappointing collection of Floyd tunes. Along with the expected choices there are several good offbeat selections of songs, like "When the Tigers Broke Free," "Bike," and "Jugband Blues," (which remains to this day one of my favorite Syd Barrett songs.) Sadly the title song "Echoes" is an edited version, and although it certainly could have been worse, I can't help but think that maybe they should have left off something else in favor of keeping that masterpiece complete, especially as it IS the title of this best of collection. Editing it certainly wasn't the BEST OF choices. Shine on You Crazy Diamond is also slightly edited but does play almost complete through to part seven, and it IS nice to have that space between what was the end of the song on side one and the wind sound that opens the last half of the song on side two, merged into one continuous piece of music, in spite of the edit. Certainly a better job than the hacked up version that appears on the Great Song Dances collection.
Many of the songs are all linked together in such a way as to provide some fresh approaches to some old songs. Most interesting is in how Us and Them is merged with Learning to Fly. The last word of Us and Them, "The old man died, died, died, died ... just keeps repeating until you hear a sound in the distance that grows louder until it becomes the opening of "Learning to Fly". "High Hopes" ends with the bell ringing for a bit until it transforms into a bell on a bike, which naturally leads into the song "Bike." Most of the song segues do work fine, although I question the choice of going from "Echoes" into "Hey You." The rather mundane "Hey You" does not make for an entirely pleasant choice to listen to after the beautifully haunting epic of Echoes. The same goes for choosing to segue from the spacey "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" into the noisy FM hit of "Money."
While the song choices are pretty good, I'm sure everyone will have their complaints about what should have been. Personally I would have liked them to have included the 8-track version of "Pigs on the Wing," which has some excellent Snowy White guitar work used to bridge the two parts together. And including the unreleased ode to Roger Waters, "Peace Be With You" (said by those who have heard it to be the best Pink Floyd song recorded by the Post Waters Floyd) would have also been a good choice. But then you just can't please everyone, and you never will when it comes to these compilations.
At the end of the day it's a very pleasant listen, especially while putting together a Flash project, and right now that's what matters the most to me.
It's Pink FLoyd. It's Classic stuff. It's 5 stars.
Free Music Review: Great Music, Unique Arrrangement
Hit: 5 Stars
Not even a double CD can come close to getting the complete "best" of Pink Floyd, and for a band whose music translates so well as complete albums (Dark Side, Animals, The Wall), some purists will bristle at this collection of singles. Also, while fans will be pleased to see so many albums represented, the selection of songs is sometimes curious. But beyond that, ECHOES is a welcome collection of 26 tunes with a real unique arrangement that hops around from 1967 to 1994 almost at random... and yet really well. Check out, for example, the psychedelic (yet relatively innocent) chords of See Emily Play as they fade into the trademark helicopter sounds of Happiest Days... or the back-to-back instrumentals of Marooned (obscure even for a Division Bell inclusion, but neat) right into the classic Great Gig... ECHOES has a great ability to showcase the three periods of Pink Floyd: pre-Dark Side, the "fab four" of Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall, and then the two excellent Roger-less albums, Momentary Lapse and Division Bell. Even the normally-ignored The Final Cut gets a nod with Fletcher Memorial (why that song, and not the more digestible The Gunner's Dream or Not Now John?). The inclusion of When the Tigers Broke Free, alone, (from the movie The Wall), makes Echoes an absolute MUST have for fans, even if the set does force feed us Barrett/pre-Dark Side era songs apparently at random like Jugband Blues (why two songs from Saucerful of Secrets??) and Bike (available on the extra CD in the 1992 Sine On boxed set). Still, it is such a treat to pop Echoes in and just hear what comes next as the songs jump from the 60s to the 90s to the 70s to the 80s. The album does a good job of getting plenty of must-haves in, like Comfortably Numb, Money, One of These Days, Wish You Wer Here, and Another Brick 2... though putting these Floyd 101 tunes on the same album as Astronomy Domine (great open) and Sorrow (great close to CD 1) is a real enjoyable culture shock varying from overplayed to rarely-heard tunes. Everyone will have their list of "What about?" songs missing from the set (my list includes Take it Back, One Slip, Welcome to the Machine, Green is the Color, and Run Like Hell). The amazing Animals set is once again represented by the time-efficient Sheep, (as on A Collection of Great Dance Songs) but Dogs is better! Still, after 7 years without a studio release from these guys (and nearly 10 years without a new Waters album), it was great to something Floyd on the shelves, and nice to even HAVE a new set list to debate. With a band like Floyd and their large arsenal of great music, not even a double CD will please everyone perfectly. Yet this is all timeless music, and therefore, even the scattered arrangement gets my highest rating.Free Music Review: Oh By The Way, Which One's Pink?? Answer: Syd Barrett!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
Echoes, that historical double-CD collection of the band's greatest numbers, can hardly be called a "greatest hits" collection by normal standards. Oh, sure, most of the Floyd classics are here: "Arnold Layne", "Money", "Us and Them", "Wish You Were Here", "Learning to Fly", etc. Also, there are songs missing that many of their fans wish were present: "Have a Cigar," "Welcome to the Machine," "Brain Damage/Eclipse," and any selections from Atom Heart Mother (aka, The Cow Album). Also, two of their greatest songs here have been edited: the title track and Shine On You Crazy Diamond. So why is this still-impressive collection worth five stars? In two words: unified concept. Pink Floyd have always been a thinking listener's band, and they have managed to take two dozen or so of their greatest songs, meld the tracks together, and juxtapose the tracks in such a fashion that the songs, when played in this order, reveal fresh, sometimes startling new layers of meaning concerning their unified concept. And what is this key concept, the hidden, madcap thread that weaves through most of the songs on this album? Answer: Syd Barrett!!! Yes, the band's original guitarist, acid-eating freak turned genius-lunatic either composed most of the songs on this album ("Arnold Layne," "Jug Band Blues") or is in fact the subject matter of songs composed by the band's other members on later albums ("Wish You Were Here," "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"). Barrett's real-life descent into near-madness runs throughout the band's later material, particularly affecting bassist Roger Waters, who also suffered from a particularly strict childhood ("Another Brick in the Wall") and loss of his father at an early age (the stunning, previously unreleased "When the Tigers Broke Free"; when this song is heard back to back with the very angry piece "One of These Days," the effect is absolutely bone-chilling.) Other such amazing song juxtapositions are "The Happiest Day of Our Lives" backed with "Another Brick In The Wall," and "Set the Controls For the Heart of The Sun" backed with "Money". Listening to the Floyd's music in this fashion gives the listener an excellent picture of the band's collective consciousness in general and Syd Barrett's (and Roger Water's) twisted unconsciousness in particular. The listener is left literally stunned in the process as these 26 seemingly unrelated songs are coalesced into one luminous, incandescent whole. Get this collection today and listen to this old band with fresh new ears. You might just agree that indeed, Syd Barrett is and always will be the Pink in Pink Floyd.