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: somewhat odd tracklisting...
Hit: 5 Stars
Pink Floyd are/were a great band, and the songs on this double disc set will attest to that. I do have a few gripes about the tracklisting. In my opinion, they needn't had included so many tracks from A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell while leaving out many more superior pieces from their late 60s/early 70s work. It just boggles me that they decided to include "Marooned," one of the more boring instrumental pieces from 1994's The Division Bell, but neglected to include, in any form, the 1967 instrumental masterpiece "Interstellar Overdrive." Some would argue that this track ("Insterstellar Overdrive") was the greatest piece of music Pink Floyd ever created, whereas "Marooned" is most definitely in the lower echelons of the Floyd canon. I am a fan of the post-Roger Waters era Pink Floyd (I think "High Hopes" is one of the greatest songs in their entire backcatalogue), but I feel this era was overly represented on this compilation. Why nothing from Atom Heart Mother, Ummagumma, or from their soundtracks (More and Obscured by Clouds)? Some of their best work was on these inexplicably excluded albums. I know they couldn't include everything, but I think it would have been a good idea to include at least one track from every album they released, along with some essential rarities. I am happy that they represented the Syd Barret era with five cuts, and even included a track from The Final Cut (it was basically a Roger Waters solo album, with little to no input from the other members), an underrated album that Floyd fans know isn't a huge favorite of David Gilmour, nor the rest of the band, other than Waters of course.But even with these flaws, I can't help but give the compilation 5 stars, as it includes some of the greatest music ever recorded. The final analysis is that it's a good (but it could have been better!) sample of their work, spanning nearly 30 years.
Free Music Review: My introduction to one of the GREATEST bands ever!!
Hit: 5 Stars
This was the first Pink Floyd cd I ever got, and to me it was a great place to start. The 2 disc set entitled "Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd" is an excellent collection of the group's greatest songs ever from both the Syd Barret and David Gilmour eras. Every song on here is great, so anyways if you're new to Pink Floyd, this is a nice place to start. Now for my track ratings.
themetalbeast's track ratings:
Disc 1
1. Astronomy Domine from "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn": 5/5
2. See Emily Play - unreleased: 5/5
3. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives from "The Wall": 5/5
4. Another Brick In The Wall Pt.2 from "The Wall": 5/5
5. Echoes from "Meddle": 5/5
6. Hey You from "The Wall": 5/5
7. Marooned from "The Division Bell": 5/5
8. The Great Gig in the Sky from "Dark Side Of The Moon": 5/5
9. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun from "Saucerful Of Secrets": 5/5
10. Money from "Dark Side Of The Moon": 5/5
11. Keep Talking from "The Division Bell": 5/5
12. Sheep from "Animals": 5/5
13. Sorrow from "A Momentary Laspe Of Reason": 5/5
Disc 2
1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-7) from "Wish You Were Here": 5/5
2. Time from "Dark Side Of The Moon": 5/5
3. The Flectcher Memorial Home from "The Final Cut": 5/5
4. Comfortably Numb from "The Wall": 5/5
5. When The Tigers Broke Free from "The Wall Movie Soundtrack": 5/5
6. One Of These Days from "Meddle": 5/5
7. Us And Them from "Dark Side Of The Moon": 5/5
8. Learning To Fly from "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason": 5/5
9. Arnold Layne - unreleased: 5/5
10. Wish You Were Here from "Wish You Were Here": 5/5
11. Jugband Blues from "Saucerful Of Secrets": 5/5
12. High Hopes from "The Division Bell": 5/5
13. Bike from "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn": 5/5
Free Music Review: "Surely worth double its price tag"
Hit: 5 Stars
Pink Floyd: one of the most influential bands of all time. Never heard of them? Put on a Radiohead or Beta Band CD and you'll hear what is essentially a direct take-off of their music. Their influence is so huge that they practically started the whole `Swinging London/Flower Power' scene back in the 60's with their debut The Piper At The Gates of Dawn and then went on to release such record-breakings albums like Obscured By Clouds, Wish You Were Here, The Wall and, of course, the classic Dark Side of the Moon (surely you've heard of it). Now, after countless compilations, collections and box sets we finally get the essential Best Of Pink Floyd in the two-CD Echoes set. Including 26 landmark tracks, Echoes hears the band at their best with tunes ranging from their 1968 debut with original former Syd Barrett all the way to their 1994 final studio recording The Division Bell. Listing tracks from practically every one of their albums, the compilation has something for everybody; for casual and new listeners, tracks like "Money", "Time" and "Comfortably Numb" will pull you into the surreal world created by the band, while die-hard fans will kill for hard-to-find tunes like "Arnold Layne", "Astronomy Domine" and the never previously released jewel-in-the-crown "When The Tigers Broke Free". The much hyped "all in continuous play" doesn't disappoint either, with Floyd's fascination with the non-stop method (think of the Wizard Of Oz/Dark Side of the Moon synchronization) coming into play outstandingly yet again. Including a fascinating inlay filled with psychedelic pictures, caricatures, lyrics and hints for fans, the 160-minute collection is surely worth double its price tag. If you liked Three E.P.'s or OK Computer (the "Fitter Happier"/"Keep Talking" comparison is amazing), then pick up Echoes.Free Music Review: "Overhead An Albatross Hangs Motionless Upon The Air..."
Hit: 5 Stars
As one of Pink Floyd's biggest fans, I must say that I am torn between whether I should tell you to buy this album or not. On the one hand, if you are looking to buy a CD to introduce you to the band, this is probably good for you because it provides the best overview of the groups many albums that you can find. On the other hand, if you already own all their albums, and are a big fan, you probably shouldn't get this. You already have all the songs already, plus some of the songs on here have been edited to fit on the CD(like Echoes-it has 7 full minutes missing!), so they are inferior versions to what you already own. Then again (and these are the reasons that I bought it) there is the never before released song "When the Tigers Broke Free" which was in The Wall movie, also, a fan might be interested in seeing how well Gilmour made the songs flow together, and it also might be nice to have a nice cross section of the Floyd catalogue on 2 CD's to take with you on a trip or something as opposed to taking 12 different disks. Also, a truly obsessed fan might want it for the cool box and liner notes with great new artwork.Well, I guess that I WILL recommend this. After all, the true fan will end up buying it anyway, and it is the best choice for the new fan. All discussions of what songs should or should not have been included aside,(personally, I think the post-Waters stuff should have been left off to free up space for such great songs as Carefull with that Axe, Eugene and Atom Heart Mother if there is room-but can you really fit all of Floyd's great songs on just 2 disks? you'd need 20!) this is a good, interesting collection of Pink Floyd in a cool box with new retrospective artwork by the great Storm Thorgerson. Buy it....
Free Music Review: Pink Floyd Represented with "Fair" Justice
Hit: 5 Stars
Pink Floyd is an extremely difficult band to do anything "ordinary" in a rock sense. Minimal interviews. Minimal portrayals of the band except through its classic iconography. Ambitious projects. Long instrumentals. Changing musical approaches. And of course having fragmentation doesn't help either.Now "best of" albums are usually recommended to the newcomers, adored by the record companies and frown on by the fans (except we poor fools pay for it at any rate). But this "best of" album excites me because: 1) Pink Floyd was heavily involved with it, 2) it takes into account with their entire career and 3) it's not an ordinary "best of" album. First off, the sleeve design makes it a testament/historical account of the Floyd in a very creative and interesting way (thank you Storm). And second, the tracklisting is non-chronological and they segue into each other.
Now I say it represents Pink Floyd with "fair" justice for the following reasons: the album still reflects the "Great Floyd Schism" between Roger Waters and David Gilmour (PF-1987) and the second is that gap between 1968 and 1972 when you have "A Saucerful of Secrets" instantly jumping into "Meddle." The latter one kind of disappoints me because that era is just as important as "Dark Side of the Moon" or "The Wall" or even "A Momentary Lapse of Reason." But I'll live because that era will not be for everyone.
This review is more for the new fans of the Floyd then for the old. But I hope this was useful for both.
And if anyone thinks (sarcastically) "is this the best they [Pink Floyd] can do," believe me that this is better than nothing.
Shine on.