MEDDLE

This is the first album I bought from the Floyd. Consequently, it is because of "Meddle" that I reached some excellent pieces of progressive rock such as "DSOTM" or "Animals". Moreover, the disordered instrumental maneuvers performed by these for men and the psychaedelic background you can find in themes like "Echoes" or "One of these days", converted me into a restless fellow of their early works (e.g. "Ummagumma").

I am not those kind of persons that use to have an absolute opinion about any subject, but I refuse to follow this behavior when talking about "Echoes", the best song at all composed by Pink Floyd. It is not it's spatial atmosphere which provides you the necesary calm in that moments of boredom and angst, not even it's submarine sounds or the seagulls' madness played by the guitars of two men that were the pioneers in experimenting with this kind of tools (just to remember, they used the "mellotron" for the recording of Ummagumma, not to mention the tape effects done in DSOTM). What does so, in a coallition with the things named before, is the poetic strongness of it's lyrics, which represent a great metaphor of the rebel soul that tries to reach better horizons. As a matter of fact, the phrase "I am you" is a mystic sentence that is pronounced when the prayer desires to melt with the world around him, in a perfect harmony, mainly in eastern religions. Perhaps, the Floyd recollected some of the learnings of the "hippie" generation.

By the way, the greatness of "One of these days" isn't shadowed by the one of "Echoes". Probably, there's no other song where the bass guitar has owned the main role. And, as I read once, it's Nick Mason's first collaboration with the vocals, in that creepy "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces".

"Fearless" is a very beautiful track, trully inspiring and suggestive, as if were climbing on to the best creations of Pink Floyd; "you say the hill is to steep to climb". The final part includes a the chorus of "You'll Never Walk Alone", from Rodgers & Hammestein, that has something to do with Liverpool. Probably "Fearless" follows the track of Water's previous accoustic pieces that must be remembered: "Grantchester Meadows" (from Ummagumma), "Green is the Colour" (More O.S.T.) or even "Cymbaline" (More O.S.T.), because the four have in common the deepness of the poems that embraces the great techniques that were just flourishing. I shall not forget the sleepy and tender "A Pillow of Winds", not remarkable, but also a symbol from the estetic calm they try to provide the listener with.

"Seamus" is the evidence that demonstrate their eagerness, throughout their carreer, of experimenting with animal sounds, in this case, Rick Wright's dog (it's the same one of "Mademoiselle Nobs", from the "Live at Pompeii" DVD). We can hear birds and ducks at "Grantchester Meadows" and "Cirrus Minor" (More O.S.T.), odd screamings at "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave..." (Ummagumma) and, of course, sheep, pigs and dogs at the great masterpiece named, precisely, "Animals".

This is a great piece of Floyd because here their music reaches the top of the hill of their early work. This is a more listenable album, if we compare it with the "Ummagumma Studio Album", and together with the "Ummagumma Live Album" can give anyone a wide background of the best of Floyd before their big leap. (I must admit that I still don't have a complete picture of Floyd's earliest productions; e.g. I wish I had heard "A Piper at the Gates of Dawn" before writing down this appreciation).

Anyhow, it is an honor to put this album five stars and, moreover, to be the one able to increase it's average from four to five, so it can "rest in heaven" together with "DSOTM", it's later continuation.