MEDDLE

5 Stars... all of it is very good, except the last track. The last track is simply ASTONISHING.

One of these Days is very progressive in that it features an artistic combination of all the instruments. Haunting bass guitar and steel guitar near the end... and climax in the middle featuring the only lyrics to the song, in Nick Mason's demonic voice: One of these Days, I'm going to Cut you into Little Pieces This is a masterpiece, and you can tell all of the band members worked on it (except Syd... can never forget him... I hate when people say all 4, and forget Syd...) The song Mirrors Careful with that Axe Eugene almost exactly in its style, hauntingly quiet melody that leads up to the spoken title/lyrics to the song, which is only a sentence long, which is the climax... following that, it continues much louder until it eventually fades out in the end very quietly... in this case, into the sound of wind that segues into a Pillow of Winds.

A Pillow of Winds is such a surreal and peaceful sounding song. I can't quite tell you what's so progressive about it, but it just is... it's different from other rock songs. It's another ballad, one of the few songs about love I think, that Pink Floyd has.

Fearless is a very good song, it's another sort've ballad, but it does have electric guitar and stuff in it. It's generally very peaceful, and ends with a bunch of fans cheering.

San Tropez is a bluesy sounding song, I think, and it's not that progressive, but it generally makes you feel nice. Not very important though.

Seamus is the same, not very important, although it is entertaining to hear a song with a dog on lead vocals! David Gilmour attempts an American accent as he sings in this acoustic song. The Live at Pompeii version featured no words, a different dog, and a harmonica.

Alright... Echoes...

This is the Magnum Opus of the album. I remember when I first obtained the album and I gave it a listen. I liked all the stuff I had heard, but I wasn't quite satisfied... I felt like something was missing... like all that was supposed to lead up to something. I remember hearing the surreal sounding pings like crystalline water droplets, and the very quite melodies coming it, and I just thought it was a very quiet song at first. I thought that it would end around 6 minutes, but it started getting just a bit louder. I remember hearing a melody that sounded similar to the Phantom of the Opera... however, Echoes is way older than Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, haha. This part was very surreal sounding, and when the lyrics came in, they describe a scenery in a very poetic way. You can see the echoes, and rippling water, and the sands of distant times and places... you can feel it all.

After that, the song gets quite loud, playing that Phantom theme until it switches to a sort've funky kind've part, where the bass and keyboards are prominent, with David just lightly strumming and then randomly coming in at different parts to add wonderful guitar solos to the mix... the solos are very wonderful and surreal sounding, a perfect progressive style.

This part fades into an experimental bridge in which they create wind sound effects and bird calls, as well as a bizarre whalesong sound, a screech in the night... they previously used this in The Embryo during live performances, and later in Is there Anybody out there for the Wall. I was sure that the song would end after that faded out, and the weird screeches were heard, but I sat there patiently waiting for it to fade out. If there's one thing I learned about Pink Floyd, it's never stop listening to the album until the last song is TOTALLY finished... because there's lots of little interesting things, such as a telephone call at the end of the Division Bell. So I patiently sat and waited through wind and screeching and birds for 3 or 4 minutes, but when it finally began to fade out, I noticed that the organ was coming back in...

The previous part reminded me of a harsh storm, and this new part made me think of the aftermath... the calm. I pictured climbing up a large mountain with greenish aquamarine colour schemes. There is an anticlimactic epic guitar solo that reminds me of ripples in water, not sure why. The way Pink Floyd can do that... make you think of things with their music is just fantastic. I thought it was going to end soon, as it was starting to get longer than Dogs and suddenly they come back in and sing for another verse! The phantom part was being played again, and I was eagerly watching the timer, hoping it wouldn't end soon. It had already surpassed Dogs, and I was wondering if it would Surpass Atom Heart Mother... it didn't, missed it by like 20 seconds, but when it finally faded out I was extremely pleased... Back then I was a fan of their more mainstream stuff, so I was a little iffy about it, but each time I heard it again, I liked it more and more.

Echoes, along with Shine on You crazy Diamond are 2 essential pieces of progressive music from an essential band. This album is definitely amazing! Go ahead and buy it! (Oops... VERY LONG REVIEW... >.>)