RELICS

The band's previous studio album might not have been one of my favorites but it did make somewhat of an impact in the British charts meaning that the label soon followed up the success with this compilation album.

Unlike the 1970 compilation called The Best Of The Pink Floyd that covered the band's psychedelic years with Syd Barret, Relics is quite an odd little collection of songs from the '60s. The album did supply the fans with both of the Syd Barrett-era hit singles, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, plus B-sides to three other singles. But it also features studio tracks from the debut album, A Saucerful Of Secrets and the soundtrack from the film More.

The biggest surprises for me here were the tracks Julia Dream and The Nile Song. The former is a slow and soft Mellotron-driven performance with beautiful chorus sang by Roger Waters. The latter is a surprisingly heavy tune that can easily be classified as one of the earliest forms of Hard Rock genre! I could have enjoyed the album more if I was spared the complete version of Interstellar Overdrive and the other B-side tracks since they really don't add anything interesting to the already familiar scope of Pink Floyd's early output.

The main issue I have with Relics is that it tries to be both a best of- and rarities compilation without being particularly good at either one of these goals. It's understandable why the fans would have wanted this compilation back in the day but today there's a wide variety of great Pink Floyd odds & sods releases out there making Relics exactly what its title might suggest. Still the glossy album cover and the fact that it was released before the band's golden era is enough to make it a nice piece of Pink Floyd memorabilia for fans of the band.

***** star songs: Remember A Day (4:29) Julia Dream (2:37) Bike (3:21)

**** star songs: Arnold Layne (2:56) See Emily Play (2:53) The Nile Song (3:25)

*** star songs: Interstellar Overdrive (9:43) Paintbox (3:33) Careful With That Axe, Eugene (5:45)

** star songs: Cirrus Minor (5:18) Biding My Time (5:18)