Showing posts with label Pink Floyd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pink Floyd. Show all posts

Pink Floyd - Meddle - Review




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.
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.

Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother - Review



Songs: Atom Heart Mother (Father´s Shout – Breast Milky – Mother Fore – Funky Dung – Mind Your Throats Please – Remergence),  If, Summer 68, Fat Old Sun, Alan´s Psychedelic Breakfast (Rise and Shine – Sunny Side Up – Morning Glory).   

Type of Music: Psychedelic Rock   

Comments:
“We know we´re going somewhere but we´re not quite sure where and how”. The group must have had these kind of thoughts in 1970. It would explain the cover of the album with the now famous cow. I think the band wanted to express the fact that the music on it could be anything made by anybody. Free your mind and let the ideas flow. 

When interviewed many years later, most of the band members do not think very highly of this Album, released in 1970 and recorded in the Abbey Road Studios in London. I do not agree with their statements. Stylistically this album is a logical follow up to the studio half of the Ummagumma Album. Again, one side of the Album contains a group effort while the other half showcases individual songs written by the various band members. But this time the Avant Garde music was taken a step further with the help of Ron Geesin, a full bras section and a choir. 
But in comparison to Ummagumma, the musical ideas here are more defined, with the exception of the Mind Your Throats Please part of the opening suite that is more a collection of sounds.The actual songs and melodies however are quite strong and thoroughly enjoyable.

The Album kicks of with the Atom Heart Mother Suite, one of the longest Pink Floyd songs (23.36). It's one of the first successful combinations of progressive rock and classical music. The main theme Father's Shout is very strong. It could have been used as a film soundtrack but in the end the contract did not go ahead. And although not all parts of the Suite are equally good they provide us with a very interesting listen that grows on you with every spin and does not bore easily. And Roger's guitar playing holds the promise of greater things to come.  

The album closer is another long piece called Alan´s Psychedelic Breakfast. Alan is Alan Stiles, one of the roadies of the group who is preparing breakfast and is remembering other breakfasts in between the three instrumental parts. The newly applied production techniques make it all sound very realistic and funny. Very crispy bacon! The music itself is more forgettable than the title track but the experiment still manages to hold my attention after all these years. Still, it's the weakest track on the album.

In between these suites are three shorter songs, respectively written by Waters, Wright and Gilmour. 

The first one If is a nice mainly acoustic pastoral folk song in the style of Grantchester Meadows. But If has a stronger melody, very honest introspective lyrics and a great guitar solo.
It is followed by Summer' 68, written by Richard Wright. A very accurate picture of one night stands and life on the road in the Summer of Love era. Strong melody. Good Song. 
And finally we have Fat Old Sun, written by David Gilmour, another ode to the beloved countryside. Many have said the band sounds like the Kinks here but who cares! Great melody, great song.  

So there you have it in a nut shell. One excellent and one at least interesting suite plus three quality Pink Floyd Songs. I give this Album a very solid 8 and can't understand why the band with the exception of Richard has become so negative about this album. Atom Heart Mother makes for a very relaxing listen after a hard day´s work. Try it out!

Rating: ******** (8 out of 10)
Black = Good Songs
Green = Great Songs
Red = Could Be Better

Who should buy this Record:  While it´s not an essential Pink Floyd Album, it's certainly worth owning. It´s got a high Anti-Stress Factor! Make sure you get the Re-Mastered Version! 

Pink Floyd - Ummagumma - Review



Studio Album: Sysyphus Part I – Part II – Part III – Part IV, Grantchester Meadows, Several Species of Small Furry Animals 
 Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict, The Narrow Way Part I – Part II – Part III, The Grand Vizier´s Garden Party Part I (Entrance) – Part II (Entertainment) – Part III (Exit).
  
Live Album: Astronomy Domine, Careful with that Axe  Eugene, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, A Saucerful of Secrets.


Type of Music: Psychedelic Avant Garde Folk-Rock   

Comments:

I – Studio Album.
Ummagumma (Slang for Sex) is probably the weirdest Album in the Pink Floyd Collection. The Studio Album is basically a collection of sounds and sound effects where each member of the band is getting the chance to “ shine” and experiment. Why the guys wanted to make an album like this? They were probably trying to figure out which way to go after Syd's departure from the band. Let's see if we all can come up with new musical ideas. We can then hand pick the best ideas and use them as a basis for our future musical direction as a band. Could be. Or maybe they were just a gang of ego trippers at the time who wanted to experiment with progressive Avant Garde Music and Studio Effects. It certainly became an experimental Album. If you compare it to More, it contains less actual music than that Sound-Track. In my opinion, most of the music on Ummagumma is interesting to hear for a couple of times but you won't spin this CD every week. It also sounds a bit dated when you listen to it now. But that does not mean it's a bad album. There are enough interesting musical ideas to be found.

The first suite is called Sysyphus and was written by Richard Wright. It´s  avant garde music and reminds me of a classical piano piece recorded in the Jungle. It's about a figure from the Greek mythology that has to push a rock up a hill in Hades, the Underworld. When he finally manages to get to the top, the rock rolls back again and a new effort starts. The music of course is trying to accompany this effort. Richard was obviously influenced by Arab music at this point in time, as first noticed in Set the Control for the Heart of the Sun.

David Gilmour wrote The Narrow Way, basically a guitar piece, sometimes nice and calm, sometimes quite distorted and ending with a vocal part. David plays all the instruments and takes care of the vocals. This is a strong song and it could have easily fitted on the  soundtrack More.

Nick Mason is responsible for The Grand Vizier´s Garden Party a percussion solo with electronic side effects. It' s interesting sometimes but boring in other instants. The flute , played by his wife at the time, is rather nice.

Between Sysyphus and The Narrow Way we get two surprises. The first is a gentle folk song called Grantchester Meadows, written by Roger Waters. The perfect song to wake you up on a beautiful morning in spring. It is an ode to the British country side and is filled with sound effects. It could have been a song written by Simon & Garfunkel. It might be a bit overlong but it's very relaxing. The second one,called Small Furry Animals etc, is not really a song but it's extremely funny and well-made. Sometimes it sounds like a speech by Mussolini, held in a cave for an assembled multitude of rats and bats.

In summary, this is not Pink Floyd for the casual listener. It certainly is not the place to start your Pink Floyd collection. But if you are a true fan there is enough to discover on this Studio Album.

Rating: ******* (7 out of 10)
Black = Good Songs
Green = Great Songs
Red = Could Be Better

II- Live Album.
Now this is a different story altogether! Only four songs on this Live Album but they are cooking! Three of them we already know from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets. The fourth song, an instrumental, reminds Eugene to be Careful with that Axe. It is a perfect Pink Floyd song that has everything that made this band great.  The other three songs are longer, faster and more exciting than the studio versions. The Sound Quality is excellent, even more so after having being Re-Mastered. In short, a great Live Album that justifies buying the Ummagumma set.    

Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)
Black = Good Songs
Green = Great Songs
Red = Could Be Better

Given the differences between the Studio - and the Live Album I have rated both records separately.

Who should buy this Record:  The Studio Album is for Fans Only. The Live Album however is Essential Pink Floyd and one of the best Classic Rock Live Albums around. Look for a Special offer of the Remastered Double Set.

Pink Floyd - More - Review





Songs: Cirrus Minor, The Nile Song, Crying Song, Up the Khyber, Green is the ColourCymbaline, Party Sequence, Main Theme, Ibiza Bar, More Blues, Quicksilver, A Spanish Piece, Dramatic Theme
Type of Music: Psychedelic Folk-Rock (Space-Folk)  

By 1969, Pink Floyd was well appreciated in progressive art circles apparently as they were asked to write the soundtrack for Barbet Schroeder´s movie More. You have to bear in mind they were only active as a recording band for about 2 years. Also, they had little time to write and produce the soundtrack. Maybe that’s why Roger’s voice seems to sound a bit fragile at times. However, I believe it combines well with the spacey folk material on the album.
The story of the film goes as follows: In the midst of the psychedelic revolution, a young German, Stephan, leaves the Fatherland to travel. In Paris he meets the beautiful and mysterious Estelle and falls in love despite many warnings that the girl is a heroin addict. Estelle leaves for Ibiza and invites Stephan who follows. Despite the romantic setting of the island and the many parties it soon becomes clear to Stephan that Estelle indeed uses heroin. After his initial protests he soon gives in to temptation and the couple slowly but surely become junkies. Stephan also suspects that Estelle is sleeping with her dealer, a guy called Wolf. Despite everything the couple tries to get clean with the help of LSD.
It goes okay for a while until Wolf returns in their lives. Stephan is tormented by jealousy and resorts to heroin again. When a friend from Paris tries to persuade him to leave the island, he goes looking for Estelle as he doesn´t want to leave without her. She probably went out with Wolf and Stephan roams the island in a desperate quest. As he fails to find her, he takes an overdose and dies.
A heavy story indeed!!

And now The Music. This is likely to be the least known and most underrated album of the band. Probably because sound tracks are usually considered as nothing more than background music for the film itself. But that´s not the case here. Sure there are bits of music, like A Spanish Piece and Party Sequence, that only make sense when watching the movie but hey, there are some great songs here.

Most of the good stuff was written by Roger Waters who apparently used this album to try and create a style of his own. I’m sure the basis for later albums was laid here maybe even without Roger realising it.  Most of these goodies are actually folk rock tunes and they are stunningly beautiful. I consider Cirrus Minor the best but it is closely followed by Crying Song, Cymbaline and Green is the Colour. Listening to Cymbaline I believe I know where groups like Air and Groove Armada found their inspiration. This is perfect lounge music and we are talking 1969 here! There are some good instrumentals as well like the jazzy Up the Khyber, the obviously bluesy More Blues and the spacey Main Theme. This song seems to have inspired the German band Kraftwerk in their later work. Only Quicksilver is a mere collection of sounds without any meaningful direction.

Actually, the album would have been even better if it weren´t for two hard rocking Heavy Metal songs that seem completely out of place, although they aren’t bad songs. They do sound very similar. The Nile Song and Ibiza Bar might have inspired David Bowie to undertake his Berlin adventure. In fact I don’t believe Pink Floyd rocked in this style ever again. 
So my advise to you is to program your CD without those two songs, make yourself comfortable on the couch and pour yourself a nice dram of whisky. 


Just close your eyes while listening to the Main Theme or Quicksilver and you can almost imagine yourself floating in deep space!
Make sure you get the new re-mastered version!

Rating: ******** (8 out of 10)
Black = Good Songs
Green = Great Songs
Red = Could Be Better

Who should buy this Record:  This is an Essential Pink Floyd Album as it helps to define Roger’s style. It also has inspired other musicians in my opinion. As such it should be part of every great Classic Rock Collection

Pink Floyd - A Saucerful Of Secrets - Review


Songs: Let There Be More Light, Remember a Day, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, Corporal Glegg, A Saucerful of Secrets, See-Saw, Jugband Blues

Type of Music: Psychedelic Rock   

Comments:
Set the Controls for the Future of the Band. 

The Pink Floyd´s second Album is basically Part II of the Star Wars that started with The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. But there is one big difference: Syd Barrett. Or better, his absence. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds got the better of him and he had to leave the band. 
One final song, Jugband Blues with the immortal last words "And what exactly is a joke? " marks his departure. It´s not a very good song unfortunately.
I'm sure that many a tear was shed by the remaining band members but I also suspect that Roger saw his chance here to lead the band in the direction he saw in his mind.

Still, with Syd out we miss the genius or the "madness" that had marked The Piper. Because Roger Waters is no Syd Barrett. He wrote his version of the Interstellar Overdrive and named it A Saucerful of Secrets. It´s not bad but I hear a craftsman and not a genius, crazy as Syd might have been. And Syd´s Scarecrow is now called Corporal Glegg and it´s only half as funny. Roger would find his own way in the seventies but to me this record is Roger´s Piper Revisited.
Richard Wright wrote (Weird Word Sequence) two songs for the album namely Remember a Day and See-Saw of which the first one is the better of the two. So everybody did their best to show they could manage without Syd, but maybe it was too early for that in 1968.

That leaves us with Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. It was written by Roger but the other band members contributed to the song as well and it is the only moment on the album where you sense that they are capable of writing an interesting, complex and experimental song as well. It´s too little to save A Saucerful from being more than an average Psychedelic Rock Album. It did however gave them confidence. The confidence they needed to be able to make Dark Side in the future.

Syd of course was replaced by Singer/Guitarist David Gilmour and that was a lucky hand as time would tell. 

Rating: ******* (7 out of 10)
Black = Good Songs
Green = Great Songs
Red = Could Be Better

Who should buy this Record:  Only for the real Floyd Fans. Of which there are a lot of course, including me!

Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - Review

Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - 1967

Songs: Astronomy Domine, Lucifer Sam, Mathilda Mother, Flaming, Pow R. Toc H., Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk, Interstellar Overdrive, The Gnome, Chapter 24, Scarecrow, Bike.

Music: Psychedelic Pop Rock   

Comments:
Well, this is the Debut Album of Syd Barrett & the Monsters of Deep Space, a.k.a. Pink Floyd at the time this record was released. Everybody knows the story of Syd I suppose. He took too much Acid and went into obscurity eventually, leaving his band for Roger Waters to take care. Syd died in 2006.
But on The Piper our Crazy Diamond still Shines! I read Syd Barrett as follows: Actually he was a writer of short to the point Pop Songs like their debut single Arnold Llayne.  
This album contains a lot of this type of Song. Some of  them could have easily been given to artists like David Bowie or Donovan or even Dave Berry. Some of them are quite good (Lucifer Sam, Mathilda Mother, Flaming). Some are not (Chapter 24, Bike).

But then what happened. Syd found some pills and, like people did back in 1967, he took one and one more and one more…….and suddenly the  world became a Strawberry Field Forever.
It was at such a moment that Syd created Interstellar Overdrive and Astronomy Domine, the key songs on this album that were inspired by Jimi Hendrix and, in turn, inspired the psychedelic world for some years to come. The songs are actually quite good.
Roger Waters tried a pill as well but it was probably a pain killer as the result Take up thy Stethoscope and Walk is no match for Syd´s space adventures.
On this album the Floyd experimented for the first time with sound effects and other gimmicks that, in later years, would become an all important ingredient of their music. A good example is POW. R TOC. H, a jazzy song with Richard seemingly playing his piano in the Jungle.

All in All the Album is somewhat inconsistent. But no one can deny its importance for Psychedelic Rock.      

Rating: ******** (8 out of 10)
Black = Good Songs
Green = Great Songs
Red = Could Be Better

Who should buy this Record:  If you like your Psychedelic Music quite poppy, this one´s for you. Also for those who appreciate early David Bowie.
It´s an interesting but not easy start of your Pink Floyd Collection.