MEDDLE

Musically, "Meddle" is light-years ahead of any of its predecessors. Of course there are many wonderful, brilliant moments on Pink Floyd's early records, but overall they were a lot more experimental in comparison. This release is more focused and cohesive. It's more melodic too. This is where Pink Floyd found itself.

The album kicks off with the savage instrumental "One Of These Days". The tone is set with howling wind, echoey, pumping bass and organ stabs. I love the fierce slide guitar here and the creepy bass interlude. Nick Mason makes his spooky and distorted vocal debut with "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces!!" which slams the song into overdrive. Pounding drums and stinging guitar dominate for the next two minutes until nothing but chilling wind remains. It's a very intense start.

Appropriately enough, the gorgeous, floating ballad, "A Pillow Of Winds" zips the listener into a more tranquil realm with acoustic guitars, sparse bass and Gilmour's soft vocals. This gentle mood is held through "Fearless" which is also a relaxed mid-tempo, summer breeze of a song, again driven by Dave's voice. San Tropez and Seamus show off the Floyd's eclecticism as well as humour. The former invokes a bouncy cocktail lounge jazz feel, while the latter stars Steve Marriot's dog Seamus who "sings" along with Gilmour on some acoustic blues.

And then of course is the grand epic "Echoes". After all these years, this sound journey stands as one of the band's greatest achievements. Every element that would become synonymous with Pink Floyd was captured in this one phenomenal piece. Swirling keyboards and liquid guitar lines mix with floating vocal harmonies and a dynamic rhythm section to move the music through several dramatic and powerful moods. Gilmour's fluid, silky bends and funky rhythms are absolutely stunning to say the least.

The band's musicianship had undoubtably taken a monstrous quantum leap forward from "Atom Heart Mother." And although "Meddle" is not as perfectly structured as "Dark Side", it can easily stand shoulder-to-shoulder with it, just like the other golden era floyd records. This is an incredible album that should never be overlooked. 5 big smackers.