Songs: One Of These Days, A Pillow
Of Winds, Fearless, San Tropez, Seamus, Echoes.
Type of Music:
Psychedelic Rock with touches of Folk, Jazz and Blues.
Comments:
Let me start by saying that I love this Album. It relaxes me completely. It's lounge music produced in 1971 when nobody had ever heard of that musical concept. And then to think that the band had no real ideas when they went to the studio(s) from time to time between concerts for their Atom Heart Mother Tour. They just experienced with basic ideas and sound effects. Amazing!
Without any doubt this is the Floyd´s most
consistent Album thus far. Gone is the orchestra from Atom Heart Mother.
This is the Pink Floyd that would go on and make Dark Side Of The Moon and other top-class Albums. Listen carefully and you will hear the musical ideas for Shine On You Crazy Diamond developing. Meddle is almost a combination of Atom Heart
Mother and More. It has the same structure as Atom Heart Mother with a couple of songs on side 1 and an extensive suite on side 2 and it has the same great atmosphere as More.
Actually, Meddle sounds like the soundtrack of a film that unfortunately was never
made.
But the difference lay in the quality of the songs. First of all they fit together very well. You will remember that More included two
hard rock songs that were completely out of place on that album. That´s not the case here. It's a very fluent album. And secondly the band is maturing rapidly, both in writing songs and playing their instruments. Listen to the guitar solos in Echoes and you'll know what I mean!
The album opens with the song everybody knows: One
of these Days with its pounding rhythm of organ, (bass)guitars and drums. One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces sounds like a follow up to Eugene be careful with that axe.
It´s followed by the gentle love ballad A Pillow of Winds. This could easily have been written by Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel. A simple but very nice melody and a beautiful (acoustic) guitar line.
Then we have the intriguing Fearless that sounds like a lot of the songs the Floyd would do later in their career. It contains parts of You Never Walk Alone, sung by Liverpool Supporters. A lot of people believe this inclusion to be unnecessary but I think it strengthens the meaning of the song. And sound effects are an important part of the band's music.
San Tropez is a jazzy shuffle about a lazy day in that famous beach resort in Southern France. It is followed by a traditional blues pastiche called Seamus. Seamus is Steve Marriott´s (Small Faces) dog and he makes his debut here. These two songs form a nice contrast with the more serious sound of One Of These Days and Echoes. And while they are different, they don't break the flow of the album.
It´s followed by the gentle love ballad A Pillow of Winds. This could easily have been written by Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel. A simple but very nice melody and a beautiful (acoustic) guitar line.
Then we have the intriguing Fearless that sounds like a lot of the songs the Floyd would do later in their career. It contains parts of You Never Walk Alone, sung by Liverpool Supporters. A lot of people believe this inclusion to be unnecessary but I think it strengthens the meaning of the song. And sound effects are an important part of the band's music.
San Tropez is a jazzy shuffle about a lazy day in that famous beach resort in Southern France. It is followed by a traditional blues pastiche called Seamus. Seamus is Steve Marriott´s (Small Faces) dog and he makes his debut here. These two songs form a nice contrast with the more serious sound of One Of These Days and Echoes. And while they are different, they don't break the flow of the album.
And, to finish off Meddle, we get Echoes,
a suite that occupied the whole of Side 2 of the original vinyl record. It has everything that makes Pink Floyd
such a great band. The main theme is very strong. And it´s still rather pure and not too clearly influenced by
commercial drivers. Just close your eyes for 23 minutes and imagine yourself
somewhere on the bottom of the ocean studying whales. Or reading one of my
album or whisky Reviews.. Or whatever you feel like doing at the bottom of the ocean. I know that a lot of Albums and Sound Tracks about the sea have similar passages and maybe some are even better or more precise. But I don't care! Just
enjoy Meddle, another great Pink Floyd Album that will make you feel so
much better after having listened to it after one of your stress filled days.
Rating:
********* (9 out of 10)
Black = Good
Songs
Green
= Great Songs
Red
= Could Be Better
Who should buy this Record: Everybody.
This is an Essential Pink Floyd Album.