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: Don't let the rating fool you.
Hit: 5 Stars
I gave this collection 5 stars because it obviously contains some incredible music. Theres one thing that needs to be understood though. Pink Floyd has never been a band that is about songs, or hits, or anything like that. Floyd is THE definitive album band. Each one of the songs on this collection loses much of its effect when taken out of the context of the album that it was originally featured on, with the exception of some of the Barrett tunes. This collection is NOT good as an introduction to the band. Newcomers should begin with Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here. Otherwise, you are missing the point of what Pink Floyd has always stood for and tried to accomplish. What this collection IS good for is Hardcore Fans of the band, and here is why:1. "When the Tigers Broke Free" - Undoubtedly the holy-grail of Floyd songs (at least to us Floyd-heads). This incredible song is featured in The Wall (the film), but this is the first time it has been released on disc. Worth the price of the disc alone for the hardcore fan.
2. The remixes of the longer songs - A good chunk of "Echoes"has been cut out, mostly from the creepy wind blowing middle section. Good to listen to if you don't have 22 minutes to kill, but need your fix. Also, the two bookend parts of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" have been pasted together (much like on "A Collection of Great Dance Songs"). Its dissapointing that they cut out so much for time, but the main themes of the song are still intact, making for a pretty good abbreviated version.
Now on to the complaints:
1.) I don't know why they even bothered putting the shortened version of "Marooned" on this compilation. It is one of David Gilmour's finest moments as a guitarist and they omit almost 3/4 of the song. So what was the point?
2.) Of the 5 tracks they could have taken from Animals, why do they always feel the need to choose "Sheep" (as they did on the "Dance Song" collection). "Dogs" or "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" are both better songs and better examples of Animals as an album.
3.) I don't think it was really neccesary to include 3 songs each from "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" and "The Division Bell" and not include anything from "More", "Atom Heart Mother" or "Obscured By Clouds".
4.) Why not include "What Shall We Do Now" from The Wall film, especially if they dug up "Tigers"?
5.) How can you omit "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" from a Pink Floyd collection? Can anyone argue with the fact that it really was the only correct way to close out disc 2?
To summarize, if you are new to Pink Floyd, skip this for now and get Dark Side or WYWH. For the hardcore fans, this isn't perfect, but its good enough to be worth the cash.
Free Music Review: No Compilation Will Ever Capture The Best Of Floyd, But This CD Is A Great Appetizer
Hit: 5 Stars
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that Pink Floyd is one of the greatest rock bands ever. Creating some of the finest albums ever made (including the greatest album ever, "Dark Side Of The Moon"), they have carved a pretty impressive niche in rock history. They are also one of the few bands who, in order to have all their best songs, buy all of their albums. However, there are actually some people in the world who only want one Floyd album in their collection.
In 2001, those casual fans' prayers were answered with the two cd, 26 track collection "Echoes: The Very Best Of Pink Floyd". Featuring tracks compiled and sequenced by the band members, this cd does indeed top previous Floyd collections such as "A Collection Of Great Dance Songs". But how does it add up overall? Here are the positives and the negatives.
Positives:
-As I said, no compilation will ever truly capture all of Pink Floyd's best. But if you only want one Floyd cd iny our collection (though I can't imagine why one would), than you've come to the right place. "Echoes" contains all the Floyd classics casual fans will recognize, including "Another Brick In The Wall", "The Great Gig In The Sky", "Money", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1 - 7)", "Time", "Comfortably Numb", "Us And Them" and "Wish You Were Here".
-All the tracks ound superb with the digital remastering job.
-Though it is not in chronological order, the collection flows well.
-They included "The Fletcher Memorial Home", just about the only listenable thing on "The Final Cut".
-You get some Syd Barret numbers. This is great, since I have been interested in hearing the song "Arnold Layne", a song about a kleptomaniac transvestite.
-The booklet is beautiful
Negatives:
-"Money" sounds unnatural without seguing into "Us And Them".
-The band's magnum opuses, "Echoes" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", are both edited. Both were over 20 minutes, but they are cut down to 16 minutes and 17 minutes, respectively.
-There are many omissions, but one tops them all: where is "Speak To Me/Breathe"?! That song really should've been here.
-While you're on the subject of omissions, where's "Careful With That Axe, Eugene", "Atom Heart Mother", "Eclipse", "Welcome To The Machine", "Have A Cigar", "Pigs On The Wing", "Run Like Hell"... the list goes on.
-As well as this collection is sequenced, it should have been done chronologically.
So, how does this collection hold up? Surprisingly well. If you're a casual fan, this collection will be perfect. And even if you have all their albums, the sound alone makes "Echoes" worth owning. An album that belongs in any record collection.
Free Music Review: A "Concept Album" about themselves
Hit: 5 Stars
Most of Pink Floyd's albums were built around a concept and/or a certain theme. This latest Greatest Hits compilation Echoes is a concept album in it's self. Rather than taking on the themes of the how life can drive certain people insane (Dark Side of The Moon), original guitarist Sid Barrett (Wish You Were Here), or outright isolation of a rock musician (The Wall). The concept here on Echoes is the music that made Pink Floyd who they are.
Echoes begins and end with songs written and performed by Barrett and both coming from their first full-length record "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (Astronomy Domine and Bike). In-between are most of the works that made the band famous, including their first singles that came out before "Piper" (Arnold Layne and See Emily Play). The band itself had the say in what songs would be feature and how those songs would be put into order, and everyone involved pull off a great job. Some of the transitions in this project are great, especially the way "Marooned" (originally from "The Division Bell") serves as a two minute transition between "Hey You" (The Wall) and "The Great Gig In Sky." (Dark Side of the Moon) Another great transition is between "Us and Them" and "Learning To Fly" which is hard to explain in words but just hear it for yourself and you will know what I am talking about.
Floyd's longer pieces "Echoes" (Meddle) and Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Wish You Were Here) are also featured in this CD but are edited due time restraints and trying to give some of their work some time. To hear any of the edited pieces in their entirety one has to buy the respected CD's they were originally on.
On this CD the song "Wish You Were Here" goes into the Barrett piece "Jugband Blues" (A Saucerful of Secrets) which acts as sort of a response to "Wish" although "Jugband" was recorded first.
There was much to cover and in order to do that a lot of stuff and to be omitted. This compilation does not feature songs from the albums More, Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother, and Obscured By Clouds, along with the single "Careful with that Axe Eugene."
Many fans of Floyd have complained about what Floyd songs should and should have not be include in Echoes. You can't please everyone including the fans, and more likely there is not going to be a follow up best of project from Pink Floyd. If you are new to Pink Floyd "Echoes: Best of..." is a great way to get a musical crash course on this band. For old fans it's should not be passed up cause it's a new way of doing things. After all most good musicians are "not" purest themselves.
Free Music Review: Finally! A Masterful Compilation Worthy of the Legend
Hit: 5 Stars
Echoes is the dream compilation I have been waiting decades for. All the more impressive, given how difficult it is to package such a concept band whose best works are often lengthy and thematic. But Echoes masterfully and gracefully combines eras, singles, and longer theme pieces. The happiest thing about this collection is not what was left out from Pink Floyds classic works, but what IS included from their less satisfying, more recent output. Uneven almost-rans such as The Division Bell and A Momentary Lapse of Reason never get played anymore, by me. But in the context of this compilation and their greater works, the best pieces from those albums get new lifeand a grateful, pleasurable new hearing. Same goes for some of their earliest work included on this set.Fans and purists can be so persnickety. Really! Such crumudgeons! I dont know what all the grudging fuss is all about. Four stars? I give this collection SEVEN STARS. For my money, the inspired artwork (an incredible overview of references to their legendary Hipgnosis album covers over three decades) and generous packaging (including all the lyrics and a lot of photos) these alone are worth at least half the cost of this album. It does, however, make me wistful for the larger canvass of the old LPswhat a breathtaking souvenir this package would have been in THAT format (I see that this collection is available through Amazon.com on LP, though at almost twice the price, and with the lesser sound quality of that format.)
Im as pure a Floyd fan as the best of em, with more than a few gray hairs in my long hair to prove it. Pink Floyd has always been one of my top ten bands and, like Dark Side of the Moon and its record-breaking run on Billboard, has remained there for more than thirty years, since my first copy of A Saucerful of Secrets in junior high. (My dad said of the cover that it looked like someone had thrown up all over it) But as with so many bands, their middle period was clearly their best work. I stopped buying Pink Floyd albums (in disgust) when each new album was just another reshuffled LIVE or greatest hits package. But now theyve finally done it: A completely satisfying overview drawn from most of their best work. Lets be honesttheres no such thing as the definitive anything, so why dont we just set that stupid measure aside. The fact is, the much-complained about more obscure works left off this collection are better off (as you yourselves have said) heard in their entirity. So buy Obscured by Clouds, Ummagumma and shut up already. Adding a third disk, and a third-again of the price, would cost a third of the potential buying audience for this compilation, which would be a pity.
Free Music Review: The ultimate music trip
Hit: 5 Stars
From the opening notes of "Astronomy Domine" to the weird laughing on "Bike", you know that you are on a music journey that only Pink Floyd could provide. This is a continuous project, meaning that the music doesn't stop except for when you have to change the disc.For the fans of the Syd Barrett=era Pink Floyd, you won't be disappointed! Pink Floyd's first two hit songs, "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play", were composed by Syd Barrett and feature him on lead vocals. "Astronomy Domine" is a truly psychedelic song featuring Barrett and Richard Wright on lead vocals. "Jugband Blues" is the last song Barrett recorded with Pink Floyd before David Gilmour joined. And "Bike" has a certain whimsical flavor that only Barrett could provide.
There is one song featuring a five-member Pink Floyd (Barrett, Gilmour, Wright, Roger Waters, and Nick Mason). The song is "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun". This song was a concert staple of Pink Floyd until the early 1970s. Only Roger Waters has performed this song in concert since the early 1970s (during his 1984-85 Pros & Cons Of Hitchhiking tour, his 1987 Radio KAOS tour, and his recent 1999-2001 In The Flesh tour).
All the tracks sound great. Although the song "Echoes" is slightly edited, I think it still sounds great and that the edit was done quite nicely. The only song that I feel did not belong on this CD is "Marooned"...if you're going to put a song on a CD, put the whole song on there, not an excerpt.
This CD also includes the extremely rare song "When The Tigers Broke Free" (this song was released as a limited-edition single in 1982 with the movie version of "Bring The Boys Back Home" on the opposite side). This is more than a worthy addition to this collection...it is almost worth the cost of the CD.
Of course, what Pink Floyd collection would be complete without "Wish You Were Here", "Comfortably Numb", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", "Money", "Us And Them", "Hey You", and "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)"? I enjoy all the songs on this collection...my faves are "Echoes", "SOYCD", "The Great Gig In The Sky" (Clare Torrey has an AMAZING voice), "Keep Talking" (Gilmour shines on the talkbox), "Sorrow" (my favorite non-Waters PF song), "One Of These Days" (the only released song featuring Nick Mason on vocals), "Set The Controls...", "Comfortably Numb" (one of the best guitar solos in history), and "Astronomy Domine" (Syd RULES!).