MEDDLE

If it wasn't for what followed, I would say this album would be the pinnacle of any band's career. Extremely under-rated. Each track a classic and many hidden gems here, most especially Fearless.

Echoes.....is magnificant.

Give it a go.

MEDDLE is one of my favourite Pink Floyd albums, but it's very different from my other three faves, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, WISH YOU WERE HERE and ANIMALS.

This fabulous disc is much more diverse in direction than those that would follow. Roger Waters' anger and paranoia don't yet rule the day; there is profound beauty here, on great, shorter songs like "A Pillow of winds" and "San Tropez," while the whimsical track "Seamus," with its barking dog, actually reveals a sense of fun! Such emotional variety would be notably absent on later releases; not that those albums are any less indispensable for that! I whole-heartedly agree with earlier reviewers who enjoy the power and psychedelia of "One of These Days" and the epic "Echoes." Those ARE essential examples of the sound fans normally associate with Floyd. Yet "Fearless" is not only one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs, it's also uplifting: "I will climb that hill in my own way, and every day's the right day...."

In closing, fellow Floydians, after blasting "Sheep," "Money" or "Welcome to the Machine" you can kick back and relax to the oft-overlooked gems on MEDDLE. Don't just program in "One of These Days" and "Echoes" -- enjoy MEDDLE in its glorious, multi-faceted entirety!

The tracks 2, 4 and 5 makes me put this grade to this album, it is great but I don't like A pillow of Winds, Saint Tropez and Seamus...Fearless is a good song and Echoes must be one of the best songs made by the Floyd...I like this more than One of These Days...A good album for rest and let your mind fly.

The metal of the medal in a medley

Even though it (sort of) copied its layout AHM's successor did not top the charts, but instead it brought Floyd on the brink of greatness, just behind the bend. For some reasons, Meddle doesn't suffer of the same controversy than AHM did, which is rather strange, because it if has much higher and outstanding peaks, it is also much less even, because the lows on this album are simply awful. With that bizarre yet fascinating Hypgnosis artwork of mixing an ear and waterdrops on rippling the surface of calm waters, Meddle has not only a weird unnatural name, but the album was released in early 71 like its predecessor with the name and title on the cover, something that Crimson or Zep were also doing with success.

Actually Floyd reversed the scheme of AHM, presenting the song side first and relegating the sidelong suite over the flipside, thus bringing more light on the shorter numbers, something that lacked to Fat Old Sun, Summer and If on AHM. And do they ever open the album with a killer track: One Of These Days is a wild and violent instrumental track (if you'll forget Nick's spoken words), definitely groundbreaking despite a fairly simple layout. Behind heavy wind noises, an echoing bass slowly opens and soon starts an ostinato the cymbal crashes, elusive organs, wild slide guitar soaring way above the albatross on the flipside, the whole stopping fairly abruptly. After such start, it's only reasonable to slow down a bit and Pillows Of Wind is an acoustic track that's reminiscent of If and Fat Ild Sun on the previous album. Fearless is much the same, but drowns in a stupid idea of football rally chant that would kill some 30 people in a stadium some 14 years later. Sadly the poor ideas are not over: San Tropez is an unconvincing jazz pastiche, while Seamus is a blues sung by a dog, and not well I may add. While both filler/missteps are short (I'd prefer them totally absent), they ruin the album's cohesiveness. If the former was a rather clumsy pastiche, they'd done it before with the atrocious Jugband Blues , proving that Floyd could repeat its mistakes, especially that Floyd would hit the nail far in the coffin's walls, by repeating the singing-dog trick in their Live At Pompeii film.

The sidelong epic filling the flipside is what this album is all about. First a series of snippets, it was tried on stage under the name presented as Nothings, but as the track was nearing its final form, its named evolved jokingly as The Return Of The Son Of Nothing and then a more serous Echoes. Unlike many epics of that era, Echoes chooses to be mainly instrumental, just developing two sung passages, one in the first third, the other in the last third, much in the mould of Caravan's Nine Feet Underground. Although nowadays this track epitomizes the beauty of music, it wasn't always the case: as a kid of 8, I remember first hearing (with headphones) this track with the sinister sonar submarine note (courtesy of Rick Wright), creepy seagulls (Gilmour's noise by reversing one of his effect pedal, already been used on stage in Embryo or Cymbalene) and what I perceived as gloomy ambiances, and I remember making a nightmare that night. A few years later (around age 11), after hearing it again, I laughed at this incident, wondering about the perception of art. Echoes is probably less ambitious than the other sidelong epic AHM, but it works better as the musicians are not overstretching themselves in this one.

Despite its flawed last quarter of the opening side, Meddle nears perfection on this album, whose main merit is to propel Floyd into another dimension with its following Dark Side album. Despite some heavy critics (always the same RnR keeper-of-the-rules, nostalgic of the Barrett days), one can not accuse Floyd to have formula and repeat it or even playing it safe. This is another completely different album, quite distinct from every other ones. Very few bands managed to rework their sound so thoroughly with each passing album and still maintain their personality and distinctive edge and sound!! Just with that feat, Floyd is incredibly progressive.

This is my favourite piece. I like it more than my girlfriend ... only joking. I never heard something so great in deed, because this is the first real Floyd album. The band used only their instruments and the result is this fantastic work. Just listen to Echoes. By the way, Echoes is the composition I like the most of all songs I know. I collect Pink Floyd RoIOs and also the live performance was always great. All honor to this band.

it's actually disappointment to me, because this album is less interesting than 'Atom'. Echoes is not as good as the suite from prevoius album. Lack of ideas? maybe , although it's real pleasure to listen to this record , it's 60's flavoured. Simply good record

Clearly for me FLOYD's early catalogue is one of my most enduring and beloved albums from my collection... Like so many of you I grew up with albums like "Meddle" and "Dark Side Of The Moon" which to this day still hold up as superior albums in every way. Without a question "Echoes" would be one of my all time favourite FLOYD tracks with its sheer brilliance in perfect combination of Blues and psychedelia genres. Another one of my favourite FLOYD numbers is also "A Pillow Of Winds" with its melancholy Dobro guitar and hammond organ backdrop. "Meddle" also houses some humorous moments with "San Tropez" and "Seamus" taking some very unusual shapes and twists. "Fearless" is another magical FLOYD moment with its allusion to "Obscured By Clouds".

Another must-have, their second "progressive number", whose jewels are represented by "Echoes" and "One of these Days", simple but stunning pieces of art music... but also the rest is not bad and, for sure, it's another example of their versatility (despite of being not any virtuosities within at the instrumental section)

Recommended anyway!!

another point of experimentation and a itchy moment of prog, one of the most iconic pieces of Pink Floyd is in here, and one of the most meroable, fathers of improvisation in studio and ambient music all the way, great instrumentation along with vocals, as usual the artwork is a frame to be framed, basic in any discography

This is the first FLOYD album in chronological order that I really like. The epic "Echoes" is a progressive song of over 20 minutes long, full of smooth high notes electric guitar, background organ, acoustic guitar and mellow vocals. There are psychedelic parts in it, rather experimental and scary, and it should not leave the listener indifferent. For bass amateurs, there is "One Of These Days", a solid bass-keyboards oriented track. The remaining track are relaxing folky-bluesy songs with mellow lead vocals.

One of PINK FLOYD's most exquisite piece of work. "Meddle" is a six track melodic yet psychedelic record, that from the opening Nick MASON's distorted voice in "One of These Days" till the 2:13 minutes of "Seamus", drive all the way home to listen to the "Echoes", one of the most significant PF's songs and of the most enigmatic too; over 23 minutes of euphoria and synchrony, "Echoes" overdrives the whole meaning of this album. In 1971, "meddle" created a prelude to PF's next masterful album and that's without a doubt, "Dark Side of the Moon". I think this album opened PF's fans minds up to caught their attention to what was next of their career, and "Meddle" is that, the previous step to what I think is this master prog band best album, or at least one of them. To understand, to question, to magnify PF's creation to an upper level, "Meddle" is the key that will open up the lock to meaningful prog ways. If you must have it, have it then.

"Meddle" includes "Echoes", my all-time fave by Pink Floyd, I think it's the most progressive, epic and best work they ever made, it's outstanding! Look to the stars at night and listen to "Echoes", you'll think you fly in strange galaxy-spheres. Self-testet!

Your head'll appreciate "Meddle". It's here that PINK FLOYD nearly perfects their soporific soundscapes, aptly described in "A Pillow of Winds." What makes "Meddle" different from its predecessors is the distilling of a signature sound. "One of These Days" could pass for "Dogs", "A Pillow of Winds" for "Pigs On The Wing", "Fearless" would be revisited on "One of These Turns." However, by the time Animals and The Wall were released, the band had hermetically sealed themselves off from everything but an idiosyncratic sound. "Meddle" by contrast is still experimental, finding time for a delightfully Kinksian turn through "San Tropez", an ill-conceived throwaway like "Seamus" or the side-long electronic voyage of "Echoes." It's this last track that often captures the most attention on "Meddle", though it had more of an influence on TANGERINE DREAM than PINK FLOYD, who never wrote another song like it. Unfortunately, "Meddle" doesn't feature a lot of technical flash; Richard Wright's keyboards and David Gilmour's guitars are relatively understated (in fact, GILMOUR and Wright seem to challenge one another on "San Tropez" to see who can come up with the most restrained solo). It would be tempting to call "Meddle" a transitional album between their more experimental past and the sonically rich future, but it's not that simple. Better to think of this as the band's first epic recording. As much as I enjoy some of the band's early psychedelic triumphs, it's the occasionally lean and muscular attack of "Meddle" that allows WATERS' cynical wisdom and GIMOUR's biting guitar to shine.

If you're looking to get into the pre-"Dark" days, definitely buy this album before meddling with "Umma Gumma" or "Atom Heart Mother".

"Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart"

In retrospect, Pink Floyd's transition towards the band which made "Dark side of the moon" was largely completed with the release of this album. The attention to detail which made that album so extraordinary is missing here, but the music is generally more tight and focused than on previous releases.

"Echoes" is the feature track on "Meddle" occupying the whole of the second side of the LP. The track takes the instrumental finesse of "Atom Heart Mother", and combines it with the lyrical and vocal beauty of (the subsequent) "Shine on you crazy diamond", creating a charmingly understated piece which glows brighter with each listen.

I hesitate to compare "Meddle" to ELP's "Tarkus", but there are similarities. The side numbers are reversed, with the feature track in this case appearing on side two, and side one containing "all the rest". Of the tracks on side one, only "One of these days." really impresses. It has an inspired riff, which pulsates and morphs until interrupted by the only lyric, i.e. "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces". From there, the main riff crashes back in accompanied by Gilmour's soaring guitar. It's downhill really for the rest of the side, with "Fearless" even including a rendition of "You'll never walk alone" by the Liverpool Kop (football/soccer fans). The tracks are OK, but not up to the standards we expect of the band.

The album is well worth getting for "Echoes" and "One of these days" alone but don't expect too much of the rest.

This is a great album. While "echoes" is a fantastic song, i think its hype overshaddows the real gem of this album, the song "Fearless." its a beautiful song in open G tuning. I think its one of the most relaxing songs ever written.

Another step in PINK FLOYD's evolution towards "Dark Side Of The Moon". If you like the latter album you'll probably like much of the music on "Meddle", as four of the six tracks are in a similar vein, albeit not as polished as the music on "Dark Side Of The Moon". "Meddle" saves the best for last: the atmospheric 'Echoes', a superb 23-minute track demonstrating PINK FLOYD's well-known early 1970s style. The album is probably worth having for 'Echoes' alone.

The instrumental 'One Of These Days' has a hard edge to it that I like. The bass riff at the start introduces the track's head-banging beat, with the FLOYD's characteristic keyboards and guitar over the top. 'A Pillow Of Winds' is mellow - it's a pleasant song but nothing special in my opinion. 'Fearless' is a sedate song, again pleasant, and I like the soft vocals. In true FLOYD fashion, 'Fearless' has unusual backing: the supporters of Liverpool Football Club chanting and singing their anthem 'You'll Never Walk Alone' (from the Rogers & Hammerstein musical Carousel). Strange as this may sound, it does not spoil the song. The song 'San Tropez' bobs along in an English tea dance sort of way, and in my opinion is mediocre. 'Seamus' is a short, laid-back blues number, presumably done just for a bit of fun, with a dog barking and howling on top of the singing, acoustic guitar, bass and piano. As with 'San Tropez' this is a throwaway track, but I quite like it as it brings back memories of my teens when I and a guitar-playing friend used to perform it for a laugh. And then comes 'Echoes', the pièce de résistance, which manages to push this album from a 3-star effort to 4 stars in my opinion. However, if I had to choose between "Meddle" and "Obscured By Clouds", it would be the latter.

Meddle saw pink floyd excelling themselves musically and evolving their musical abilities and putting a more than perfect effort into this album. Meddle uses a similar concept to the previous "Atom Heart Mother" by having a side-long epic, although Echoes is not a suite. but Echoes is the last and best track so we shall save it till last.

The album kicks off with a funky, progressive instrumental called "One of These Days" which shows off their skills and abilities to play in unicen and is almost just a jam to kick off the album. This has every member playing at their best and clearly shows the grasp of starting quietly and building up to an explosion of music. It's also nice to see nick masons vocal debut with the classic line "one of these days i'm going to cut you into little pieces", even if it does seem a little out of place as this is quite a serious piece of music.

The trippy psychadelia is still present with the recording of liverpool fans singing "you'll never walk alone" at the end of fearless, which adds a great british feel to the album, and the questionable use of a howling dog in bluesy nonsense "seamus". These are brilliant pieces whether or not they are terribly progressive but they do show off the excellence of the band.

Of course none of this can compare to the epic "Echoes", which could well be the best pink floyd song ever, and is definetly one of the best prog rock pieces ever. Echoes has it all, churning sound effects of the sea, wind and a submarine siren echoing through the ripples of the water. The lyrics build up an adventure with albatrosses and submarines in the listeners head. This song will probably also be favourable amongst the crazy or stoned fans of the floyd. Each band member contributes 110% on this track. The best moment of the album has to be the epic build up to the glorious solo before the third verse. This keeps you captivated and wondering where the build up is leading to and once it explodes into the epic piece followed by the third verse, you know you are in prog rock heaven. If you have a collection of pink floyd albums and Meddle is not in it then there is something very wrong!

A masterpiece indeed. One of Floyd's best albums. I, enjoy not just the first and last tracks on this record. I enjoy EVERY SINGLE ONE (yes, even 'San Tropez'). The only bad thing about this album is the fact that whenever I play the song 'Seamus', my own dogs like to respond (bark, and howl) to the one in the song! 'One of these days...' is a great track with some very good slide guitar that really gets rocking near the end. 'A pillow of winds' is pretty mellow but I still like it a lot. 'Fearless' is a nice song (and thats about it). 'San Tropez' isn't a very good Pink Floyd song, but for some reason i just can't help likeing it. Seamus is a nice cool blusie tune. And the final track 'Echoes' goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: ONE OF THE BEST FLOYD SONGS EVER! This album started a trend with the Floyd for consistant 5 star masterpieces (not counting 'Obscured By Clouds') until 'The Wall'. A MUST HAVE!

"Meddle" can be seen as a transitional album, but I think of it as a climax; a final statement for PINK FLOYD "vers. 2.0" before changing the way they present ideas on an album. In the same way that "Red" completes KING CRIMSON's second cycle, "Meddle" wraps up the loose ends of the post- "Piper", pre- DSOTM period- with refinement of past ideas and a glimpse of things to come.

On "One of These Days" we hear the final expression of PINK FLOYD's trademark creepy crescendo song ("Careful With that Axe, Eugene", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", "Saucerful of Secrets"). One of the classic heavy PF songs, it features the classic Gilmour slide guitar and Waters proves you don't have to be a bass virtuoso to play a memorable riff. It also foreshadows the upcoming side-long track "Echoes" in miniature.

"A Pillow of Winds" continues the mellower acoustic trend from side two of AHM, slipping from vaguely comforting to eerie and back again with liquid ease. I appreciate that some of Gilmour's more fumbling slide moments were left on- it gives a bit of friendly immediacy to an otherwise ethereal track. "Fearless" brightens this loose acoustic feel with a simple, memorable riff and chorus- despite the laidback mood, once you hear this song you won't forget it. I've never quite figured out the point of the crowd sample at the end, though.

"San Tropez" is my least favorite track on the album, a light jazzy vocal piece that (though written by Waters) could have fit on Wright's "Wet Dream" album. "Seamus" is kind of fun, the same sort of throwaway blues that we heard briefly on the "More" soundtrack...but with a dog solo this time. Neither are likely to head many fans favorites list, but at least they're not embarassing (unlike some of ELP's 'comic relief' songs, for instance).

However, the entire first side could have been twenty minutes of snoring and it wouldn't take anything away from the majesty of "Echoes". Many of their previous long- form compositions had uneven pacing, pointless jamming, or experimental indulgence separating the great moments. "Echoes" is their first seamless masterpiece; from the melancholy opening to the dramatic chorus of the first movement we might deduce that the mellow feel of the previous side (well, minus the first track) was going to dominate; not so, as the following passage goes from funky (AHM's "Funky Dung" refined) to freaky with the screaming smooth lead guitar providing the magic carpet. There's also some exceptional organ work here by Wright, but it's a little buried in the mix (curse you, Alan Parsons...well, to give him credit, the production is comparatively more crisp detailed than we've yet heard, maybe even more so than DSOTM). Once full-on weirdness sets in, it's both soul-wrenching and otherworldly to an extent that the band had not shown thus far- and that's really saying something after "Ummagumma". This is the perfection of the pure aural insanity that was introduced all the way back in "Pow R. Toch" and developed through "Saucerful", "Narrow Way", and many others. Just when you want to pull the covers over your head, the organ gives us a mournful lifeline and we are slowly brought back to song territory. The gradual crescendo of this movement is based around the staccato pulse that opened the album (and reappeared in force throughout "The Wall"). The tension builds with some rolling percussion and a heraldic burst of echoing guitar; powerful bassy slides and crashing cymbals segue into a reprise of the opening theme, including a final climax which ascends into a spacey, bluesy fade-out...not far off from the opening to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".

Okay, I have to drop a star for the occasional loss of excellence on the first side, but "Meddle" definitely deserves to hang with the more obvious achievers in the FLOYD discography. This album puts a cap on their post- Barrett meanderings, and if they'd stopped here, it would have been a very respectable closer. Luckily they had more ideas brewing...

This is the WATERS-era PINK FLOYD's first album. It only hints of the four massive hit albums to come, however, with the 20 minute epic Echoes. But we'll get to that later.

The album begins with the haunting sound of wind blowing, through which a single bass note echoes in high delay. Then another bass note, and another, and then we have a full bass riff going. Then a second bass joins in, double tracked. What happens is an axe-grinding madness underscored by WRIGHT's synth skills. It builds and builds until it goes into a very sharp, distorted single bass which broods for a while. Then you hear someone pounding on a door as the climax comes, and a monstrous voice says "ONE OF THESE DAYS I'M GOING TO CHOP YOU INTO 'LIL PIECES!"

Then the song continues with a guitar added, and eventually fades into the wind. This wind continues until the first acoustic riff of "Pillow of Winds" begins. It is a nice little song, and the transition between the two songs hints at the FLOYD's later obsession with connecting the songs together.

Following the relaxing number "Pillow of Winds" is "Fearless," another great song. Then there's the lazy "San Tropez," which is slightly less interesting, followed by what is possibly the FLOYD's worst song ever: "Seamus." It's a mediocre blues number made much worse by a dog barking (literally) in the foreground. It was meant to be a joke by the band, but come on! Fortunately it is very short. This album seems to begin wonderfully, then steadily get worse, then spring back up with "Echoes."

Ah, "Echoes." Very high-quality stuff. It starts with the "ping" of a submarine and then becomes an underwater, slow rock masterpiece. The lyrics are the first sympathetic lyrics from WATERS, and prove to not be his last. After some beautiful music, the band goes into a sort of jam which lasts just a little too long in my opinion. Then the band is silenced as GILMOUR's guitar screeches out eerie, piercing notes and seagull caws. It is here that we are pulled from the comfort of the watery beginning into the freezing air above. Not the best part of the song, but it is thankfully short. The pings of the submarine are agains heard, and we are slowly pulled back to earth with some progressing guitar riffs. Then the original theme is reprised in a drier setting, and the whole thing is eventually sucked into a pinging wormhole of sound. Excellent.

Now, with the great reviews I gave "Echoes" and "One of these Days," you might be wondering why I gave this an average 3 stars. If this album were the only way to obtain these wonderful songs, I'd definitely have raised the rating. But the album "Best of Pink Floyd" also has these two songs as well as some other great material. The only difference is that "Echoes" was edited a little bit, but the parts cut out aren't that great anyway. But if you really like "Echoes," you may want to get this album. "Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless" are worth a few listens as well, but not necessarily essential. Good for fans of PINK FLOYD or people wanting to start into their earlier material.

The beginning of all the epic studio albums from PF. Meddle is without doubt an absolute masterpiece. From the opening ageless ' One of these days', the dreamy ' Pillow of winds', the fearless ' Fearless' ( no other way to describe the song really) to the epic ' Echoes' which takes up the entire side 2 of Meddle. Echoes is special, there is nothing outthere quite like it not even other PF pieces, it transcends dimensions which is what Floyd were beginning to do from 1970 onwards right thru to 1994 with varying degrees of success. Meddle is pure genius.

This albums has four simple pieces witch i didn't like too much. But Echoes was a true masterpiece. Echoes broked Pink Floyd from The Beatles's style. It was the big step to progressive rock. I've spended good money on this album and I'm satisfied. I'm 13 years old and I'm ONE OF THE FEW young fans of Pink Floyd. My father was putting me to listen to Pink Floyd at the age of 4. Until recently I knew only about the new albums: newer than Meddle. I loved the complexity of their music. Then I listen to Relics. The album seemed ridicolous and I thought I listen Beatles. Then I listened to the old albums with more atention and the music still seemed ridicolous. But the lirycs were good. Probably if it wasn't for Meddle, The Dark Side of The Moon was never sawn.

First piece of the Pink Floyd's trilogy - "Meddle" ; "Dark side of the moon" ; "Wish you we here here". I think this record is unbalanced - but the best since "saucerful of secrets"... - : "One of these days" and "Echoes" - 23 minutes of perfection ; a Pink Floyd's climax! - are one of the ten better songs of Pink floyd but the rest of the album is...only correct - sorry...as English is not my "natural language", I cannot find the good word...

NATURALLY RECOMMENDED - After all it is PINK FLOYD!!!

To look at this album, we must first seperate the Floyd into four stages: the first being the Syd Barret led psychadelia (Piper), the second being the more folky era shortly after the addition of Dave Gilmour, the third-commercial superstardom (DSOTM-Final Cut), and the final stage-Gilmour led Floyd. 'Meddle' is a transitional album of sorts, between the second and third stages, the reason being that all band members still share songwriting duties. After this album, Waters took command of writing the lyrics, and much of the music. The fact that Gilmour writes some lyrics makes this album slightly uneven-some songs take theirselves very seriously, while others are meant to be humorous. Having said this, there is no real weak track on the album-which brings me to the "masterpiece" of this album.........'Echoes' is the most heralded track in the Floyd's catalog among progressive fans. It is a very atmospheric song, and occupies the entire second side of the original LP release-featuring some very slow, but excellent guitar work a la Mr. Gilmour, and the trademark vocal treatment a la Gilmour and Rick Wright. The song begins with a bluesy guitar intro that sounds very similar to that of 'Shine On', and 'willows' on for about 11 minutes before fading out into the abyss. You can really feel the "rolling waves" and "coral caves", but after the 11 minutes of music we are surprised (if you didn't read endless reviews of the album before listening to this song, you would be pretty surprised) by the screeching of whale-calls for about five minutes, after which the music fades back in, pulling the song full circle, 23 minutes and 31 seconds of genius. You can't just sit down and listen to this song, you really gotta take time and actually listen. Echoes was originally titled 'Return of the Sons of Nothing' and featured an apocalyptic theme of sorts before it was recorded in 1971.

Now for the remaining tracks, which hold up very well on their own, any of which could have easily fit onto one of Floyd's previous albums(with the exception of Piper). The opener 'One of These Days' was a radio staple back in the day, and features Nick Mason's lone vocal performance....."One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces", when I hear this, along with the scary guitar solo, I wonder why this wasn't the theme song to 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre". The song fades out into a chilling wind, and the gentle 'Pillow of Winds' begins, with Gilmour's lead vocal and lyrics. Another strong track 'Fearless' follows, which features Rodgers & Hammestein ("You'll Never Walk Alone"-- it sounds like fans chanting at a basketball/football game). The other two tracks are throw-aways of sorts-it's funny how Seamus is followed by the much more serious Echoes (now that the album plays on a disc, as opposed to having two sides). Anyway, Seamus is actually a pretty good song, the dog in the background sings along with the guitar- pretty creative, huh?

So there we have it, four acoustic songs, and the two better known opening and closing tracks. Overall, a bit uneven, but this provides us with a great combination of early Floyd and and the Dark Side era. Essential for any fan of Pink Floyd and anyone remotely interested in prog, or just classic rock in general.

Meddle is an excellent album, and is probably the band's best work pre-Dark side. The first half opens with the ominous rocker 'One of These Days' in which Roger Waters achieves a haunting echo effect by plugging his bass into a binson unit. The track also boasts Masons lone vocals in the band's entire career, and the track also features some impressive pedal steel playing by Gilmour. 'A Pillow of Winds' has a dream like quality and is a nice ballad. 'Fearless' and the jazzy 'San Tropez' are descent but dispensible. Closing the first half of the album, 'Seamus' is often cited as one of the worst ever Floyd songs; however, this bluesy number featuring dog vocals proves that the band had a sense of humor. All in all the first half offers some good matieral as well as some "filler".

Meedle's real treasure is found on the second half with the epic sound poem of 'Echoes'. Spanning 24 minutes, 'Echoes' is the ultimate progressive rock musical journey that never becomes old. In fact, I find myself wishing the track would go on forever. Originally entitled 'the Return of the Son from Nothing', 'Echoes' has been cited by Waters as the first set lyrics he wrote expressing human empathy, and what great lyrics they are. Wright and Gilmour harmonize beautifully on vocals and even better Gilmour's guitar and Wrights' organ and keyboards provide maginificent music that paradoxically inspires a harmonious sense of urgency and peacefulness. Pure magic!

Had the first half been as good as Echoes, I'd most definitely grant Meedle 5 stars but it is still an excellent album and well worth the purchasing price.

This is a very underrated album. I guess a lot of PF fans who have the Wall do not have this album. In my opinion, this is the first PF album. Rollng Stone- a credible album rating source gave this album 4 stars out of five. Because of the high rating, I bought this album without hesitation and was pleased. The album consists of six songs. Starting with One of these days through Echoes which covered one side of the album. I thought it was a good idea to get their canine friend involved. The dog can actually sing a note on Seamus. David Gilmour's vocals are very soothing. Roger is not pessimistic on San Tropez. Very jazzy. I like it. Wright make a good keyboard contribution and a backing vocal contribution on Echoes. Overall, in my opinion this album is essential and a must have to every PF fan.I recommend this album

Great album. A bit underrated. I think it's better than Dark Side Of The Moon. "Echoes" goes on for more than 23 minutes, but I wouldn't remove a single second of it. It has many different parts that are amazing. The main melody (sung by Wright and Gilmour) is nice and a bit "scary", and there are many great parts on this song that I prefer not to give more details. Let's say it's just perfect. "One Of These Days" is also great, and "A Pillow Of Winds" is a very relaxing song (in fact most of this album could be considered to have a "relaxing" mood). "Fearless" has some good guitar work and some football fans chanting (which might bother some people), but it's ok. The other two songs aren't that good: "San Tropez" is fine and "Seamus" is a short blues song with a dog "singing", which everyone hates, but it's not that bad if you ask me.

Before The Wall, before Dark Side of the Moon, PINK FLOYD created a very different kind of masterpiece. While their later albums were a triumph of concept, it is on Meddle where one can hear the musical peak of PINK FLOYD's career. This is not a concept album--it is a musical journey showing off a variety of musical styles. The lyrics do not demand--they suggest, and allow the music to do the rest of the talking. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about Meddle is the fact that the band was truly functioning as a band here. Everyone's talents can be clearly heard, and no one shouts anybody else down.

There is no such thing as filler, on Meddle--this album is absolutely, completely perfect. Not a single note should be changed...not even the canine soloist of "Seamus". Bookended by the mindblowing tracks "One of These Days" and "Echoes", the four "interior" tracks are severely underrated by some. "A Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless" are both pleasant, leisurely guitar-driven songs, and seem fairly well appreciated by fans. However, I believe that the much-maligned "San Tropez" and "Seamus" are also deserving of appreciation. "San Tropez" is particularly notable for some very unique ROGER WATERS vocals--rather optimistic and even a touch bluesy...a style he unfortunately never pursued after that point. "Seamus" gives a rare glimpse of the fun side of PINK FLOYD, as well as a flashback to the band's origins as a blues cover band. This was never a song meant to be taken so seriously as some do. "One of These Days" is an explosive, energetic instrumental that perhaps foreshadows the angry, driven rock of Animals, but with only one lyric--a rare appearance by NICK MASON, whose electronically-processed vocals growl menacingly, "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces!"

The album's final piece, "Echoes", may be PINK FLOYD's greatest work ever. From first to last "ping", this brilliant quasi-symphony is fantastic. Each bandsman's talents are clearly audible, even the simple-yet-effective contributions of NICK MASON and ROGER WATERS. The vocal harmony of DAVID GILMOUR and RICK WRIGHT is mesmerising. Without question, this song contains the best verse WATERS ever wrote: "Strangers passing in the street, by chance two separate glances meet, and I am you and what I see is me. And do I take you by the hand, and lead you through the land, and help me understand the best I can?"

Unfortunately, this reminder to walk a mile in the other man's shoes was a lesson WATERS forgot in later years, at the price of devastating consequences to the band's output and to the members themselves. This moment in PINK FLOYD's history is therefore one-of-a-kind, completely irreplaceable. The entire album can be summed up by the "jam" sequence in "Echoes". Never before, never again do the pieces fit together so seamlessly, each a joy on its own and in combination.

This album continues the kind of sound of Atom Heart Mother, but without classical music. It isn´t evolution at all but it sounds good, i still prefer the previous one. However, this is start point of Dark Side of the moon, so if Atom Heart Mother was Prog Rock, this is more near to Pop Prog Rock One of these Days (10/10) Excellent starting, probably the best one of all Pink Floyds albums Pillow of winds (7/10) A song for sleeping quite nice but nothing new Fearless (8/10) Again a beautiful song, but where is the progressive rock? Saint Tropez (6/10) This is jazz rock, it would have been a better idea to put Biding my time for Relics Seamus (7/10) A slow blues song, the only interest is Seamus the dog backing the band Echoes (9/10) One of the best progressive songs made. This is the 50% of the album, so this is the reason why Meddle has a good rating always. The only defect is the chaos in the middle of the song, Yes we listened to this crazy psichedelia before but it doesn´t make much sense in a clean album like this. But this thing doesnt´obscure the song which is perfect

This was the second Floyd album I bought, after buying "Dark Side Of The Moon". I have always liked this one and would put it in the top five Floyd albums, probably at number three, behind "Dark Side" & "The Wall". It is a tribute to their talent that it sounds very different to "Dark Side", which was the next release after this. This is very laid back, in typical Floyd fashion, and is excellent to sit and relax to. The opener, "One Of These Days", is the most aggressive track on the album, starting off with the sound of the wind, and then building up nicely. An instrumental, the pedal steel played by Dave Gilmour is used very effectively and in a totally different way to the usual insipid and predictable doodlings it is forced to produce for the standard, bland country music scene. Here it is a powerful tool! Second track, "A Pillow Of Winds" is a very laid back track, with good singing, interesting lyrics, and effective guitar. One notes here, and throughout most of the album, the subtle and effective use of acoustic guitar, sometimes to the fore, other times filling out the background to the songs. Nice slide work here too. Then comes "Fearless", probably my least favourite on the album, but nevertheless a good track. The way the - again acoustic - guitar is played, brings to mind a person, ascending a hill, or stairs. This ties in nicely with the lyrics. Well thought out this one. "San Tropez" is the fourth track, and instantly brings to mind sipping cocktails around the pool when on holiday in some exotic clime. Again, this is the effect it is meant to produce. Nice - yes, you guessed it! - acoustic guitar again! Ending what was the first side of the old vinyl record is the shortest track, a bluesy little number about a dog called Seamus, basic and funny this one, bringing to mind an old farmyard, in which sits an old man in dungarees, musing on an incident from his past. Finally comes the well known high point of the album, the much celebrated, "Echoes". Not much I can say that hasn't been said before. Nice lyrics, almost Coleridge like in their poetic form. Beautiful, distant, electric - yes, electric! - guitar filling out the background, whilst Richard Wright's keyboards have full reign here, dominating the song with interesting soundscapes. Indeed, to my mind, there instantly comes a vision of shorelines and solitary, soaring birds; a seascape of barren beauty, complimenting the aural splendour of the piece. A classic track from one of the three 'classic' bands of the 70's. The three most influencial prog bands of the decade - Floyd, Yes and, of course, my personal faves, Genesis! Any fans of Floyd, and ambient, partly acoustic music, will love this, but then again, they will probably have it. For those who haven't heard this yet, trust me and buy it! You won't be disappointed.

One of these days kicks the thing off and it seems like a whole genre of thrash started from here.mason says "one of these days i'm gonna cut you into little pieces!"through a vocal synthesizer in the middle .this one is a low mean guitar thrasher.then it slows down in pillow of winds and keeps slowing down till seamus.seamus has to be one the few trashy songs the great floyd did.and it is sort of weak filler to echoes.now echoes covers side band it has to be the best epic they did better than shine.

This album is a quite good Floyd album, but in my opinion certainly not the best. The title track, "One of These Days", is a great one, with one of my favourite songquotes (One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces). The last song, "Echoes", is great too, although you should have the patience to listen to it, as it runs over 23 minutes. The other tracks are not bad or something like that, but they're neither real progressive gems. "A Pillow of Winds" is just a relaxing, sit-back song and so is "Fearless", although the last one is a little more rocking. "San Tropez" and "Seamus" are some funny bluesy songs. It are all nice songs to listen, but Pink Floyd made some better songs, I think. All by all it's still a great album, mostly because of the opening- and the endingtrack.

"Meddle" is not quite a masterpiece of Progressive rock music. But is as close to a masterpiece as you can get without actually getting the 5 star rating, if for no other reason than 'Echoes'. When 'One of These Days' and 'Fearless' are added, well it just makes this album even more essential. The one mistep on the album, 'Seamus' brings this album down from its pedestal.

'One of These Days' is as dark as 'Fearless' is uplifting (and not just for Liverpool fans). Both these songs are absolute gems in their own right. 'A Pillow of Winds' is only decent, and 'San Tropez' is slightly too poppy and upbeat, but not a complete waste. Even 'Seamus' has some comedic moments in it and thankfully doesn't last long.

But the real reason you own this FLOYDIAN marvel is found on Side Two. Whether you envision 'Echoes' as the underwater exploration that it is, or the space-rock number it originally was meant to be, both settings work real well with this album. With musical allusions to Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" or Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" prepared to be transported to another world.

Like when Pavlov rang his little bell, and his subject dogs started salivating; so do we, when we hear that short, sharp, single reverberating sound...

'PING!'

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.

After very long time I listened to this album and I was not moved very much. I think that PF are very original group who have created a new style in rock music. The music of slow, monumental archs of songs, still very simple in their nature. Always when they are attached to this style, they are great, and enjoyable. It makes very peacefull background for some very nice instrumental achievements. something like the night sky with stars. However, when they abandon their style, and play just normal music or they do some experiments, they are becoming a mere standard band. And it is here very obvious. Very exciting moments like One of these days and Echoes, are exremely simple songs built in very impressive let us say antique monumental architecture. On the other side, very boring and mean moments are here too: san tropez or seamus, which would not be definetely bad songs providing be played at the annual meeting of old school-mates' band.

Say no more...

A Masterpiece, to me, is an album that goes above and beyond - that provides something more than its component parts - a complete work of art that is as near perfection for what it is as it can be.

And here, in Meddle, we have near-perfection.

I don't believe that a historical understanding is necessary - and if you've never heard Pink Floyd before, then this is not a bad place to start at all. In fact, the icy winds will draw you in and encourage you to crank up the volume until that opening bass hits you. Simple. Powerful. Effective.

One Of These Days continues to build, and there is something besides the music here - something almost tangible, as the double-tracked bass rings out in each speaker, and the synth hits punctuate the ever more wildly whistling wind. Subtle percussion by means of reverse cymbals imitates and intensifies the windy feel, and then the guitar! Oh yes! The guitar! Snarling, winding, turning upside down, intensifying - the whole texture building to that famous delayed bass riff, until the song proper kicks in around 3:40 into the piece. And yet the intro never feels too long, as Pink Floyd are masters of using space. The rest of the body of music pulses along, with Gilmour's trademark multitracked dive-bombing - and seems to end all too quickly.

A Pillow of Winds is the perfect light to the shade of the former, and we get sung vocals for the first time, in a very organic and pastoral mode, with acoustic and electric guitars and bottle neck decorations. There is an underlying dark tone that pre-empts the tone of The Wall, which suddenly moves to a major key, as if the sun has come out on the rainy meadow. This is also pre-emptive, of Brain Damage on DSOTM, but Floyd maintain the major key feel for this latter part of the song, to provide a kind of Yin- Yang balance.

From the opening chord of Fearless, we know we are in for something more powerful - Floyd showing here their mastery of form for the album as a whole. But the music is pulled back, to develop a kind of ebb and flow - with wafts of chanting that we can't quite make out. The attention to detail here as everywhere else on the album is utterly masterful - the more you listen, the more you hear, as tiny details in the music make themselves apparent. Gilmour pulls some really neat tricks, and Wright puts in some superb understaded piano details to make this one of the most incredibly textured pieces on the album. The chanting is brought back - but to the fore this time, and we hear that it is the anthem of the Liverpool Football Club - "You'll Never Walk Alone", whose lyrics tie in nicely with the Floyds and create a slightly surreal texture.

As with a classical suite, Floyd choose a piece with a completely different feel to follow Fearless; San Tropez is a lazy Sunday Afternoon encapsulated - a dream of the life of the idle rich. Beautiful lounge-jazz elements - especially from Wright on the piano - and bluesy bottle neck guitar create a unique, laid-back feel which is a real treat.

This side (I'm reviewing from a vinyl LP - the best way to hear the Floyd, IMO!) closes with the quirky Seamus. Almost unprecendented and never repeated in the Floyd catalogue, this is a tempting one to skip - but, as usual, PF give plenty to enjoy in the detail and texture with careful and laid back blues piano, bottleneck guitar and plucked guitar, with just a shade of bass. This maintains consistency with "A Pllow...", and the dog howling just reflects Floyd's humour.

Echoes is what this album is all about, however, and is worth buying Meddle for alone. From the opening ping to the closing ping, this is a 23-minute organic unfolding of events almost unprecedented in rock history, and a flawless journey of expermimentation that hints at later Floyd music; e.g. the sublime little guitar runs hint at "Shine on You Crazy Diamond". As with One Of These Days, Floyd grow the texture organically, the scene-painting lyrics entering around 3:00, and a newer, darker texture is hinted at around 3:40.

The song-writing abilities of Floyd are showcased to the max here, as the instruments show incredible restraint around the vocal passages, and only unleash a little at a time - feeding the listener little bit by little bit, and leading gently on through a nautical atmosphere that can be lived simply by closing the eyes. But there's more than just song-writing abilities showcased in Echoes - how does one keep a piece interesting for over 20 minutes?

Around 7:00, Floyd drop us into the darker chasms that have been hinted at earlier. Waters, Gilmour and Wright maintain a groove that is utterly grin-inducing, while Gilmour sends seagulls soaring, demonic denizens of the deep diving, and creates pictures of all manner of sea-related stuff, from sunlight glinting on the waves to waving forests of seaweed, to schools of whales. These can all be heard - if you listen for them! I particularly like the icy cavernous depths of around 11:15, where the accompaniment is dropped away, and only texture remains. This whole section is reminiscent of the experimentation on Ummagumma - but this time with a greater purpose. We float for a while in this new world, marvelling at the scenery, but the seascape changes beneath us all too soon, and we continue on our journey, once the familiar ping is heard again.

The heavy guitar and crystalline cymbals announce the imminence of another growing and intensifying passage, through dark caverns, but gradually approaching the surface - as light appears, breaking through the waters in columns - and when the vocals re-emerge, it's like we don't even know where the time has gone - it feels like seconds since the last verse.

Utterly magnificent - no collection is complete without it! There's not a single note to change on this album, no filler, nothing out of order - an album to revisit as often as you like and never get tired of hearing.

At last, Floyd got it right. Not all the tracks are 5 star; indeed Seamus is pretty throwaway, despite some excellent dog noises. However, what remains and the overall feel of the album elevate it into the hallowed ranks of genius. One of These Days is a frenetic, bass guitar led instrumental with a short, mindlessly violent vocal insert. Pillow of Winds, Fearless and San Tropez are much more gentle, soothing songs. But it is Echoes that leaves the lasting memory: a full side of music, flawlessly constucted and played with great keyboard and guitar solos. It creates a sense of the underwater, starting with pinging of a sonar, later dying away into synthesised waves, seagulls and ship noises before a gently building reemergence through the bass and keyboards. The short vocal sections are well done and the lyrics are great. This track was Floyd's finest moment ever, by far. Worth buying the album for this one track alone.

that's the hit that you dont want to miss,it's really better than everything. Better than Led Zepplin or Iron Maiden seriously. That's old but not finished and will ever be.But it still don't enjoy every one becose it may be long but just try to close your eyes when listening 'One Of These Day' and let your mind follow the sound of the symphony.

Similar to 'Atom Heart Mother' only far more accomplished this time around and Pink Floyd would continue this style for the next ten years; long, grandiose and moody compositions (see "Echoes") and strong songwriting in general. The first half of the album might not be among the band's strongest material but more than good enough for musical pleasure, with the haunting "One of These Days" being a standout and sets the tone for the album perfectly. "Echoes" is a long and cold underwater journey that still send shivers down my spine when I hear it and is Floyd's first truly successful epic musically, displaying great dynamics and once again brilliant writing. At 23 minutes it's never boring either and the creepy midsection really adds to the piece. Excellent album overall, worthy for any PF fan or newcomer.

I am a Pink Floyd fan of myself and MEDDLE is a great album by all means not a big masterpiece but still a fantastic album to listen to. The intro well what a song opens up with all these basses and a double track bass is a cool effect to this song each composed by Roger Waters and David Gilmour. The heavy guitar riffs, could this be a heavy metal song or a loud hard blues tune, make you wonder that. My other favourites include "Fearless" a fantastic ballad which samples the Liverpool football theme "You'll never walk alone", but the opus of the album is the lengthy epic masterpiece "ECHOES" GREAT GUITAR WORKS , EXCELLENT DRUMMING AND BASS PLAYING OH AND THE ORGAN. Dave/Rick's voices sound almost identical and beautifully as well. "SEAMUS" another good blues tune which has a cameo apperance with a dog on vocals , amazing.

Meddle is a beautiful chapter in the history of one of the greatest rock bands ever. This truly reflects the glory days of the band, when they had reached their creative and musical pinnacle. Still not confined to any style of sound, Meddle is an unconstrained masterpeice.The use of unique elements such as a wind noise in the backround, or the crowd chanting in Fearless, combined with the superior muscicianship of Pink Floyd, creates something completely unique within the history of music. Every track is a beautiful part of the masterpeice that is the album. Many parts, people claim, have the muscicians "Underutilizing their talent". However, just because the music is not difficult, does not mean it is not good. If you stop comparing it with other works, be them other Floyd works or any other music, you will enjoy the album. Just sit back and listen to the sounds you are provided, they all make up a part of the album. Do not skip tracks, regardless of wether you like them or not, or you are depriving yourself of the full experience the band wanted you to hear. Each track is a peice to the artistic triumph that is Meddle.

One of these days is an energetic, driving peice, that is haunting with it's wind noises in the backround, and the driving bass combined with Rick Wright's superior synthesizer skills create an exhilarating experience that create an emjoyable introduction to the album.

Pillow of winds is a relaxing acoustic tune, featuring, Pillows of Winds. The imagery created in the song is very powerful and it is nice to close your eyes and listen to this one. I enjoyed this quite a bit, as floyd demonstrate their capacity to paint a picture with this song.

Fearless is a very underrated floyd work that begins to change the atmosphere of the album, creating a lively and vivacious sound that is soothing and stimulating at the same time. The strange and intricate guitar work of David Gilmoure is reflected here.

San Tropez is a peice written by Waters, that some will undoubtedly find tedious and unenjoyable. However, I enjoyed it immensely. You can truly enjoy the predictability and quiet reserved style of the song. Floyd is an acquired taste, but after awhile, you learn to approach every song they wrote with an open mind, and be willing to try and see what they were trying to do with this song. Perhaps San Tropez is a reflection on the monotony within life, but I enjoyed it immensely.

Seamus is a peice many have called Floyd's worst song ever. Those people have obviously never heard Allan's Pyscadellic Breakfast, which was quite literally, the sound of a man eating breakfast. The bluesy nature of Floyd reflects their broad musical range and their roots as blues performers. Their creativity is shown with the use of the dog, which although at first seems random and annoying, is actually calculated, and a stimulating musical aspect of the song. I enjoyed this quite a bit, as I am a strong blues enthusiast and I think it shows an important aspect of Pink Floyd.

And then, there is Echoes. Many have a raging hard on for this song, which I actually, do not. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it quite a bit. However, I think that it is on equal level with the rest of the songs on the album, not above or below any. From beginning to end, echoes is stimulating, original, and truly a wonderful musical experience, just like the album meddle itself.

Meddle preceeded Pink Floyd's widescale popularity into the mainstream culture with works such as Darkside of the moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall, and the often overlooked Animals. I enjoy this album immensely, and would reccomend it to anyone willing to keep an open mind throughout. One thing to keep in mind when listening to Pink Floyd, is that they make albums, not songs. Songs are simply smaller parts of the album. You mustn't listen to specific tracks and decide which ones you like or don't like. This was intended for vynal and with CD's and MP3s now, it's easy to listen to only music that you know you like and filter and deprive yourself of the full album experience. Just know that track hopping and closing your mind will only deny you of the musical orgasm that is Pink Floyd's Meddle.

One of PF's best album. Everyone talks about the big top 4, including DSOTM, WYWH, Animals and The Wall, but I would replace The Wall by Meddle. I personally think that this is the album where the transition between their psychedelic debuts and the more ambient and "guitaresk" sound.

One Of These Days is an amazing intro, and I think they should open every show with it. The keyboards slowly brings us somewhere else, and then the violence of the guitar with its super special effets temperates us to a fast tempo so clear! It is very simple at the bass, but the structure is still pretty good: bass, then keyboards and guitar.

In the next four songs, we clearly recognize PF's Saucerful and AHM. Low beats, and a very funny pre-Echoes doggy song..........

Then, the piece of the album. If I had two songs of PF to listen, the first would be Shine On, and the second, Echoes. I assure every PF fan that these are the best vocals of every song on every album.... So amazing! Those three voices at the same time singing about moutains and wind... And the guitar riff that highs the song to a level that they hadn't achieve yet... The song goes up, then very down, and come back to end the same way it began... One lucky chance they put that song on their greatest hits...

OK, this is the second album review I need to rewrite.

This is a fantatsic Floyd album, showing the truly evolving yet still slightly immature (a.k.a., pre-Dark Side Floyd). As far as I'm concerned, it is the best album besides the main 4, Dark Side thru The Wall. It shows Floyd still searching for their sound, the sound that became legendary one they found it. I believe it was on this album that they hit on who they were.

It partrays a range of different genres for the band. From the crazy opener to the mellowness of some other tracks, as well as the blues and upbeat stuff, and of course, Echoes. Echoes is a five-star song, with no doubt. The first side hovers between a 3 and a 4. I believe 4 stars is good for this great album.

One of These Days: Fantastic opener. The second best song on the album for. The driving bass combined with Wright's tasteful keyboard additions set the stage for the song. It was one of those songs that's great on first listen, but still gets better as time goes on, and also works well when followed by the rest of the album, especially because of the slow-down in:

A Pillow of Winds: Nice acoustic song here. Fairly nostalgic and does a nice job of calming down the atmosphere of Meddle. Although it isn't anything like the song Wish You Were Here, it succeeds in its own simple purpose. Not too much can be said about it.

Fearless: Fantastic song. Gilmour's work here is my favorite on Side 1. Also, the verses/lyrics strike a note with me. They seem, dare I say it, positive. The reason this strikes me so is that... well, go listen to or watch The Wall. Nothing positive exists there.

San Tropez: Floyd still experimenting. A short little happy upbeat ditty thinger. That is actually how to describe it. It is so obviously un-Pink Floyd, but hey, the band was still searching for themselves in a way. They were transferring themselves from the entire psychedelia scene from their underground and early recording days. Evolving for a band is indeed tough.

Seamus: Floyd looking for themselves again, this one being even more off than San Tropez. It's a short little blues song with some of the most absurd lyrics I've ever heard. The most un-Floyd thing Floyd has ever done. Sharp, sharp contrast to:

Echoes: Floyd finds themselves. This is the band that would appear 2 years later. Echoes is a complete masterwork. The song is able, right from the opening keyboards, to whisk you into another world. You forget this land, this planet, this world. You are somewhere else, somewhere far far away, and nothing matters. Words cannot express this feeling. There are only a few songs/albums that do this for me, but Echoes, I must say, is at the top of that list, and for that, you must give it it's due.

Do not start your Floyd venture here. A better idea would be to start with 73 and on Floyd, then go back to their roots, in a way. If you are already a fan of the Floyd, this should already be in your collection, and if not, it should be very soon. It does constitute an excellent addition to your collection. 4/5 stars.

Well this is quite an underrated gem from Pink Floyd. It starts off with the thunderous semi-instrumental One of These Days, which almost has elements of metal. Then comes A Pillow of Winds, a nice ambient piece of music. Fearless is a great song, with great vocals, and some great acoustic guitar. Then comes a track that I find to be really horrible, San Tropez. I really do not like this song. It's not very much like a rock song of any kind, or even a prog song. Then comes the even worse, Seamus. I'm not a huge fan of the bluesy stuff anyway, so this never had much of a chance, plus its super-goofy, which I cannot stand.

Echoes. Echoes is one of the greatest. Great ambience, great guitar line, great melody, great dual vocals from whoever it is singing it. Just an overall excellent song. SO this album has some really great and some bad, and it is very diverse, with some elements of metal (One of These Days) and blues (Seamus, even though it is terrible), and other songs. Highlights are One of These Days, Fearless, A Pillow of Winds, and Echoes.

I'm quite disappointed because it is, in my opinion, this album is not good as the good Atom Heart Mother and not as great as the follower Dak Side! I think there are different levels on that album: "One of these days" is great, and "Echoes" too (even if it sounds like Interstellar Overdrive era), but all the rest is quite bad. "Fearless" is not as good as "If" on AEM, and "San Tropez" is really embarassing. This is a collector/fans only album, everyone else can listen to Atom & Dark Side!

The highest album in a lot of masterpieces of Pink Floyd. When the first listening to this album, I received the impact to the divineness of "Echoes". This tune is my best of Floyd. It has listened several thousand times or more up to now. It is impressed in every case, and it has been put energetically.

well, this album must be the best of pink floyd, the first track, "one of these days" is really powerfull. "a pillow of winds" is another great song, and fearless is one of the most beutyfull pink floyd songs. the last track, "echoes" is amazing, incredible, simply fantastic!!!!!!!!

well... this album must be the best of pink floyd except for two songs, seamus and san tropez, if these songs had not been in the album, this would be the best pink floyd album.

4,50

One of these days a hard rock, ok this one is good but also linked with nothing, same mistake commited in the records of the dutch band Focus, well now we must jump To the monumental Echoes as all the other tracks works clearly to fill space, Seamus is a dog, cmon... Despite the long introduction which i hate in PF, Echoes is an excelent atmospheric, crazy, and a beautiful song,they tried 20 melodies before perfom this one, once again if they had a best drummer things would be much better.

One of these days is a very atomospheric song, and with a double bass, and great guitaring, along with Rick's eerie "slicing", roaring winds, and wierd noises in the mid section, this song is perfect, even better live since the drums come alive. Pillow of winds comes in perfectly after One of these days when the wind is blowing and then all of the sudden Dave's guitar gives you that perfect imagery of floating in the air. The song goes from happy to sad, and back again with great singing. Fearless is a very underated song, its got multiple guitars, 3 I think, nice bass line, great piano, ok drums, and perfect singing by Dave. Very relaxing song, goes perfectly after Pillow of winds and it has alot of hidden things going on in it that take a while to find. Next is San Tropet, and ins't nearly as bad as many claim it to be. It's a jazzy/bluesy song and best of all, it has Roger's lyrics about rich people, and I never get tired of hearing Roger complain about them. Not a very prog song but it is relaxing and easy flowing atleast. Seamus is next and to me is one of the best Pink Floyd blues songs. 2 dogs singing, 2 guitars, nice bluesy bass, and a very good job done by Rick on the piano. This is a prog song and I can kind of see how someone wouldn't like it, but I can't see how so many people can absolutly hate it, there is nothing wrong with it, and to me there is everything right with it. Sometimes I even find this song funny enough to laugh a little. Now it's time for Echoes, we all know preety much everything about this one. This is the song where Floyd perfectly built up the song from the very first note, and anyone who know's Floyd knows that they are the best at building up songs. Just a few piano nots and Dave's bottleneck sliding really can make you see an entire beach or ocean at night. Then the bass comes in and then the drums and this song takes off into a slow blues song that really feels sad like a real blues song should. Dave and Rick get it just right with the singing. Very slow and sad and the lyrics are Rogers best so far and you can tell he is getting better and can only imagine what is to come in the next albums. After the first verse comes a nice instrument part then my favorite lyrics ever, "Strangers passing in the street by chance two seperate glances meet and I am you and what I see is me." Once the second verse ends Dave just goes off on that guitar and he just gets more and more intense but all at the same time is a beatifull bass part thats going nice and slow then begins to play the main theme and it sounds so good. Rick is ok here during the guitar solo but I wish he would have put a piano part in there, one that sounds like great gig in the sky, that would have fit well. Nick is doing fantastic drumming here during the solo, very fast with lots of tom tom work and symbol crashes. When the jam section arrives there is a nice driving bass line and good guitar. I like the organ here alot but Nick's drumming for the first time in this song is a little unimpressive, not boring, just not to evenfull. I love the noise section that follows, winds howling, screeching guitars, deep almost scary bass in the background, organ noises, and seagulls. This is very creative and really expresses sadness to the greatest extent to me. The buildup section that follows is great, with symbols, and a very very good keybord part. Once the greatest guitar solo comes you just can't help but feel like it's the best part of the song. The third verse is next with a big and dramatic ending. There is very good drumming and the main theme returns, the one where the bass and guitar play those 5 notes together, I love it. Great keybord solo here too. Then the song goes blues for the very last section, which is very sad and beatifull. Rick does a nice job on the piano at the end. Then the song takes off and it sounds as if it just fly's away. Thats it, know it's long but I wanted to say all I had to say.

Meddle was the first pink Floyd album I listened to in totality for myself after being subjected to constant plays of Dark Side Of The Moon over and over at strange and dirty apartments and flats that had a party raging on into the very small hours. Of course this would only come on when everybody was completely zoned out and would annoy the [%*!#] out of me no end. Watching the sun come up while my eyes are several shades of purple and my mouth feels like an ashtray is no comfort when "Money" is thrown in the equation and my wallet seems to be lost and my liver has abandoned me due to neglect. Now, I have never been to keen on DSOTM (you don't say?) and it's commercial leanings, mainly because over time I have noticed that the majority people who own DSOTM have little else by Pink Floyd except for perhaps The Wall or The New York Philharmonic does DSOTM or something to that effect in the most extreme of cases. You know the people who might have Harvest, Hysteria, Thriller, Celine Dion's Greatest Hits and what ever mullet man Michael Bolton did in their collections. Basically the safe multi platinum options. I spoke to a guy about Meddle one time and claiming to a HUGE Pink Floyd album had never ever heard Meddle! And gave me an odd look. I dared not mention Syd Barrett's name.

I do enjoy the Meddle album even though it's inconsistent and the sound mix is actually very low, which is a pity as this lessens the sonic blast of "One Of These Days" which should have been ripping. Floyd have never attempted to recreate a song with the ambition and creative yet stoned quality of a song like "One Of These Days", but remember, this is coming from a Dark Side.. and The Wall hater so please forgive me. "Pillow Of Winds" is decidedly dreamy with a very flowing rhythm and though "Seamus" sounds barking mad , it's worth it's place but the highlight and obvious center piece of the whole affair has to be the schizoid mood of "Echoes", which starts out melancholic and emotive which for a second threatens to be sweet but builds big walls (ahem) of brooding darkness and freakiness that only druggies could come up with but is a song of epic proportions. I have a friend who works as a mortician and he tells me that there is nothing he likes better than to have a spliff, go in to work, play "Echoes" and [%*!#] around with a few corpses for the day. Needless to say, I don't envy him.

While this album is flawed, it is a very good addition to a prog collection. The album is not a masterpiece, but Echoes is for me their best song and ranks up there with Tarkus, and Close to the Edge. This album combines folk, rock, and psycheledic music. In fact, this album is similar to Tarkus by the fact that there is a masterpiece long epic, and the rest is mostly filler.

One of these days 9/10 : what a perfect song! dark, scary, sinister. The best part of it is its middle section with a bass using an echo pedal.

Pillow of Winds 6/10 : Follows with a pretty acoustic guitar driven song. Nothing essential, but it helps the flow of the album.

Fearless 6/10 : A good soft rocker with a memorable ascending riff. Nothing to blow you away though, and the ending has a stadium like cheering that annoys me a lot.

San Tropez 4/10 : A silly poppy roger waters song that doesn't do anything for me. Very weak.

Seamus : 1/10 : This is HORRIBLE! it is a bad uninspired common blues piece with a dog barking all over it. What were they thinking? this is the worst Pink Floyd song (even worse than the worst songs of the first 2 albums)

Echoes : 10/10 this song for me ranks up there with the best psychedelic songs. An obscure psychedelic masterpiece from the band's Pre-Dark Side of the Moon history. Lasting about 23 minutes, starts with a highly vibrating piano note, continues mellow with a slow and brilliant buildup, then it gets denser and stronger with loud descending/crescending guitar riffs and incredibly good vocal harmonies until a long slow guitar solo comes, and it transports you into a trippy section of sound effects until it builds up again into the main theme and ends.

So if you want to buy this album, do it only for the opener and closer tracks. The rest is mediocre.

My Grade : B

With the winds introducing the chaotic intro of "One Of These Days" we are led to one of the most wonderful FLOYDIAN journeys through four tracks of full brilliance and two other underrated ones that aren't bad but clearly weaker.

Meddle is the kind of album that has to be listened with an open mind. "San Tropez" and "Seamus" aren't among the best songs on PF's catalogue, but they also don't ruin the album at the point of making it be less than a masterpiece, though they do seem out of place here. In my opinion, the other four are so impressive that i really don't care for the pop side of "San Tropez" and the joke done on "Seamus" - this one being taken too seriously as another reviewer has pointed. I have learned to enjoy those two songs, they sure break the dreamy atmosphere which is the album's main characteristic, but they also give more variety in terms of musical content to the album. "San Tropez" can be a delightful song if you follow the rhythm of Waters' words and forget that this is just a pop number. It IS a poppy song, but it is at least well done. "Seamus" is just the band having some fun. This song adds nothing to the album, but it also doesn't ruin it. What really matters here are the other four ones, "One Of These Days" is one of the best intros ever made, it has a double bass work done by Dave and Roger and a scary modified vocal line by Nick Mason saying "one of these days i'm going to cut into little pieces!" leading to the rocking second part of the track. I love the "shwah!" done by Rick's synths through the song, which adds a lot to the chaotic feel. After this great number we have "A Pillow Of Winds", which is very different from the album's opening. It is actually one of the FLOYD's more mellow and moving works, and it has a hypnotizing feel that's built through the Dave's amazing guitar chords and sweet vocals, especially at the short instrumental section at the middle. I'll describe the exact image that comes to my mind when i listen to this song: i feel like i am in a forest in the middle ages, and a cloudy sky cover all the land. It works much better than BLACKMORE'S NIGHT music in my opinion. "Fearless" is not so good as the previous two songs, and also brings the hypnotizing feeling. It's still very dreamy but i don't like the "You'll Never Walk Alone" anthem too much. The last one is the mighty "Echoes". PING! Welcome to the ocean and let its waves lead you through PINK FLOYD's most trippy song ever done. The opening notes by Dave and Rick show that this is something really special...! This epic contains both wonderful music and lyrics. It originally had a space theme, but then the FLOYD decided to make an oceanic one. The embryo lyrics mentioning something that would be a "planets' dance" were also quite good, but these new ones of the released song are simply amazing. It also features the funky part done on the Atom Heart Mother suite, and when its second part arrives with the return of the "pings" and the guitar notes borning from Dave's fingers leading to that short semi-chaotic and touching at the same time guitar work (definitely the album's climax) you'll feel that those were some of the best moments your ears ever had the honor to be pleased of. After more awesome lines "...and call to you across the sky" and the windy ending, you sure will realise that even a pop song and a joke one can't drop an album containing an epic of this level from its pedestal.

Would the album be better without "San Tropez" and "Seamuz"? Even though i said before that those two songs don't bother me anymore and i am discovering a new pleasure on hearing them, i still have to admit that without those two the album would maintain its dreamy feel from begining to end, and would sure be worthy of being on my "6-star FLOYD albums" special category, which has as "members" Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon. But Meddle can be considered a masterpiece and does deserve the 5 star ranting due to the level it lets me reach. I feel mesmerized by this album, and it touches me deeply emotionally, so i consider this a very special album for me.

Meddle is one of the best albums in the Floyd history. Especially, because of Echoes. "Echoes" is an incredible song with musical changes, solos and vocals. I wish Gilmour and Wright sing much more songs together. Their voices are so harmonious and relaxing. "One Of These Days" is also very good song and one of the concert favourites. "Fearless" is a classic song with an impressive acoustic work. The only weak song in the album is "Seamus", because it is a bit pointless and musically not good. Thanks God, it's short. "San Tropez" is also not so good, but it has a nice melody and funny moments.

Does Echoes save this album? Does it have more than Echoes? Well... I think in Meddle are three sort of songs: the first are those good-melodic-beautiful-rock songs (One of These Days, Fearless and A Pillow of Winds) the second is composed by the fillers... just crap (Seamus and San Tropez) and thirdly The great and magnificent epic... Echoes. This song deserves all the compliments... it's power supported by its beautiful moments, its progressions. It's a masterpiece, in the way that it represents PF at it best... all that they wanted to do... I don't know if Echoes saves this album (probably it does do) but when i listen to Meddle I know that Echoes will save the day (or the time spent on the othertracks). Finally, I truly think this is not their best try, but it is a great try (One of These Days, Fearless, A Pillow of Winds... and ECHOES)... yes, it is... it would have been better without those 2 (filler) tracks.

Floyd continues along its classic path with Meddle, an album that is finally showing the band as a whole. While past efforts Saucerful of Secrets (3 stars in my opinion) and Atom Heart Mother (4 stars) showed the band trying to break from Syd's legacy, Meddle boasts many good tracks. Atom was fairly well-realized, but pales in comparison to this.

One of these Days: Wind effects and bass and finally guitar open into Roger's wierd voice : "ONE OF THESE DAYS I'LL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF". A more fast-paced track than the following. The album is underwater themed, you can hear it already. Mason's reverse cimbals and Wright's bursts of keyboard eventually come to the fabled line and some real Floyd jamming.

A Pllow of Winds: So relaxing and sleepy... I can hardly stay awake listening to this. Gilmour vocals and slow keyboards and very nice acoustic guitar. This has a very bluesy feel.

Fearless: Another slow-paced song. You'll never walk alone, Rogers and Hammerstein, plays in reverse at the beginning and end. A repetetive bass line and guitar line going up to a quick cimbal. The lyrics emphasize independence.

San Tropez: Catchy, but Roger's vocals are borderline off-key. Very jazzy. Pink Floyd began as the Abdabs way way back, and I've heard it was a jazz band. Not suprising when you hear this album. Very bluesy/jazzy.

Seamus: One of Floyd's old dog songs. The band's little unofficial mascot dog can be heard in several early tracks. This is one of them: he sings right along right with this short little bluesy-song.

Echoes: One of those beautiful long tracks. A submarine bell and a wailing Gilmour guitar start up the bass and melodic drumming. Builds a long time with very nice atmospheric keyboards. Then Wright led vocals with lyrics that seem to remind of Astronomy Domine. Strange lyrics but very pretty. The main theme of guitar follows and builds slowly. Then a keyboard jam continues, with a good drum line and some guitar. It slowly fades away into a really long bit with crows and screaching guitar notes. Then slowly the submarine note awakens a slowly rebuilding theme. The Wright vocals start back after the long rebuilding continues. It's hard to express the pleasure of hearing the theme rebuild. The theme leaves as it began, the submarine bell and suddenly a strange sound affect going up and up and up and up...

Ok, here we go again , I gotta review this album , This is a great and important album; Pink Floyd is very much still a band in developement at this point, AND still very experimental and very "jammy" ( note in point: One of these Days w/ the whole first minutes built around "echo bass guitar", sychronised backward cymbal hits, stabbing dramatic single organ thrusts)--- Yea you know and all this with really no synthesizers. Im a total gear whore and i study everything related to gear, so i really watch for clues etc; Pink Floyd never one too much to talk about gear like others, you know. But , I swear i see no evidence of much synthesizer usgae at all at this pont ( note: Pink Floyd "Live at Pompeii" the movie , me see's no synthizers anywhere in that movie , not even a VCS3; which was about exactly AFTER this record was done, cause in the movie they show scenes of them working on "Dark Side...").. After this record Pink Floyd was sort of BIG TIME forever, really and truelly the greatest rock band ever by any standard. What is Important also historically at this point when Pink Floyd released this record is that Pink Floyd starting doing things that were kind of AvantGarde and were selling millions of records doing it. So they were given total creative license to go crazy... at times , you know, Pink Floyd is not even that complicated musically. A lot of people have droned a single note over the last 40 years, but possibly no one with as much success as Pink Floyd Theres really only two tracks on this album, all the rest are crap in my opinion ( like a lot of old psych records). but man, the two important tracks on this album are so good they make the album essential. "One of these Days" could have sounded like crap like a lot of old psych stuff, but Pink Floyd sound to me like they really sat and mapped all this stuff out before the even started recording, One of the Days was undeniably spawned from a jam. Again, not one of those tracks with a lot of musical athletics, its the idea that counts. Roger just siting there wailing away on his bass guitar through an echoplex creating the whole intro part9 I can recall this from the movie "live at Pompeii"), and the rest of the band just making some really tasty noise, correct me if im wrong , but my brain recalls some trivia that its Nick Mason thru a ring modulator saying: " One of these days im gonna cut you into little pieces" and the whole band busts in with a nice frenzied psychedelic jam groove that take the piece to close. Simple.Total great early Pink Floyd their best before they were big giant mega rock stars. Onto "Echoes" , muy importante side long suite- Opens with a submarine bell; that be one of the high notes on a grand piano fed thru an echo plex with repeats set to like just a few milliseconds and the amount of repeats very long, how brilliant, what a beautifull simple non musician thing, very ambient... just that single note... this why Pink Floyd Rules in my opinion and most bands just dont get it... the whole thing builds so beautifully into a groove. Like Pink Floyd have really only ever done except on "Shine on you crazy diamond" and some "komische music" things. Pink Floyd is really really the odd ball in a lot of the famous prog bands, because they dont do in your face musicianship. The lyrics and the concepts started becoming dominated by roger after this record, until he took total control..... Honestly, I have all the records previous to this one, and there all really kind of "big deal" except a few tracks: Astronomy Domine, Care full with that Axe Eugene, A Saucerfull of secrets, Set the controls.... what else.. i dont remember: To me Pink Floyd starts here, I own way to many albums to bother with listening to that other stuff.. Dang I forgot to mention the HOT HOT jamming in Echoes; this was the end of this stuff. Pink Floyd never really jammed again, after this with al their success and all everything was very very planned.

The first Floyd masterpiece!

"Meddle" is arguably the first fully developed and perfectly produced PINK FLOYD album, following the unsuccessful experimentation of "Atom Heart Mother". Everything works fine here, even the unusual combination of several easy mostly acoustic songs flavoured with folk and some bluesy touches, surrounded by two premier space rock anthems, the opening "One of These Days" and the epic "Echoes", makes much sense and offers more than a pleasant and adventurous listening. Without excessive psychedelic sound effects (the "ping" from "Echoes" is more than just an effect...) and orchestral arrangements, the foursome delivered a strong sonic texture that ranks among their finest achievements and is a refreshing and interesting listen every time you put the disc on, equally in 1971 as today. Truly remarkable piece of music and a must for any prog collection.

"Meddle" is, in my opinion, the start of the string of essential Pink Floyd albums. Though more focused than "Atom Heart Mother," there is still something to be desired.

One of the cooler Pink Floyd songs starts the album: "One Of These Days." Beginning with a driving bass line, soon doubled by another, a brisk pace is soon set, complemented by Gilmour's wailing guitar. Past the bridge, the only set of lyrics in the song, a rather disheartening line, is grumbled into the microphone: "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces." The listener is soon greeted by the more light and soft ballad, "A Pillow Of Winds," after the previously vigorous and ominous track. There's nothing entirely special about this song, but I can at least say it's nice. "Fearless" is a favourite of mine. It's in the same vein of "A Pillow Of Winds," but just.better. A great acoustic guitar line, complimented by a light electric guitar dominates most of the track. The jazzy "San Tropez" picks up the pace a bit with a bit more down-to-earth feel with both the lyrics and music. It's a rather weak track, especially in comparison to the three that precede it, but it's not horrible. "Seamus" is flippant little tune with a typical blues progression and a barking dog. That's about it. This song usually gets blasted right and left, but it's just a joke. Finally, the infamous "Echoes" closes the album. This brilliant track is one of Floyd's best ever. Taking the listener from the ocean (compliments to submarine "beeps") to Water's insightful lyrics, an impeccable instrumental line follows, that's just awesome. The song then takes a diversion to creating a very dark atmosphere along with some creepy birds squawking until everything finishes out. The virtuosity the band displays here is absolutely brilliant, creating musical atmospheres rather than just "playing" (if that makes any sense whatsoever). It's worth buying the album just for this track alone.

Besides a few mediocre songs on "Meddle," the only other flaw is it's sub-standard production. It often has a very "muddy" feeling that I wish could be polished up a bit. The sonic textures created in this album would benefit so much more. But hey, it was recorded in 1971, what do you expect? But overall, "Meddle" contains some very strong material that even stands up against the later majesty of such albums as "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals."

I wasn't very convinced by this album. I guess it has signs of their imaginative 1960's era changing towards to the more calculated 1970's sounds. The weight on the scale seems to be shifting towards more coherent messages dominating their forthcoming "Dark Side of The Moon" era, but there are still great moments on this record certainly. Long main suite "Echoes" has a beautiful Lloyd Webber reminding theme and a long bluesy instrumental part. The album opener "One of These Days" is also a good song, playing with echoed bass pulses, backward driven effects and things which might cut you to small pieces (Eugene?). Otherwise I found this album quite boring to listen, "Seamus" even managing to annoy me a bit. Also I first liked the covers of this album quite much, as I thought it being abstract design. As I realized what the gatefold is actually representing, the picture it didn't please me anymore as I probably had an association of earwax from it. Relates to the "Echoes" and sound pulses very well though. Also the band portrait within the inner sleeve is quite cool.

I think this is a great album and an excellent addition to any prog collection, but it is shy of a five star review. "Echoes" which takes up half the album itself, is definetely a masterpiece, but other songs on Meddle are not even close. "San Tropez" reminds of some of the poppier material on Piper at the Gates of Dawn and I'm not really sure what "Seamus" is other than one of the most annoying songs I've ever heard and a song this album could've done without. Although "One of These Days" is a good song but has more special effects than instruments. "A Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless" are great songs with incredible vocals by Gilmour. Meddle is one of the Floyd's best albums, but whereas Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals don't have any bad songs on them, Meddle isn't so perfect.

Echoes! pays for the entire album..being a gem within a gem!!! Things have started to glue together!! Outstanding stuff in this one... With the passing years, I have learned to love this album, and have become one of my favorites over all.

Another amazing album by floyd! This is almost perfect except for the annoying song Seamus. It seems like a few of floyds classics have some irritating filler. I just wasn't digging the dog groanings, unsettling to the nerves. Still One of these days (one of the best opening tracks) and echoes alone bring this album to 4 star rating. They are two largely instrumental and find floyd fine tuning there sound, showing everyone whats to come in the future. The other songs together squeeze out another quarter star for a 4.25 star album!

First off, let me make it clear that I add a fifth star purely for sentimental reasons. If this album had not had such a huge impact on my musical life (and the rest of my life at the time, really) I would give it 4 stars. When I first heard this album, I was unaware of a style called "prog" or progressive. I had heard the "classics" of the genre on the radio growing up through the 70's, but had always thought of Yes, Pink Floyd, Kansas and Rush as "classic rock". In 1989 - 90, my second year of college, one of my roommates had this on LP. I wore out the gooves listening to, and learning note for note, the entire Echoes suite. Quite simply the best song Floyd ever wrote and preformed IMO,and one of my favorite pieces of music of all times. The first side is nearly irrelevant because of the greatness of Echoes. But thankfully, it contained another Pink Floyd jem, One Of These Days (I'm Going To Cut You Into Little Pieces), a fantastic way to start an album. That song was good enough for Gilmore to include it in the post-Waters touring band sets (on all the tours, if memory serves). Personally, I like all the other songs on side one, though San Tropez and Seamus I can't really consider great (and those two are what would make me give it 4 stars if not for the sentimental value this album holds for me). Though they are not bad IMO. Pillow Of Winds was the last we would hear of the pastoral Floyd, and certainly one of, if not the, finest example of this approach. Fearless is a very pleasant song that continues the pastoral vien but ups the tempo slightly and has drums. A song I still play on acoustic from time to time. Very nice. I no longer have all of Floyds albums, only this one, Dark Side, and Umma Gumma (I had most of them on tape anyway, and the tapes died long ago). But I still listen to Meddle from time to time (I can't listen to Dark Side anymore.....heard it WAY too many times).

The famous warm-up for The Dark Side of the Moon, Meddle is an album of varied styles and noises. Though most of the album wouldn't typically be classified as 'space rock', there are a couple of spacey tunes to be heard on this album. The rest are cheery or moody guitar peices that show just how versatile David Gilmour can be with his acoustic guitar.

Off to a fast start, the album kicks off with the thriving One of These Days, a double-bass jam session where everyone is trying to do their best and succeed amazingly. The pulsating bass lines turn into a furios mish mash of electric guitar, bass, keyboards and drums after Nick Mason utters those oh-so legendary words "ONE OF THESE DAYS I'M GOING TO CUT YOU INTO LITTLE PIECES!!" Probably one of the hardest Floyd songs ever recorded.

The mood changes with A Pillow of Winds. A much slower song than the previous, setting the tone for the rest of the album. It almost 'softens the sound', if you will.

Next is the catchy, never performed live, Fearless. With it's adicitve guitar riff and lyrics about standing up against the impossible, it becomes a mellow reflaction on many facts of life.

Up next is the cheery, upbeat San Tropez, Roger Waters's song about remembering his day of lying on the beach and not having a care in the world. It's a nice break from the somewhat somber tone of the album, yet seems somewhat out of place.

Even moe out of place seems Seamus, a song about a dog. David Gilmour singing about his dog Seamus while a dog (assumingly named Seamus) barks in the background. You may remember this song from "Live at Pompeii" under a different name: Mademoiselle Nobbs. Re-recorded for this album, it was the butt of jokes for many critics of the band flagrant use of a dog...

Finally, there is the unforgettable Echoes. The second of Floyd's side-long tracks, it embodied everything space rock was designed to do: somewhat abstract lyrics, smooth, long melodies, sound effects, and almost celestial vocals thanks to the combination of David Gilmour and Rick Wright. The 23-minute epic would be the ground work for what would become The Dark Side of the Moon. However, the band would have one more album to go before they started that masterpeice...

Meddle is the reason why i started to listen to Pink Floyd and progressive rock in general. If it were not for the epic proportions of Echoes, i would never have given more than a glance to bands such as Genesis, Yes and King Crimson. The album deserves 5 stars just for echoes, not including One of These Days, Fearless and psychedelically beautiful Pillow of Winds. The only fault with the album would be the song seamus, though a sustainable and interesting Blues number, i dont believe it fits aswell with the album as the other tracks. The musicanship of this album is extraordinary, more so the developments made by Gilmore in his development of his own distinict tone and virtuosity. I bougth meddle on vinyl and cd before Dark Side, therefore showing its importance ot my personal musical development. I suggest that everyone avaliable heckles the members of Pink Floyd for a Reunion concert, cause Live 8 was just not enough!

Meddle probably marks what would prove to be the start of the most productive and innovative period in Pink Floyd's career. It also was the first to have the trademark Pink Floyd sound. David Gilmour finally took his right place in the band and became the leading musical force within the group. Meddle also then marks a radical departure and a new way of making music for the band.

1. One of these days - pumps along with a terrific bass line and watery guitars that crescendo stunningly. The Nick Mason vocal screaming "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces," Superb! 5/5

2. A pillow of winds - is a dreamy and poetic piece mixing great accoustic guitar from Gilmour, along with good lyrics from Waters..Very good! 4.5/5

3. Fearless - good song, that ends with a recording of Liverpool F.C. football fans singing Rodgers & Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone" 3.5/5

4. San Tropez - perhaps one of the best cuts on the album, has a jazzier sound. 4/5

5. Seamus - Seamus was a dog that was trained to yowl every time he heard the blues. So, he was brought into the studios and the band, stoned, recorded the track. It easily could have been left off the album. Only for the fans. 2/5

6. Echoes - Staring out with a simple, sonar-like ping, it slowly builds to a very full sound. The voice blends so well with the instrumentation, that it becomes another instrument. After the first set of vocals you are taken on a trip. This song is amazing to turn up and listen to in complete darkness. After a while, the song turns to wind and then slowly stars adding different elements in again. From there till the end is such an amazing use of blended sounds building upon each other, that I cannot describe how good it is. Essential!! 5/5

Final Note: Meddle signals the beginning of the most important period of Pink Floyd music, wherein they had completely grown into a brilliant cohesive band .It is far more focused, far more melodic, and far more cohesive then anything before it. No longer searching, Pink Floyd had finally arrived.

5+4.5+3.5+4+2+5 = 24

24 : 6 = 4

Excellent addition to any prog music collection

Curiosity: One of these days was dedicated to Jimmy Young, the British Radio D.J., who the band had been having a running battle of words with for several years.

I don't know why there's hate for that cover, I think it's pretty cool. Chronologically, the first of Pink Floyd's albums that is stuck far above the 4.00 rating, never to come down. I'll give it a try, though.

One of these days: Oh, she's fantastic. Perhaps the best thing Pink Floyd ever turned out, next to SOYCD (Parts 1-5). With the famous line, beautiful instrumentation and overall fun of the song, I can't give it less than an ace. 10/10.

A pillow of winds: This seems like kind of a fluffy song, but with dark undertones. Maybe it's just the semi-creepy vocals. I don't think there's much going on here. It's hard to call a five minute song a filler, but it's pretty much just filler here. 4/10, an odd Floyd song where the vocals actually out-shine the instruments.

Fearless: Gilmour wins this song, hands down. The wonderful guitar is consistent and despite being mellow like the previous song, actually brings something worthwhile to the table. This is a track that doesn't really jump out at you, but is quality nonetheless. 8/10.

San Tropez: The band meant to be funny with the song after this, but I find this one to be kind of humerous. Why didn't this make it on "A collection of great dance songs" ? It would've brought some credibility to that title! Seriously, though. This song isn't that bad. Some lump it in with the following song, but I don't see it like that at all. I see it as a fun little song, in the style of Jeremy Bender or Cans and Brahms. Not fantastic, but not bad by any means. 7/10.

Seamus: "Seamus, that's the dog". I don't think they knew how right they were... maybe they do now. Much like "A pillow of winds", there's not much going on, other than the growling dog and some bland instruments. >|... that's supposed to be a "next song" button. 1/10.

Echoes: I must say, this is a tale of three songs, despite being a sidelong epic. You have your first song, which is the first eleven and a half minutes or so of Echoes. Then, you have your second song, which is from about 11:30-16:00. Lastly, there's the third song, 16:00-23:30 or so. The first song is very, very good and deserving of the praise it gets. The third song is pretty good... not quite as good as the first, but still nice. Unfortunately, that second song is still there... and pretty much nothing is going on during it. I must say, it really attempts to haul Echoes down to me. I'd give the first song 9/10, the second 1/10 and the third 8/10. Overall... 8/10.

Meddle is a very inconsistent album. There are fantastic parts, there are weak parts, there are good parts and there are terrible parts. I'd like to give the album a good rating, but Seamus and 11:30-16:00 in Echoes won't let me. They're to blame.

Definitely my favorite Pink Floyd album. It has a distinctly different sound than other Floyd albums. Balanced between free and dynamic, this album flows (besides Seamus being a little bit of a rough patch) in it's entirety. With the heavy, bass driven psychedelia of "One of These Days", to the soft/hard beauty of "Fearless", to the desolately epic "Echoes", this album more than holds up to it's predecessors, and will continue to be influential and inspiring for decades to come.

Well, I went to the shop to buy the album "Atom Heart Mother" and I saw this one - I didn't ever know that this work existed... and like I had some money still with me I bought "Meddle" too - a complete blind date (the year: 1972; my age: 15).

Going home I started to regret thinking that money could be better applied... but wow, when I listened it for the first time all my doubts disappeared almost instantly. This is an album for ever, forever!

The tracks: 1) One of these days - amazing, attractive; that moment when everything runs edging perfection. 2) Fearless - nice and pleasant; good guitar and singing with some original effects. 3) San Tropez - hearing it first I felt myself lying in some Mediterranean beach (and look, in terms of beaches I haven't to complain here in Brazil). If a song can transport you to a distant place then it shall be exceptional. 4) A pillow of winds - the most beautiful ballad of Pink Floyd's stock; no more comments since they are not necessary. 5) Seamus - for me, only a filler, but not sufficient to disturb the majesty of the album. 6) Echoes - another EPIC in the same level of 'Atom heart mother', maybe better. Well, it is great indeed and shows a much more continuous display than the last. Also a piece to fill my pantheon of great songs.

I could remove 0.5 star due to the weak 'Seamus' but it would be unfair with the complete album, so the final rating is 5.

Yawn, yet another sleep inducing album from the Floyd. I have no idea why 'Echoes' is so popular among prog fans, it does not impress me much and comes dangerously close to ambient territory although there is a brief part of it that is listenable. The rest of the album just goes in one ear and out the other like so much of Floyd's 70s output. There are also some mild country influences on some of the tracks which make the Floydsters even more boring than usual. At least other bands that are usually boring, for example Uriah Heep, try their best to do something exciting and sometimes succeed, Pink Floyd however were content to just cruise along in boring mode and put anyone, that dares to listen to their albums, to sleep. This album is so weak that it leaves no taste in my mouth not even a bad one, at least Ummagumma is annoying this is just a soundtrack to a coma much like Animals.

I really enjoy this album and think that it is really necessary for a good prog collection. Each song is a classic, going from the harder rock of "One of These Days" to the lighter with "Fearless" and "Seamus". Finally, "Echoes" helps define prog rock.

Work released by Pink Floyd after their first box-office succes Atom Heart Mother. Floyd style is fully mature here. They do what they can best. Fisrst song - dark and mysterious One of These Days. It starts with pulsating double bass played by Mr Waters and Mr Gilmour. Very nice introduction to song, with backing guitar and keyboard phrases. A then the madness starts. Masterpiece!!! In this song Nick Mason vocals appears but its distorted. Second song is beautyful and excellent arranged ballad A Pillow Of Winds. Real beauty describing atmosphere of an ending day. Then next light song - Fearless. Very nice played. Then facetious San Tropez and bluesy Seamus. And the finale. extremely good, over 23 minute long, Echoes. Song created from over 20 pieces done in the jams. Great athmosphere. One of the best of Floyd. Masterpiece!!!

'One of These Days', 'A Pillow of Winds', 'Fearless' and the epic 'Echoes' are undisputedly 5 star songs, but, overall, the album only deserves 4, due to the vomit inducing 'San Tropez' and 'Seamus', which get a rating of 0 stars. They are so terrible, in fact, I have acquired a reflex to skip them before they start.

'One of These Days' is one of my favourite Floyd tracks, as it has a menace, emphasised by the wind in the background, absent from a lot of their other work. The real jamming begins after the famous line "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces." I quite like 'A Pillow of Winds', but some may find it slightly boring, as it veers away from the usual heavy beated, 'raw rock' Floyd we know and love. 'Fearless' is a really nice track, with some good lyrics and a good beat, although the last minute is wasted on the (quite stupid) Wembley chant.

Now it's time to get the bucket, as even writing about these next two songs make me want to heave. They really are an embarrassment in the Floyd song-list... (in my opinion). Now, 'Echoes' really is one for the history books, being one my favourite tracks of time. Enough has already been said and I have disdained 'San Tropez' and 'Seamus' enough.

Shouldn't be missed by any Prog-fan, even if just for 'Echoes'.

This is a good album to mention when trying to sort out the true Floyd fans from the "posers", which are those sorry saps that only know about Dark Side or The Wall. It's their loss because, dare I say it, I believe this is their greatest album. Yes, fellow Floydians, I prefer this over Dark Side of the Moon. Okay, you can now all pelt me with rotten tomatoes for my opinions. Yes, I do appreciate DSOTM for what it is and certainly would never underestimate it but I think Meddle has an overall edge over DSOTM. Apart from "One of These Days", the album has a rather laid-back, almost folky feel to it, with fantastic playing and great harmonies between Dave Gilmour and Rick Wright on Echoes.The fact that Gilmour and Wright harmonized together so well is one underrated facet about this era of Pink Floyd and I think was sorely missed in later albums. The stand-out track is obviously Echoes. Many many other twenty plus minute songs can you listen to from beginning to end and still enjoy it? Still and outstanding track. I'm still waiting for some radio stations to have the guts to play the entire cut all the way through but no, they'd rather play "Hey You" and "Money" over and over and over and over and over and.................you get the picture.

The first Floyd album I bought a long long time ago. This is almost impossible to rate, as it contains maybe the best and the worse songs written by Pink Floyd.

"One Of These Days" is amazing - starts slowly and after the spoken line it's turns into musical frenzy. "A Pillow Of Winds" is a beautiful ballad - another flawless song. Then the weak part starts with "Fearless" - a boring song containing the Liverpool FC anthem. "San Tropez" is a very cheezy song - Monty Python meets Primus sort of music. And "Seamus" is simply 2+ minutes with a dog barking! Fortunately, the album ends with "Echoes": an epic masterpiece - comparable in any way to "Shine on you crazy diamond".

Rating: 60/100

I think that the album Meddle is the most "rock and roll" album of the Floyd. And Meddle is essential for every one that loves progressive rock because this album contains one of the best songs of Floyd (the best in my opinion, a perfect job): Echoes!!

A Pink Floyd masterpiece,which contains one of the greatest,progressive and psychedelic tunes ever written:Echoe's,a totally brillant track that flows on forever.Echoes,also sounds funky and bluesy in parts its one of my favourite piece's of music probably because i rarely listen to Meddle."One of these days"is brillant,and the rest is okay,but in a way those weaker tracks work well,and bring everything together.

I have to admit i had'nt heard Meddle for nearly 20 yr's,until i decided to purchase it recently,and it sounds as fresh as ever,and i would rank Meddle as maybe their best work.Only for the fact that some of their other material,ie Dark Side,has been thrashed over the airways for years,and much of Pink Floyd's material like Meddle gets ignored,so in a way Meddle sound's more special and much more cooller to listen to.

As i stated i had'nt heard Meddle for years until recently,so for me i think it was a breath of fresh air,Meddle is one of those rare albums although very much of its day,in the end it transends time and is a monument to progressive and psychedelic rock.

i love this album,it just reminds me of growing up and sitting in freinds flats, you have all the big hitters like "one of these days" and "echoes" but the song i really love is fearless and although some do not like the inclusion of the liverpool fc fans singing "you,ll never walk alone" i find this very up-lifting and inspiring and thats coming from a mufc supporter.

Well, personally I think this to be one of Pink Floyd's top albums, despite its relative lack of popularity. As stated in other reviews, Echoes is the feature song and is indeed quite brilliant. You can search many prog albums and you will be hard pressed to find a song with such sophisticated writing and brilliant musical performances with strong emotional solos and powerful lyrics.

One of these days is also a good catchy song, but it doesn't stand out in my opinion, compared to other solos of the timeframe. But still, it's a great song to start off the album. Pillow of winds, Fearless, San Tropez, and Seamus are also great songs, although none of them really stand out. If you sit down, listen the first side of the LP through, you'll sit back and think, 'Wow, thats an exceptional side of an LP right there', or at least thats what I did. The songs may not be catchy, or particularly skilled as far as the instruments go, but the songwriting and moods created are very impressive, and leave an impression. Then, you flip the LP over and come to Echoes. Wow, that's a fantastic album!

All in all, this is probalby Pink's best, next to maybe Animals, or perhaps Division Bell (yes, I said Division Bell), and is a definite must have to any prog fan.

"One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces". Hell yeah! this release his truly gonna cut you into pieces! Certainly underrated by many but the ones that own it do know that this Pink Floyd album is something you canno't just leave in a disc store! The first track, "One Of These Days" is so powerful I was even able to headbang when I first listened to it! Then 2 sweet slower songs. I especially enjoyed "Fearless" both musically, even if not to much of a hard way of playing, and lyrically. "San Tropez" is a very unusual song from Pink Floyd. Yes, Pink Floyd is not usual but this song is quite different and not that progressive but really enjoyable! It got a bit of blues and folk." Seamus" is pretty weird . The guitar is well played but using dogs as a background is nice when you listen to the album for the first couple of times but It can easily get annoying... The following, "Echoes" is one of those epic songs that, as you listen to it, you don't want it to end. You can see on "Echoes" that Pink Floyd is getting more mature since David Gilmour as arrived. Since the only "weak" point of the album is some dogs... I think it really worth a perfect note!

Everyone knows and recognizes that the Dark Side of The Moon is Pink Floyd's masterpiece and an album that characterized the glory days of prog rock. For me personally, it's interesting to notice the albums that precede Dark Side of The Moon. Why? Well, this is probably very personal and you might disagree with me, but it's fine. To me, the period before Dark Side of the Moon was when the band tried to shape the kind of music they intended to have for the true Pink Floyd music. There was period when they're really a psychedelic band with the like of The Beatles - i.e the period with Syd Barrett. Post Syd Barrett era remarked the band movement to another shape that they might not know at that time. But if I observe in deep, there has been a tagline that underlined "the sort of sounds" they want to craft the future. Take a look on the title track of "Atom Heart Mother", for example. If you notice quite in deep, you might find that the track has key ingredients of Pink Floyd sounds, in this case that the bed where the music lays has evolved into "Us and Them" of the Dark Side of The Moon. You might find also how "Obscured By Clouds" has also evolved into another forms of Pink Floyd music. That's just an example, and the list would grow later with other tracks as well.

"Meddle", by no exception, has contributed significantly to the solid music of Pink Floyd in their music career. Take "Echoes" which obviously defines the music of Pink Floyd in terms of structure, composition, as well as style. Yes, it's heavily influenced by blues but the band has repackaged the track into music textures where the blues influence is not the main characteristics of the song but it enriches the song in its overall appearance. Another track worth observing is "One of These days" which mostly comes from the dual bass lines with Roger Waters playing on one channel, while David Gilmour on the other. What come next are two tracks which show the unplugged, folksy side of Floyd. These two tracks are possibly the band's best performance with this kind of style - which unfortunately do not favor me.

Overall, this album isn't the best album by Pink Floyd albums, but is well worth the effort to collect. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Pink Floyd in 1971 had changed drastically from it's psychedelic/pop roots with Syd Barrett and soon after his departure they became a highly experimental band who took no prisoners with their sonic bombardments. Meddle is the realization of all the experimentation they had done at that time and perfects it. The group had not yet become the mega-famous group they are now, at the time, they were rapidly growing a fan base and becoming increasingly popular. The musicianship on this album is phenomenal, with each member really shining on essentially all tracks. And if that weren't enough, the lyrics provided on this album are top notch, with Waters really coming a long way after his contributions from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

The album opens with an ethereal instrumental known as One of These Days. The pounding bass rhythms and the spacey slide guitar are augmented by wavy keyboard lines and pounding drums. The moment when all hell breaks loose is when Mason utters his famous phrase, "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces"... and then all goes into madness, and the song ends with a real bang. A Pillow of Winds is a dreamier piece, with some spacey Rick Wright vocals and some nice keyboard work from Wright as well. It's not the best song on the album, but a strong one to say the least. Fearless is another astoundingly strong piece. Great ascending guitar riffs and vocal/lyrical work are highlights. Gilmour's guitar work is astounding on this track. San Tropez is more of a joke track than anything else, in the vein of The Nile Song off of More. It's a strong joke track, to say the least. The vocals are well done and the jazzy music that accompanies it is very strong as well. Seamus is a considerably weak tune, and the only thing that really keeps me from rating this album as a masterpiece. Nick Mason's dogs are featured on this track, and that's the only thing really worth noting.

Echoes in the finale of the album, and the 24 minute epic really shows that Pink Floyd were all about taking everything to the next level. This atmospheric and moody piece is a total realization of everything that Pink Floyd had done up to that period and gives it a respective twist. The spacey aquatic themed tune is begun with some great keyboard work from Wright and some great solo work from Gilmour. The main theme to the song is astoundingly strong and the lyrics and vocals are also incredibly strong. The breakdown between the vocals is a great descending riff and one of the strongest riffs Pink Floyd had come up with at the time. The breakdown section in the middle features some strong rhythmic overtones from Waters and Mason, who provide the groove for Gilmour and Wright to solo over. Add more spacey and ethereal sections, and you have yourself a masterpiece of an epic.

Overall, this was Pink Floyd's strongest album to date. The work on this album is astounding, and the only reason I can't rate it as a masterpiece is because of the weak track Seamus. Otherwise, you must get this album and listen to some truly revolutionary music. 4.5/5.

After AHM traced the way, here we have excellent continuation, more sophisticated and full of that Pink Floyd unique, magnificent fluid.Side one opener is PF classic, followed by two acoustic numbers, while 'San Tropez' and 'Seamus' are tracks peculiar in their own way, just like the guys wanted to surprise us, what they surely did.But side two of the record containing 'Echoes' deserves four stars just for itself.This is Pink Floyd which I usually recommend to my younger progg fellows to listen to, as important and necessary step to prepaire themselves for the most creative PF period culminating with 'Wish You Were Here' masterpiece.

Well being a big Floyd fan i really wanted to have the CD containing the epic ECHOES which i was a fan of on first listen. Luckily i was album to track in my opinion an album that really stirred things up in the succes of the FLOYD...MEDDLE. Meddle is an album that has great proggressive moments, awesoe gilmour solos, cool keyboards and some great vocal haromonies by gilmour and waters. It kicks off the great pink floyd instrumental ONE OF THESE DAYS which some how is an instrumental i knew for years i just never knew what the title of the song until i finally got Meddle. Its a really great song and a very popular song for the Floyd as it starts with a great dynamic bass line with drums. and then the whole band joins into a great track that really kept me on the edge of my seat. Roger Waters and Nick Mason pawned on this track great job guys. Then the next are some nice acoustic tracks A PILLOW OF WINDS and FEARLESS. i will say i wasn't too impressed with them but they aren't that bad for some nice relaxed acoustic songs. The track two are some humour tracks for the Floyd SAN TROPEZ has this sort of honky tonk fill with a little psychedelic too them and SEAMUS is just an enjoyable track about a Dog with a bit of barking in the background. And now THE MAIN EVENT ECHOES!!!!! one of the best epics of prog history. Now i know fans love CLOSE TO THE EDGE and SUPPER'S READY but this track right up there with them as it contains some of Floyd's best stuff and GAH I LOVE THE FUNKY instrumental its so tight i just love this song every member does such a great job with it. So basically this Cd is good its not as great as Dark Side and Wish you Were Here but its not bad. This album is more like THE YES ALBUM OR TREPASS of pink floyd a setup album into which masterpieces would be made in the next couple of albums. So anyway if you wanna hear some cool stuff check this album out its definitely got great stuff.

If you're about to listen this album for the first time, and are not a huge PF fan yet, here's what might think about it (as I once did)

One of these Days (5/5): An amazing track, which anyone will get into upon first listening to it, the strumming bass guitars build up to the distorted vocal "One of these Days I'll cut you into little peices" and then explodes into one of the most awesome instrumental jams ever. Not moatter how old this sng becomes, it will never be outdated. One of the cool things about Pink Floyd

A Pillow of Winds (3/5): This piece will make you think "Is this the same band?". After the stunning opening track, this song just isn't that great. It's a fairly bluesy and mellow number that is in fact, quite boring.

Fearless (4/5): The catchy opening riff of this song will get your hopes back up agian, but still dosen't comapare to the opener. Definitly enjoyable. This song is almost flawless except for the annyoing stadium chanting at the end that contiues for over a minute

San Tropez (3.5/5): This song brings your hopes back down. A catchy, upbeat tune, but a little cheesy.

Seamus (2/5): This song doesn't help at all, four crummy lines of vocals followed by a dog barking for two minutes. Probably the worst PF song, unless you count "The Gnome" (sorry Syd fans, I just don't like it)

Echoes (10/5): Just when you've lost hope as the barking dog fades out of hearing range, youi gretted by the single-note PING! of the final track. The slow build up of guitars and drums leads to some pretty cool and abstract lyrics, followed by another awesome instrumental jam. While by far an epic track (23 + minutes), it is probably the best epic you will find in porg rock. And this track alone is enough to redeem the album.

this averages to 4.5/5, but since the opening and closing tracks makes you forget about "Seamus", I think it deserves a perfect 5 star rating

This is a very interesting album and one of their best albums, IMO. It still has some experiments and some arrangements inluenced a bit by Psychedelia. It also has one of the best long musical pieces, called "Echoes".

The album starts with "One of These Days", which has a bass guitar played with a delay sound effect. It is a simple instrumental piece of music with added sound effects and David Gilmour playing a pedal steel guitar. "A Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless" are songs played with acoustic and electric guitars, mainly sung by Gilmour. "Fearless" includes a "choir" at the end of the song which it seems liket it was recorded during a soccer match, with the public singing "You`ll Never Walk Alone"! "San Tropez" is a Jazz influenced song with acoustic guitar and a piano solo, and sung and composed by Waters. "Seamus" is a blues song without drums which has the funny sound (at least for me) of a dog barking along with the song in the background, seeming like the dog was singing the song too!

"Echoes" is the best song in this album. It has several untitled parts which are played with energy by the band, and it also includes a part played with synthesizers on which they sound like noises produced by "prehistoric birds", giving a very good effect to the listener like being transported to "old ages"! Great arrangement! The song is finished with energy by the band, and then the song gradually fades with the same synths playing strange noises. "Echoes", IMO, is similar in several ways to YES ` "Close to the Ege" and ELP`s "Tarkus", and all these musical pieces are very important in Progressive Rock music.

In conclusion, this is a very good album, next to their "Dark Side of the Moon" album in quality.

My Favorite of all Pink Floyd Albums. San Tropez and Seamus are probably my least favorite on the album but still are very good and show a different side of Pink Floyd which we have yet to see. One of These Days is one of PF's greatest openers and Fearless is in the top 5 of my favorite Floyd songs ever. Another one which is in the top 5 in my pink floyd library is the infamous Echoes. There has been so much said about this one song on this website so i'll spare you from my blabbering. Anyway, I feel as though this is an extremely well-rounded and well formatted album for Pink Floyd and led them into what many consider their "golden age" (Even though I consider their golden age to start with Atom Heart Mother and end with Wish You Were Here).

My second favourite Floyd album.

The album opens with the creative One of these days, a bass-orientated song, full of special tape-effects, such as Nick Mason's distorted vocals, the keyboards sounds played backwards, among others.

The rest of side one are these soft acoustic songs. A pillow of winds is a very relaxing track, with some nice psychedelic guitar. Fearless is definitely the best among the folkish songs of the album, featuring excellent lyrics and Liverpool's supporters singing during a match. San Tropez is a jazzy Waters composition, just as relaxing as A pillow of winds.

Seamus was chosen "The worst Pink Floyd Song" by some fanzine. I really don't understand why. they were still at their experimental fase, and secondly, there are some that are even worse. And it's not that bad after all...

Now, the main course: Echoes. The greatest Floyd song ever written! I could recognize that "ping" at any moment! What else can I say? A masterpiece of Prog!

Meddle- This is one of my all time Pink Floyd favourites and really shows off this bands musical diversity. Many people before me have outlined the songs and the like but I am going to talk about the album as a whole. Meddle is diverse in the way that it starts out with my personal favourite song One of These Days then changes to Pillow of Winds and Fearless, another great, which are Southern Folk inspired tunes. The last song Echoes is an incredible piece of prog music. It is an album side epic which lasts 23 minutes. I am a guitar player and I can tell you this song is brilliantly composed. The solos are perfect and flow with the feel of the song nicely. I have no complaints on this album at all. It is an album that every Floyd fan must discover before they can truly bear the name of "Pink Floyd fan". This album deserves 5 stars for sure.

Meddle is easily my favourite Pink Floyd record, and that is saying a lot since Pink Floyd is my favourite band by far. Pink Floyd was in a period of their career where they just left their Barret kind of style and before they would make their classic albums like "Dark Side of The Moon" and "The Wall". That's why this is my favourite Floyd album perhaps, it contains the best of both worlds.

Meddle only has 6 songs on it, but still runs for about 45 minutes. It was brought out before cd's existed so it's easily to divide this into 2 parts. The first part contains the first 5 songs which are all very different and great in their own right. The album takes of with the eerie track "One of these days". It's a song containing only the line "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces". The song is bass driven and has a very cool slide guitar. The drums are also very noticeable here, so all in all for such a simplistic instrumental track it's very cool. "A pillow of winds" is a very mellow one but flows very well with the spacy mood this album has. There aren't many solos on the record like on other albums but it's more about textures and this song is a fine example of a good layered song. Up next is "Fearless" which features one of the best riffs ever written by David Gilmour which is complemented by beautiful vocal lines. This track is the best song on the first half of the record and it ends with a sample of Liverpool fans singing "you'll never walk alone". Up next is the groovy San Tropez which is another favourite of mine and that's mainly because of the mood in this song. I always feel like I'm on Hawaii when listening to it and can't help but dance and groove to it. It has some nice piano playing too. The last song is a bluesy song with a crying dog, a pretty neat idea and a pretty neat little song.

The first half was great and all but the second half is were is all about! Consisting of only 1 song, Pink Floyd reached the limits of space rock here and made the finest track they made throughout their entire career. "Echoes" is her name and it's nothing but pure musical bliss. The intro are floating sounds of space and submarines which last for a full 3 minutes, then the vocals kick in and the song really picks up. The vocals are done by David Gilmour and Rick Wright, making perfect soothing harmonies. The lyrics tell of a beautiful surrealistic world which I wouldn't mind being in myself. Although the song last for more than 23 minutes the song already reaches it's highlight when the solos comes in around the 6 minute mark. Although far from his most technical solo, Gilmour never puts as much emotion in a solo as in this one. After this tremendous solo the song goes into a long jam eventually fading out to gradually build up again ending into another sung part around the 20 minute mark. The outro is about the same as the intro, thus ending the best song ever made (Yup, that's quite a statement I know) I also love the lyrics too death.

All in All, this little album here stands as one of my top 3 records ever. It wasn't a big hit compared to their latter albums, and it's only a sub-classic but it sure is underrated. The best thing about it is probably the mood it has and the textures and layers they've put into it. I always feel light-headed and completely relax when I listen to it and I never get bored of it. Very recommended!

This is a beautiful, timeless classic. It's a very comfortable, laid-back affair (for the band and the listener) ... I get the impression that the 'Floyd' were finding a new approach here (post-Syd), and had already started to move away from some of the more aggressive psychedelic sounds of previous work (Saucerful of Secrets or Careful With That Axe, Eugene for example). With 'Meddle', the band take on a simpler and more refined sound, letting the songs speak for themselves ... there is a sense, that the pressure to be the most far-out psychedelic band on the scene, was finally lifted; the 'Floyd', rather than being essentially a live band, finally found their feet in a studio envioronment. There is a focus and a clarity in 'Meddle', a distillation of all they had achieved thus far. And incredible, sublime songwriting. Remarkable. Bathe in it!

Simply unbelievable... That's what I felt when I first played it some years ago, at at time when I had just heard about PF's hit singles ( sorry, but many people begin in music by listening to the radio, I'm unashamedly one of that kind ). "One of these Days" is just a killer track, with an hypnotic bass line and an inimitable sound, a kind of track that can't be equalled, an original and vintage one. The following 4 tracks singularizes theirselves by their "zenl" and psyché feeling, with a musicality that can't be questionned and some excentric ideas ( I especially like the end of " Fearless" with Liverpool FC's anthem ) . Finally, "Echoes" is one of the best epics progressive rock bred, a wonderful and hypnotic one, with great solis, repetitive and effective guitar riff and a crazy break ( especially if you're fond of whales' way of communication ). PF stood as a leader of experimental rock, and that worked.

This albums has four simple pieces witch i didn't like too much. But Echoes was a true masterpiece. Echoes broked Pink Floyd from The Beatles's style. It was the big step to progressive rock. I've spended good money on this album and I'm satisfied. I'm 13 years old and I'm ONE OF THE FEW young fans of Pink Floyd. My father was putting me to listen to Pink Floyd at the age of 4. Until recently I knew only about the new albums: newer than Meddle. I loved the complexity of their music. Then I listen to Relics. The album seemed ridicolous and I thought I listen Beatles. Then I listened to the old albums with more atention and the music still seemed ridicolous. But the lirycs were good. Probably if it wasn't for Meddle, The Dark Side of The Moon was never sawn.

Meddle, a great album, a great set of songs, a great finish! Echoes is one of the greatest 20 minute epics to go on record in the history of man kind. It's up there with Rush's 2112 and Dream Theater's A Change of Seasons. Some of my all time favorite epics. The rest of the CD, is great to, taking a smooth and relaxing appraoch such as the song A Pillow of Winds. Ahhh, makes me want to cry. This album is a great sucess among the greatness of Pink Floyd. Meddle is something you should consider meddling with, ha, pun. Anyways, Echoes is the best song and it's incredible. Great vision towards true Psychedelic/Space Rock. Believe me, give the song a try, it's incredible!!! 4/5 for this album, it's good, it's smooth, it's enjoyable!

When one of my class mates introduced me to MEDDLE, back in 1975, we were fascinated by the 'funny sounds' as well as the music. Pink Floyd were well-known for being a real 'underground band' specialising as much in weird noises as in anything else. The mysterious opening of 'Echoes' took our breath away, the spooky middle section gave us the creeps, and the spoken bit in 'One of these days' had us in stitches. In the course of time, of course, I also started enjoying 'Echoes' for its beautifully sung main melody, its guitar solos and its exciting organ-led climax. Compared to other 1970s epics it's flawed, of course (those creepy sounds in the middle should really have been curtailed), but it's no exaggeration to state that 'Echoes' was the Floyd's very first symphonic prog classic.

Most of MEDDLE's shorter tunes are eminently forgettable, but I happen to like 'San Tropez', with its cool, jazzy piano solo splendidly performed by Rick Wright.

Is Meddle a transition to later Pink Floyd compositions or a cumlmination of early Floyd? I'm not sure which description is more accurate. Tracks like "One of these Days" and "Echoes" are the result of a musical style that was inspired by Roger "Syd" Barrett on the "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" album. Instrumentals like "Pow R. Toc H." and "Intersteller Overdrive" would start weaving several musical threads at the beginning of these compositions. Somewhere in the middle, the thread would start to unwind into a cacaphonous tangle, only to be re-wound and re-packaged towards the end of the composition. A mastering of this style would finally be realized on the Meddle album with the 23-1/2 minute long "Echoes". In that regard, it was the germination of the seed planted by Barrett four or so years earlier, and a culmination of the early Floyd style. Yet, with Waters clearly emerging as the band leader, you also get a sense of the direction the band will take just a couple of years in the future, which is what gives Meddle its transitional, and very unique character. The songs may not be as conceptually linked to each other as with later Floyd albums, but the general mood flows well between each, even between songs that could be considered antithetical to each other.

Turning to the songs themselves, the listener is treated to one of Floyd's best instrumental jams. "One of these Days" is the perfect start to this musical journey. About two minutes prior to the close of the piece, it climaxes, and holds the pinnacle for nearly the entire remaining two minutes. As the instrumental frenzy eases up at the end of the composition, it merges easily into the soft "Pillow of Winds". "Fearless" follows seamlessly, and lifts the listener's mood with a melodious and memorable acousitic guitar rhythm licks and hopeful lyrics. While many critics pan the leisurly "San Tropez", it creates a carefree mood with memorable and enjoyable bottle-neck guitar and piano solos. The only tune on the whole album that could be considered "throw- away" is "Seamus". While some might enjoy the musical novelty of a dog howling to the blues, the novelty wears off quickly. I can honestly say that it's the only song I'll ever skip during a listening of this album, though I do occasionally listen to it. It's not a horrible song, and it is a bit humorous. But it would ultimately keep me from giving this album 5 stars.

And, finally, "Echoes". Whether culmination of a previous Floyd genre, or the transition to a new one, no song could steal away your breath so completely. The hypnotic, driving, yet fun, guitar leads and solos, the harmoneous vocals, the lyrical and musical imagery, the climax and re-threading of the music during the epilogue--this song has got it all. How can you go wrong with lyrics like this:

"Cloudless every day you fall upon my waking eyes, Inviting and inciting me to rise, And through the window in the wall, Comes streaming in on sunlight wings, A million bright ambassadors of morning."

Echoes is truly a musical masterpiece. For that reason alone (though there are many others), Meddle deserves to be in the collection of every progressive rock music fan. And for Floyd fans who do not have this ablum in their collection, all I can say is that they're living in sin! =)

"Meddle" is arguably the first fully developed and perfectly produced PINK FLOYD album, following the unsuccessful experimentation of "Atom Heart Mother". Everything works fine here, even the unusual combination of several easy mostly acoustic songs flavoured with folk and some bluesy touches, surrounded by two premier space rock anthems, the opening "One of These Days" and the epic "Echoes", makes much sense and offers more than a pleasant and adventurous listening. Without excessive psychedelic sound effects (the "ping" from "Echoes" is more than just an effect...) and orchestral arrangements, the foursome delivered a strong sonic texture that ranks among their finest achievements and is a refreshing and interesting listen every time you put the disc on, equally in 1971 as today. Truly remarkable piece of music and a must for any prog collection.

This is the album in which Pink Floyd began to deliver a more focused sound and their writing skills became more refined, although there are still unmistakable traces of their early psychedelic era floating in the majestic atmospheres created for 'Echoes', arguably their most accomplished composition ever. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. "Meddle" is an album in which Pink Floyd decided to explore their rockier and bucolic aspects in a clearer frame of mind, giving distinct rooms for each attitude throughout the fisrt half. The recording kicks off with their anthemic rocker 'One of These Days', a catchy yet somewhat scary exhibition of minimal textures that gradually sets a room for emotional darkness until the infamous recitation, from which the band turns on full swing, with the drums setting a solid pace and the steel guitar exploding like a diamond in the sky that scatters its splinters across the cosmos. The sound of the wind connects the opener's end with the beginning and development of 'A Pillow of Winds', an extremely reflective piece in which the steel guitar reappears, this time as a painting instrument instead of a summoner of storms. But it is the acoustic guitar arpeggios that take center stage now, softly displaying their cadences over the dreamy organ layers. This is classic acoustic Pink Floyd. Portraying a more optimistic mood although keeping things quite constrained, 'Fearless' gives a candid message of self- confidence within the confines of a pleasant motif. 'Saint Tropez' and 'Seamus' continue the acoustic vein with disparate results. The former is a joyful, ironically-absorbed song in an old jazz mood, while the latter is a failed attempt at easy-going fun on an acoustic blues set. Perhaps a longer expansion of the 'Saint Tropez' song could have taken more advantage of the last two minutes of the vinyl's A-side, but well, things are as they are. And ultimately, it is good that things are as they are, since the second half of the album is occupied by the monumental suite 'Echoes', which is to many prog fand and PF heads, the ultimate PF song. And deservedly so. Everything in and about it is a definitive prog (and art rock) classic, and now comes a list that hopefully will be extensive enough. The dripping effects played on a distorted piano, the guitar leads that set the mood for the jams, the best vocal duet performance by Gilmour and Wright ever, the disturbing interlude played on mellotron overdubs and bizarre guitar effects, the reflective lyrics that portray the mystery of the ego's encounter with itself in the others, the ascending climax toward the last sung section, the hypnotic closure of mellotron choirs going in circles toward the higher notes while the final drips go fading away. These 23 ½ minutes are pure prog brilliance. "Meddle", while not totally filling the masterpiece's shoes, it almost does: one of Pink Flyd's absolute gems for the prog genre.

I bought Meddle expecting something similar to Dark Side Of The Moon or Wish You Were Here , but I was suprised to see that this album is different and enjoyable. Its perfect and this is one of the best Pink Floyd albums. The highlights are the song One of these days and the masterpiece epic Echoes that is a musical journey opening with a single note from Richard Wright which sets the scene the song progresses into magical territory by David Gilmour guitar! Amazing!

Good, but unequal album. The album starts with the great opener "One of these days", which I think is trully a great track. After that however, until echoes, I think this album is very weak. From Fearless to Seamus (I don't know how seamus made it to the album to be honest, strange and NOT funny track) the tracks are uninteresting and dull, if the album was full of such trakcs I'd probably have given this album 2 stars.

Luckily when all hope seems lost, there comes this great amazing epic. Echoes really is something else. It builds up slowly and becomes better and better. One of the few 20 min + space rock epics, but oh boy, what an epic! One of my alltime fave tracks.

If the album only had track 1 and 6, this album would be a 5 star without any doubt. I have to look at the whole album though, and with such weak tracks (luckily they're not thát long) between the two great tracks I'd have to give this 3.5 stars.

No beating about the bush - Echoes is damn near the best piece of music ever created by anyone at any time .... even all these years later it holds a power that few others can get close to. The psychedelic instrumental section, especially the pounding 'marching' theme [my head has built up a story to this that is quite independant of the lyrics, though they do seem to gel somehow] never fails to send shivers down the spine. This is also my preferred version of this song - everything about it is perfect. Simpler, but barely less powerful, is the Echorec endowed One Of These Days with Nick Mason's barely discernable vocal. Anything else really is a bonus. The remaining tracks are in a freeer style with lots of jangly acoustic guitars, bluesy licks, chanting football crowd and singing dog - in themselves pleasant enough but nothing outstanding, at least in a Prog sense. They are, however, a perfect foil for the two major tracks. Overall - masterpiece.

classic trippin music, my friends. If you wanna get high and have a good time, this is it. anyways, there are some reviewers sayin how much the song "seamus" sucks, how its the worst song released under the Floyd name. Apparently such reviewer has never heard of The Final Cut (thats a true abomination). Sure, "seamus" is a rather simple song, especially if compared to Echoes, but its nonetheless a good song, if you like blues. The subtle harmonica, the soft piano exchanging licks with the slide guitar... and the dog just completes the the whole blues feelin.

overall an insane album, my favorite from the Floyd.

This was my entry album to the Floyd. Back in December 1971 (I was aged 12, almost thirteen). From the very begining I had a quite mixed feeling about it. A first quite boring side which I (almost) never spin as such and a fabulous second one.

Side one opens with "One Of These Days" which is, of course, a fantastic song. Quite "windy" for about a minute, the bass work is gorgeous throuthout the remaining part.The whole band then enters in such an unknown frenesy : almost hard rocking ! One of my all time fave from the Floyd that I frequently listen to, even thirty-five years after having bought it.

We enter then into a less memorable part of the album. "A Pillow of Winds" is a rather poor acoustic track. Boring all the way long. Useless.

"Fearless" is somewhat better. It ends with the famous anthem "We'll Never Walk Alone" sung by the Liverpool fans. Altough I prefer to hear it while attending a football game featuring the Reds (I had twice this experience in my life), it is quite interesting to mix it with a Floyd song (it is already noticeable earlier on in this song as well).

"San Tropez" is a jazzy little tune of no interest at all.

Altough some might find "Seamus" a great song, I can tell you : it is on par with the crappy studio work from "Ummagumma" and the B-side from AHM. To be in exctasy with the barking dog denotes some perception of music I hardly can understand. Very, very poor.

I really did an effort to listen to those ones for this review. I promise : for the next thity-five years, I will not listen to this crap again, for sure !

To confirm my feeling, I quote Roger : "Atom Heart Mother and Meddle are half good. I like "Atom Heart Mother" and "Echoes" themselves, but we made a right mess of it on the other sides."

The whole of side two is covered by the wonderful "Echoes" : another fave of mine. Over 23 minutes of great music. The sonar-like sound to start was an accident. I quote Rick : "I was playing around on the piano in the studio but it was actually Roger who said, would it be possible to put that note through a microphone and then through the Leslie? That's what started it. That's how all the best Floyd tracks start, I believe.".

After the intro, the Floyd offers a very nice & harmonious vocal section, a great guitar & keys break, an interstellar trip to the boundaries of the solar system (or underwater) and an incredible crescendo finale that last for about eight minutes. This is one of the most fabulous moment of prog music and the essence of our driving forces (well, maybe I'm too lyrical). Really this piece of music is fabulous.

So, for once, let's depict how I worked to get the rating for this work. I worked as follows : instead of considering the amount of good numbers (two out of six, almost two stars out of five) I will rather take into account the minutes of music (which is more favourable for this album). Almost thirty minutes of a masterpiece level ("One Of These Days" and "Echoes" ). Six minutes of two stars stuff "Fearless" and eleven crappy ones. The average rating reaches 3,69. I will rounded up to four stars. Really because this album has a special meaning to me (otherwise, with such poor numbers, a three stars rating would be more appropriate).

As usual I would say, the Floyd delivered a rather controvertial album. Masterpieces combined with absolute crap : it is not the first time. Unfortunately, it won't be the last time.

Interesting to mention that one of the left overs form the "Meddle" sessions was a track called "Brain Damage"... at that time it was called "The Dark Side Of The Moon"... Meddle will peak at Nr. 3 in the UK (only Nr. 70 in the US). Four stars.

My three stars rating come here only for excellent "Echoes", anthological psychedelic musical piece. Album starts with "One of these Days" instrumental track that is not much special. Good bass is there, and some guitars influenced by Barret. Anyway, it is good track, and nice start. "Pillow of Winds" is beautiful, soft, warm, easy song, really inspired me. There are nice vocals, and good combination of electric-acoustic guitars, with some keyboards effects that give some sad emotion. Not much space oriented, but beautiful. But next song, "Fearless" is my least favorite Pink Floyd's song. I really do not enjoy with this one, irritating to me. Guitar is boring there, and if it was made in nineties, I would have called it grunge song. "San Tropez" is short and not much interesting song, influenced by The Kinks, probably. A simple drum give rhythm and piano is Ok. In "Seamus", best notes are given by dogs! I got an idea of a band that uses many animal voices, and I think it would be interesting stuff. I would give a job for lots of animals in my band. So, this track was inspiring to me. Now I came to "Echoes", and I do need to write much about this inspiring piece, the best way of getting into world of this track is to listen to it in the dark and with headphones. All in all, this is solid album, but not masterpiece, in my opinion. My impressions are positive, and I need to conclude that this is album that needs to live through person; this is not for couple of days.

A BIG step forward in Pink Floyd's sound, and one of the premier space rock albums out there. The songwriting duo of Gilmour and Waters had evidently begun flourishing, and you feel like they know what they're doing. Not many songs match the quality of "Echoes", and "One of These Days" is one heck of a good way to kick off an album. I can't call this album a masterpiece since I am not a big fan of "San Tropez" and "Seamus", but overall, Meddle is a worthy piece of work.

For me, "Meddle" is "Echoes". The other tracks on the album serve nothing but filling the time needed to publish the album. I must exclude "One of These Days", which is a rather good track, if not excellent, and it has been played frequently on Pink Floyd's live performances.

But otherwise, the album is all about the awesome progressive phenomenon "Echoes". It is clearly a 5 star song, which has taken a long time to get its final shape and has been named a few different times ("Nothing", "The Son of Nothing", "The Return of the Son of Nothing", "Looking Through the Knothole in Granny's Wooden Leg", "The March of the Dam Busters"). I feel no need to describe this epic, you simply cannot be a serious progressive music fan or collector if you haven't listened Echoes. It's perhaps "the" song many would choose to describe Progressive Rock. An interesting note about it is that Pink Floyd used to cap off their Dark Side of The Moon live performances with Echoes. What a bliss for one who had been present in any of those concerts.

To sum up, "Meddle", as a whole album, doesn't get a 5 stars from me, yet I can't stress enough that any Progressive Rock collection MUST contain the song Echoes. Anyhow, it's an excellent addition to any collection, would have easily been a masterpiece if it were not for the light and shallow songs on the "A" side.

By the way, the artwork on "Meddle" is great in my opinion.

Pink Floyd's Meddle is an amazing album, any way you look at it. It starts off of an amazing track, "One of These Days," one of the only times you'll hear Nick Mason on a Pink Floyd song, but that's not important. What is important, though, is how excellent this first track is. I must admit, though, when I first started listening to this song, I never could really get into it, but now I see it for what it is. A masterpiece. A stunning song to start off with. That song ends, and then you get into "A Pillow of Winds." This song goes off in a completely different direction than "One of These Days." It has more of a bluesy feeling to it, and is airier. While it is fun to listen to, it's still a pretty boring track. That ends and you go into "Fearless," a song that really pulls you in more and more into the album, as opposed to "A Pillow of Winds" which pushed you away more than anything. "Fearless" is a cool song to listen to, and it is interesting to listen to at any time. After this, is "San Tropez," a fun song, which, is like "A Pillow of Winds" in most respects. Then comes "Seamus," the worst track on the album. This song is boring, uninteresting, and barely listenable at points, but gives off a feeling which is essential to this album. This ends, and we come into the real deal of this album. "Echoes." The best Pink Floyd, and arguably the best song ever. This song starts off with only a few pings of the guitar, and develops into a song with amazing lyrics, and morphs into a jam section. Everything from Gilmour's guitar riffs, Waters's funky bassline, some of Wright's best organ work, and Mason's simple, yet amazing drum work, is perfect. They all seem like they are on the same plain of thinking, while recording this song. This song is also amazing live. Anyone who hasn't heard this live should definently hear it as soon as possible. It is great, and is almost spot on to the studio version, which ends on, what feels like a sad note, to me at least, because I know this song is coming to an end. Hard to believe one of the neatest effects on this album (Gilmour's guitar screeching towards the middle of the song) was made by accident one day when he plugged his wah pedal in the wrong way. It's amazing how one mistake could feel so right, which is sort of how this album feels to me. Most songs on it are boring, uninteresting, and downright bad in some cases, but the feel they give off while listening to this album, building up to one of the greatest songs ever, is amazing. Anyone who is interested in prog-rock at ALL should at least hear "Echoes," and once you've heard that, I know you'll want to hear the rest.

When it listens to this disc for the first time was done so fine east to me work, by him working on a device the beauty of its subjects, the game with the experiment, that cosmic trip that create simply with sublime passages, nothing this wasted in this disc, in I see a Roger WATERS explode you limit of its good líricas and compositions, to a Richard simply shining WRIGHT placing sounds in where they must go, shaping atmospheres in the lithosperes, each sound without wasting neither the less appraising the result, to simply spectacular Nick MASON, combining the sounds of its past with the techniques that it has developed with time and clear David GILMOUR that simply I confirm that style that him made famous, that filling of spaces and mixtures created without pair without a doubt this disc that marks the clear confirmation of its predecessor, without a doubt already many people will have listened to this magnifies work of art, which without a doubt it reunites all the elements which they can do of a disc without pair, created and made the reality of a unique work.

By 1971 Pink Floyd had done a good job of distancing itself from the considerable influence of Syd Barrett and started recording albums that better reflected their true identity. England loved them but here in the USA they were still being unfairly lumped into the dubious and suspect category of "acid music" and not being taken seriously yet. However, with this album they finally became more accessible to the masses and the tide began to slowly (but surely) turn in their favor.

The fact that the very first cut, "One of these Days," lent itself well to the still eclectic FM radio stations and, therefore, smoothly migrated into their much-desired heavy rotation was one of the big reasons. Even though it's an instrumental, it has that signature "Pink" sound that invariably draws even the most casual of listeners in. David Gilmore's slide guitar work is all over this album but here it's especially striking. The overriding pulsating guitar effect also sets it apart from the herd, as well. "A Pillow of Winds" meanders a bit here and there but it's still a nice, pleasant tune with more of Gilmore's interesting slide guitar. "Fearless" is an outstanding song with an easy, loping pace that I've always liked. The crowd singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" is so amazing as it drifts in and out along the way, giving the tune a unique quality. Next is an unexpected left turn, "San Tropez," by bassist Roger Waters. It's a little like the Lovin' Spoonful's "Daydream" in texture but it's the tasteful guitar and Richard Wright's cheery piano that really stand out. It's a delightful change of pace. "Seamus" is a hike off the beaten trail, as well. The dogs (literally) sing quite well over the country Dobro and honky-tonk piano and the whole thing has a nonchalant Stones-ish aura to it. The sidelong "Echoes" definitely shows where the band was headed in the future. Starting with what sounds like sonar pings, the guitar and organ take over before long and then the harmony singing begins. There's a definite "Time" (from Dark Side of the Moon) element at work here but not as well defined as in that great song. There's an intriguing lead guitar being played by Gilmore but you have to listen intently as it's buried in the mix. A funkier rhythm propelled by drummer Nick Mason enters and takes us to some cool guitar feedback layered over Wright's tactful organ work. A spacey section follows where it sounds like wind blowing through a huge cavern and tiny creatures screaming. Next is a segment that is reminiscent of "One of these Days" but with the throbbing effect much more subdued. At one point Gilmore constructs a layered, echoing guitar passage that is brief but excellent. The long epic comes full circle with a reprise of the original melody before the whole thing fades away. The clearest way to describe this 23-minute composition is "genuinely psychedelic."

Overall it's a good effort but as a group they weren't quite "there" just yet. However, it's obvious that they were headed for the Promised Land. I'd rate this one a 3.4 on the five-star scale and say all Floyd fans should definitely have it in their collection. "Meddle" reveals a work in progress that would eventually take over the world and find the band becoming a household name.

I always thought the album cover looked like it had a nose on it, but that was looking at it upside down. Although the title "Meddle" can mean nosey. PINK FLOYD were always about creating new paths and discovering new worlds musically.They were the explorers, the leaders not the followers. So as they entered the studio to record this new album they did so not knowing where it would lead. There seemed to be something akin to writers block with the whole band as none of them seemed to have any good ideas. Mike Butcher an engineer at Morgan Studios remembers the sessions there well. "It was like a Monty Python skit, one of them would have an idea, present it to the band and then someone would say "No we can't do that". And that was it, the idea was dead". This went on from 2 pm to 4 am. The material that was gathered from the first "Meddle" sessions at Abbey Road Studios was if anything lacking inspiration. The single biggest inspiration for this whole album came from a single note that Richard Wright had played on his piano through a Leslie speaker. Some of the band were reminded of a sonar pulse. It sounded like it was in the distance. And this idea of space as in outer space rekindled and reminded them of what was once an inspiration even on their debut as in "Intersteller Overdrive" and "Astronomy Domine".

The block was gone and this experience got them excited again about what they were doing and obviously that carried on well into the future. I should mention that while they were recording this, EMI's budget release arm Starline released a compilation album called "Relics" of their earlier work. A positive that came out of this struggle to find inspiration was that the band co-wrote all the tracks.They worked as a team even if Roger Waters was clearly involved in creating each track.

"One Of These Days" is an instrumental with Waters' bass being played through an echo machine, and it sounds amazing ! Wright adds his expertise on the synths as Gilmour lays down some good guitar melodies, including a scorching solo later on while the drums pound away. Can't forget Mason's manipulated vocals either. Gilmour would later state that it was the most collaborative work the band had ever done. What an opener ! "A Pillow Of Winds" is one of my favourites on this record. I just love the way it opens with the wind blowing as acoustic guitar and reserved vocals come in.This song is to me a dreamy song that would be perfect to listen to on a warm, lazy summer's day. "Fearless" features some beautiful guitar and fantastic lyrics. The subject of mental illness would be addressed further on the "Dark Side Of the Moon". "San Tropez" is a fun, upbeat song, with a nice piano melody to end it. "Seamus" is a bluesy number that is both short and silly.

"Echoes" is a side long suite that is truly an epic. This had taken a long time to create as they painstakingly assembled it from small segments. Richard Wright really shines on this song with his synth work as well as his organ play. Mason pounds away methodically, while Gilmour is prominant especially in the jam section. "The song was a monument to the experience that had given rise to it : much as they had done in their earliest experimental pieces, with "Echoes" PINK FLOYD had found a way forward working together". By the way Nick Mason has stated that he didn't think the band could have done "Echoes" without having first done the "Atom Heart Mother" side long suite. It prepared them for "Echoes". And certainly doing "Echoes" prepared them for "The Dark Side Of The Moon". Something to keep in mind for those who dump on FLOYD's earlier albums. These guys kept searching and trying new ideas from album to album, doing what no one else was doing at the time.

This would be their first studio album without Norman Smith helping to produce and while it didn't chart as high as "Atom Heart Mother" it would be their most important record to date. Oh but we all know what was coming next. Up to this album this is my favourite just edging "A Saucerful Of Secrets".

I could write two reviews of this album. Having bought it in the seventies under the influence of blotter and various like substances it actually scared the hell out of me a few times...lol.. so I could write the delusional, bordering on paranoid tripped out schitzophrenic review which back then we believed was a requirement for listening to Pink Floyd. However now living in the real world as opposed to the Syd Barrett(who of course is not on this album)world I can say there is nothing too horrific here. I even get a chuckle out of the "One of these days I am going to chop you into little pieces" line towards the end of of "One of these Days", which I consider along with "Echoes" the meat of the album. The four songs in between these two are pleasant tunes, with the exception of "Seamus" where the music is too low and the dogs too loud(my hound loves this tune) and yes is a little irritating. I really feel as though this album is deserving of 3.5 stars but with better Floyd available I give it the big three because hey why not these guys were capable of bigger and better and that was just coming up in the not to distant future.

"fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd, smiling"

I love that line! Meddle was the soundtrack of a few hazy summer days for me and my pals in our youth. It has much nostalgia value to me but I set that aside for an objective rating.

I find Meddle to be a bit over-rated here and I believe the average star rating would be a full star less were this album the work of a lesser known psych band of the era rather than everyone's favorite, Pink Floyd. While "Pillow of Winds," "Fearless," and half of "Echoes" are very good, and "San Tropez" is nice, I think that "One of these Days" and "Seamus" are both less than classic and frankly a bit juvenile. And a good hunk of Echoes is not exactly up there with Dogs or SOYCD. The mid section is just allowed to drift a bit too long for fans not into the chemical experience. That's not necessarily a bad thing but I would simply question whether making the piece more concise and perhaps using some of those drifting mid moments elsewhere else might not have been even better. I can't put the album on the same level as their masterpieces but do think it is very good overall and a solid piece of their legacy. I think that "A Pillow of Winds" is the standout track on this album and wish they had expanded that piece more. The textures here are just incredible and Gilmour's vocal and guitar are exquisite. As mentioned by a critic in the Meddle "critical review" dvd, Pillow sounds like the band sitting on the banks of the Thames lighting a monster joint. Meddle is a decent spin but below Floyd standards, though some see it as a step on the way to albums like Dark Side through Animals. It has its moments, but lacks the excitement and daring of the albums preceding it, and the gravitas of the albums that would follow it.

It's one of my favorite albums by the Floyd and I recommend this piece of classic proG roCk to anybody who enjoys the sheer rush associated with out of mind teleportation. The songs I enjoy the most are the slicing edge of 'One Of These Days' , the subdued acoustic feel of 'Fearless' and of course the side two (23:29) minute long epic 'Echoes'. This is a great album to bring along to a camping trip as the "transportative" properties of the music are best enjoyed outdoors in a natural setting. Just be careful of your back because 'One Of These Days' ... i'm going to cut you into little pieces.

Meddle is one of the best albums in the Floyd history. Especially, because of Echoes. "Echoes" is an incredible song with musical changes, solos and vocals. I wish Gilmour and Wright sing much more songs together. Their voices are so harmonious and relaxing. "One Of These Days" is also very good song and one of the concert favourites. "Fearless" is a classic song with an impressive acoustic work. The only weak song in the album is "Seamus", because it is a bit pointless and musically not good. Thanks God, it's short. "San Tropez" is also not so good, but it has a nice melody and funny moments.

Meddle is one of several floyd transitional albums, and this marks the change from rambling psychedlia to something more. waters is beginning to display some of the lyrical brilliance that make make him so hard to hate despite his general attitude towards others. Gilmour has fully amalgamated himself into the band and together they start the bal rolling for Floyd

The stunning instrumental "One of These Days" opens the album by gradually building until it reaches its zenith, which it sustains for nearly half the song. "A Pillow of Winds" has a dreamy atmosphere that reflects the title, and for whatever reason it never grabbed a hold of me. "Fearless" picks back up with great lyrics and a better riff. "san Tropez" is another laid back tune that is more enjoyable than Pillow, but "Seamus" is by far the low point of the album.

Then, comes "Echoes." A 23 minute culmination of the band up til this point.It is a stunning tour de force with Waters' best lyrics at the time (and one of the best things he's ever pinned), and incredible instrumental work that alternates between traditional sounds and random bits where synths and Gilmour's guitar mimcik animal sounds ranging from prehistoric birds to whales. The lyrics deal with man's empathy, but various meanings have been derived (take a gander at inpraisoffolly's review for his impressive insights). When sifting through Floyd's impressive catalog to pick their greatest song, this should be somewhere at the top of your list.

Meddle has its ups and downs, and in a way it reminds me of ELP's Tarkus and Rush's 2112, where a stunning epic is supplmented by several shorter tracks that cannot hope to compare to it. However, Meddle, like 2112, has shorter songs of a higher quality than that on Tarkus. Every fan of Floyd should pick this up for the first and last tracks, but I'm sure quite a few would love the whole album. Highly recommended.

Grade: B

I want to give this album 5 stars, but for some reason I just can't. This is a great album, but it just isn't quite as classic as Pink Floyd's later output. So, on to to the songs. "One of These Days" is a very driving fast song. I'm not sure what kind of song it would be called, but it is very good. The main instrument in this song is a bass, but there were actually two basses being played for some times, but there were some keyboard and guitar harmonics. But the bass is the most powerful instrument in this song. It is a very good song. "A Pillow of Winds" is a nice acoustic song written by the drummer Nick Mason. It is a nice song and is very melodious and pretty. I think it is the weakest song on the album, but it is still very good. "Fearless" is my favorite song on the A-side of this album. The riff played by Waters on the guitar is amazing and gets stuck in my head very easily. I love the lyrics and Gilmour's vocals are amazing. "San Tropez" is a very good beach song with relaxing piano and vocals. I love the imagery created from the lyrics and the music. Wherever San Tropez is, it sounds like a great tropical place. "Seamus" is a pure blues output. I love the idea of the dog singing along with the music and the blues tune is very catchy.

Echoes. What else is there to say. From the beginning B to the end, this song is amazing. I love the atmosphere that Wright creates with his keyboards and Gilmour's bluesy guitar. Also the lyrics and vocals are just amazing. I don't know exactly what the words mean, but I can almost feel what they mean. Sort of. I can't describe it without sounding insane so I'll just say I love the words and vocals. I love the instrumental part towards the middle of the song. Waters' bass just drives right through while Gilmour plays the guitar alongside of it, and after an instrumental build, it is back to the final chorus. Quite possibly my favorite song by Pink Floyd.

Meddle is something of a flawed masterpiece. Its highs are so incredibly good it's baffling, but it has lows. You want to like it more then you actually do. Meddle is the transition album of the Pink Floyd catalogue, still retaining some of the psycadelia (One Of These Days, Echoes) while having a truly prog feel to the finished product.

The First Song on the record, One Of These Days, is an instrumental (except for one line "One of these days I'm going to cut you to pieces, done in a voice that sounds something like a stoned cookie monster), is one of Floyd's greatest. It rocks, rolls, and tumbles till a wind effect transitions into A Pillow of Winds. This is a nice relaxed acoustic piece. Not bad really, but it is nothing compared to One Of These Days. Fearless the third song on the album, is a forgotten gem of the early 70's. Another acoustic piece of work, but is not as laid back and performed better. From there the last quarter of side A has 2 short songs. There is the alright jazzy piece San Tropez, and the throwaway blues song Seamus. Seamus is what's keeping meddle from the 5 from me. Now, the side long suite echoes comes on. Echoes is a masterpiece. No song is quite like it. There are general parts, the opening beeps and boops, fist vocal section, a funky jam like part, some screams and spaced out stuff in the middle, second vocal, and wind effect fade out. Maybe Floyd's best track (has to compete with Time and Sheep for me).

Meddle is an album you are better off having. Its flaws are very noticeable, but its strengths carry the album well.

Meddle was a groundbreaking work for Pink Floyd, chiefly because of the amazing 23+ minute Echoes featuring some of the most wonderful guitar experimentation ever done. Gilmour was a genius on this instrument and Echoes showcases some of the most unusual sounds ever produced by one. Pure space music. The section with the soaring echoed parts and wind will take you off to some far-off unexplored planet. Gilmour also makes effective use of delay, a precursor to much of what he did on The Wall and possibly one of the earliest uses of this technique to make this sound (maybe Hillage did it first?).

In addition to the side-long track, the group puts together five short tracks for side A of the album, starting off with the driving instrumental One of These Days, one of their most popular tracks and concert favorites. A Pillow of Winds, Fearless, and San Tropez are also great songs with San Tropez being a piano-driven lounge-like song. The only weak track is Seamus, which is slow and lazy featuring dog barks and howling. A far cry from their future release of Animals; here it's just filler.

With or without Seamus, Meddle is easily a five-star masterpiece, chiefly because of Echoes. Highly recommended and a great place to start if you haven't heard any of the group's pre-Dark Side material.

This album has a special place in my collection; it was my father's favorite Pink Floyd album, and so it was probably the very first prog-rock album I had ever listened to.

Each song is a small gem in it's own right, and "Echoes" is a masterpiece.

The song, "One of these Days" opens up the album with an extremely ominous bass-line (Actually, there are two basses playing at the same time). From then on, the song builds up momentum, culminating in "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces." and then erupting into an exhilarating guitar and organ driven section, before ending with one last ringing note on the organ. I rate the song 9/10.

Next comes the soft and sad ballad, "A Pillow of Winds". The lap steel guitar is prominent in this song. Fittingly, Gilmour has much lilt in his voice. The lyrics of course describe the relaxation of sleep, and also love to a certain extent. It's a beautiful song. (9/10)

The soaring riff at the beginning of "Fearless" is simply some of the best guitar work that the Floyd have ever done. As always, Gilmour's singing fits the bill, at once soothing and powerful. The lyrics depict bravery and individuality, as the title suggests. "Fearlessly, the idiot faced the crowd, smiling....and who's the fool who wears the crown?" (10/10)

Up next, we kick back and chill out with "San Tropez". The Floyd's little foray into lounge rock has a very catchy tune, and it's almost impossible not to sing along once you know the lyrics. There's also a nice piano solo (probably some of Rick Wright's most orthodox stuff). (9/10)

"Seamus" can be seen (and probably is seen) as the musical low of Meddle, but it's not a bad song in it's own right. A very mellow blues song, this song also features some excellent piano playing, as well as a catchy opening line ("I was in the kitchen...Seamus, that's the dog, was outside..."). The song is short, which is a good thing; there's only so much Wright's piano-playing skills can do to make the track better. (7/10)

Finally. Here we go... Pink Floyd's magnum opus has been, and always will be, "Echoes". "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" may have the interesting synths, but "Echoes" simply leaves "Shine On" behind lyrically and musically (I'm not saying "Shine On" is bad. Far from it. It's just that "Echoes" is better). The song starts with the radar-like organ, which, to me, sounds almost expectant; waiting. The opening lyrics are classic ("Overhead, the albatross hangs motionless upon the air..."), giving the immediate image of time stopping. The riff that Waters' accused Andrew Lloyd Webber of stealing enters in after the first verse, with its rising and falling. There are a few stages to the song. The first and second have already been described. The third is a steady melody that seems almost mainstream, which in turn fades into a guitar shrieking eerily in the silence. After that, the radar blip organ returns, followed by the rest of the lyrics, thus completing the cycle. Absolutely fantastic. (10/10)

For pre-Dark Side of the Moon, it doesn't get any better than this.

This is my favorite pre Dark Side album. I love almost every song on this album. One of these Days is an amazing song. (the only song with Nick Mason speaking) Echoes is truely a wonderful peice of music. This song makes the album. If echoes was not on Meddle it would only be a two or three star album. The only song on this album I dont like is San Tropez. This song just rubs me the wrong way.

Definately the big evolutionary point in Floyd's career, Meddle is a fantastic album that introduces Pink Floyd's new sound that they just touched on with earlier albums.

The track most people will obviously recognize is Echoes, an epic, beautiful, and damn near perfect song. Its 24 minutes of bitter sweat melody that leads us down a road of haunting effects and universal wonder. An amazing song to stare at the stars to. Gilmour does a fantastic job with the guitar work and all parts are woven together beautifully.

The opener, One of These Days, is a bass-heavy space-rocker that is one of Pink Floyd's darkest songs, but definately one to blast on a good sound system, or with headphones.

A Pillow of Winds is almost the exact opposite of One of These Days, its a smooth beautiful track that never rises above a whisper, enticing second by second.

Fearless is the second best song on Meddle, its an epic track about fools doing stupid things. A great song that builds on itself to a strange last minute.

San Tropez, while being a great song, doesn't fit in very well. Its a lazy jazz, acoustic driven song with light-hearted lyrics and great form, it just doesn't quite fit in.

Seamus is a strange little blues/slide song that can get stuck in your head for a long time.... that is, unless, you listen to Echoes, during which you may be transported to the beyond....

a great Floyd album which signals the beginning of their greatest album releases.

(Seamus, that's the 3.5)

Meddle was, of course, the album that shows the Floydsters FINALLY pulling themselves from out of Syd's shadow, and figuring out exactly what they wanted to do for the next decade. Gone are the experimentations with post-psychedelia, orchestral suites, and mindless avant-garde tuning. The Floyd formula is in place, a pleasant mesh of all of those elements (sort of psychedelic-art-pop, with an edge). And in that way, this album is even more revolutionary than Piper At the Gates of Dawn.

...Okay, I'm [&*!#]ting you, I've NEVER heard any Pink Floyd albums before this one. However, I have glanced at some histories of the band, read some liner notes for Division Bell, and downloaded a "Wish You Were Here" ringtone, and I THINK that that makes me qualified to be a Floyd historian...I also own Barrett, but that's another review I guess.

Meddle contains arguably the worst opener of all time: "One of These Days," the ULTIMATE Pink Floyd song, in my opinion. The Floyd never got finer than this, an absolutely melody-less piece (I couldn't hum the tune if you put a gun to my head, save for a few slide guitar riffs) of pure, hard rockin' mayhem.

It starts slowly, the instruments unsurely meshing with each other. Then, it drops off for just a little while with some furious bass pounding, the track's infamous only line is uttered, and then it's a free for all, everyone playing their respective guts out. Truly amazing. And at the end, it all falls back to wherever the hell it all came from. Freaky, the whole damn thing. So what makes it so horrible you ask? Well, it's horrible because the album NEVER lives up to it. Tries though, gotta give it that.

But not for a while; ballad "A Pillow of Winds" is awful. A largely tuneless bore, the lyrics are okay, but why all that noodling? What, is this supposed to be lullaby-esuqe? It's putting me to sleep. "Fearless" is a better, if overlong, acoustic number. The tune is good, pleasant even. I like the descending riff; still wonder if those footballer noises were necessary though.

The lazy lil' "San Tropez" is actually a really fun number. Once the Floydsters crawl off their serious pedestal, the album gets a lot better! Well, a little at least. The tune itself is no great shake, but the lyrics are hilarious, the guitar solo is pretty solid, and I swear that the piano at the end is Rick's finest hour. Heh. And then there's "Seamus," obviously designed to be the set piece of the album. At less than two minutes, it's a furious example of nicely-if-not-astonishingly played, dog-based blues.

Of course, if you've got a short number, and you're listening to a prog album, odds are you've got an epic REAL close to it, and...OH! There's "Echoes!" "Echoes" is, of course, the very good, but still very overrated, epic that encompasses side two of Meddle. It's overrated because parts of it are horrible, in fact, some of the worst on the album. However, it's good because some of the best material on the album is here too (very "Supper's Ready" that).

Take the opening movement...well, actually, it's probably the second movement. This sucker supposedly contains about six million and twenty-two musical themes. I hear four or so. What? "Think Like a Brick" is WAY more complex than this thang.

Alright, alright, Floyd not Tull, sheesh...the first movement sounds like a bunch of silly twanging. However, it actually sets up a very nice, very cold, watery atmosphere (I call this movement "That Opening Part," or, "The Cold, Watery Part" on a good day). Then, when the actual SONG begins, it's really quite good ("Echoes"). I love the lyrical imagery, and I love the guitar solo that follows. One of Dave's best, actually.

But then, then it all turns into this ridiculous, crappy, funky organ solo (which I call, "Crappy, Funky Organ Solo"). What's up with that? I mean, on its own, it's not that bad, but it just lasts FOREVER! What, were they, competing with Iron Butterfly? And if you thought it couldn't get any worse, it magically transforms into this really stupid sound collage. Everyone tells me those are supposed to be whales, but it just sounds a bunch of doggies ("Dog Noises"). Sick doggies. VERY sick doggies. I guess it works from a freaky point of view, what with the screaming and the crow noises (okay, crows AND whales? Now you're [&*!#]ting ME), but why does that part have to be so long?

Luckily, the lads are clever enough to pull us out of this with some bass trickery (which is also too long, but definitely more tolerable), a movement which I have dubbed "One of These Days Part 2," because, well, it sounds like "One of These Days." Then we get back to the main theme ("Echoes Pt. 2"), and then it all fades like it started. Good one lads, way to destroy a hopefully good song, then redeem yourselves slightly at the end. That's just what you did with the whole album.

And, all in all, it should be a fairly average album. I mean, "San Tropez" and "Seamus" ARE both filler, however pleasant and amusing they may be. And, c'mon, TWO ballads? No one thinks of ballads when they think of the Floyd! And one of them sucks too...

However, the better moments of "Echoes," and definitely "One of These Days" pull it out of that; the album is hardly essential, but any fan of the Floyd NEEDS that song. Unfortunately though, I think that that's the point. Does anyone feel like the lads wanted to do "Echoes" really, REALLY badly, so they cobbled together a first side? Thank God we got the first track out of that...

And, uh, that pretty much sums up the entire album in a nutshell. Pretty much all the emotional resonance, the sparkling musicianship, and the best material is located in the first track and the first (second?) movement of "Echoes." The two filler numbers are fun, and the two ballads are unnecessary at best, boring at worst.

You know what, I'm sorry, I'm listening to the album again. "San Tropez" is clearly the best song here. Screw that dreadful "One of" thing, THIS is the finest Floyd number...okay, maybe not, but it's better than "Echoes," right?

The Ultimate Lava Lamp Album. This album has a very dreamy feel throughout and, apart form the first track, is very laid back and calm.

All musicians shine here, Waters especially laying down some great bass lines, and Wright pours a lot of atmosphere into the music.

'One of These Days' is an intense instrumental, which is almost danceable(!) This is quite an acomplished composition, and very inventive, especially for that day and age. 'Pillow of Clouds' contrasts this by being extremely laid back. A nice song but nothing more. 'Fearless' is better, although I don't really see the point of the football fan vocals at the end, they don't seem to fit with the otherwise tranquil mood. 'San Tropez' is a great song, with some humourous psychedelic lyrics. 'Seamus' is novel, but again robs from the tranquil mood, but it's a bit of light relief before this album's masterpiece...

'Echoes', The Floyd's longest composition I believe, and truly a phenomenal one. This is a very ambient song, and while listening you can really loose yourself as you immerse yourself in the underwater sounds, and float away into another world (and you don't even need to be smoking anything, but I guess it helps ;-) It has some vocal sections, with very good lyrics, and then the instrumental bit has both musical parts, and parts made up of ambient noises, put together in a structured manner. Obviously the undisputable highlight of this album.

If all the music was like 'One of These Days' and 'Echoes'. This would be a 5 star album, but the rest, while being mostly good, and carrying a positive mood, lets the record down a bit. 3.4 stars.

With this album PINK FLOYD signal they are through their transitional, post-BARRETT period and have formed their own unique sound.

'Meddle' and the next album, the OST 'Obscured By Clouds' showcase this new sound: simpler, less pretentious and virtually effect-free, with very little remaining from their psychedelic era. 'Echoes' aside, their compositions are relatively short and of a standard rock structure, with verses, choruses and bridges. I ascribe this to the rise of GILMOUR's influence in the band: he gets his first meaningful vocal load on these two albums, and his guitar features far more strongly, taking over from RICK WRIGHT's keyboards as the main melodic driver.

It is important to consider this album in the context of its immediate predecessor, 'Atom Heart Mother'. That album had a side-long symphonic prog piece, with an opening theme, a funky section, a psych freakout and climactic close - as does 'Meddle'. It also had a side of more orthodox soft rock songs, as does 'Meddle'. I see 'Meddle' as an attempt to re-do 'Atom Heart Mother' without the overambitious encumbrance of the orchestra. For many people the result is an improvement: certainly the sound is more accessible and far 'rockier'. For me, however, it falls some way short of AHM's brilliance.

I will say this about the excellent 'Echoes'. From the first sonar ping, the sole remnant from an unrecorded project, the song has an energy missing from PINK FLOYD's studio work since their debut album. And in the section immediately following the second verse, they write their first really dynamic rock piece, a genuinely strong and powerful section that blazes through the speakers. The funky section is an improvement on 'Funky Dung' from AHM, but clearly derivative of it. The only negative for me is the length of the psych freak-out 'cawing birds' section of the track: half the length would have been more than enough.

I'm far from impressed by the first side of 'Meddle'. Of course, 'One of These Days' is excellent, a rock take on their psychedelic days, and a pointer to what they'd become: the combination of driving rock and special effects presages albums like 'Animals' and 'The Wall'. The rest of the album consists of gentle blues/rock, with GILMOUR at the helm. These tracks are fine on their own without being outstanding, but the genius of latter-day PINK FLOYD was to take simple song structures and invest them with meaning by the use of samples, solos and segues (the three S's of PINK FLOYD music). None of these four tracks feature the three S's (save 'Fearless' which has the Anfield faithful sending their own 'fearless' message, and the wind segue between the first two tracks).

Both GILMOUR and MASON saw this album as the emergence of the modern PINK FLOYD (Nick Mason, Inside Out), as do many of their fans. I believe their signature sound was already evidenced on 'Atom Heart Mother' - MASON'S fills, GILMOUR's guitar and so on, as well as the symphonic/space-rock song structure - but it was obscured by the choir and orchestra. This album is, in my view, AHM II, and the loss of the embellishments means, for me, this is a lesser effort. I'll happily admit that my taste is perhaps not that of the majority, for whom my ratings for this and AHM could be reversed.

For those of you who have only heard the famous FLOYD albums, you'll enjoy this one. I'd encourage you to go back one further and try 'Atom Heart Mother' as well. Just don't expect the acidic, petulant lyrics and themes of the late 70s. Instead you'll get contemplative, pastoral music with some rockier moments. And there's a beauty here sorely missing from the WATERS-dominated albums.

It is with the album Meddle that Pink Floyd begin to define their mature sound. Not a concept album either in character or in construction, this recording showcases a number of extraordinary musical statements that are stylistically quite diverse and which highlight the versatility of the band before they got locked into Roger Waters' box or angst and cynicism. One of These Days starts with great effect with Roger Waters' ostinato and amplified base with splashes of keyboard coloring by Wright building initially around one note, then one chord, ultimately with Gilmour's acidic guitar added to the fray. The party really gets rolling though with the explosive drumming entry by Mason and the spoken vocal line "One of these Days....etc." after which all hell breaks loose. In summary, the piece is like a musical analogy to a fit of rage ending with cutting the subject of your anger up into little pieces :-) . Then, having done that, a sudden feeling of calm and relief fills the air and your body with A Pillow of Winds. What an emotional and physical release and what a contrast of moods! A Pillow of Winds starts just like the title sounds, with the effect of a whooshing wind blowing through the room. A cloud of eider down draws around me softening the sound.... WOW! It is a dreamy, calm and somewhat slow moving piece with some tasteful melancholy guitar work by Gilmour and a lovely vocal. Next comes Fearless, a somewhat folksy sounding song with beatiful harmonies--- it ends interestingly with a crowd singing the popular British anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone" though only God and Pink Floyd know why. Saint Tropez is a lightweight upbeat somewhat jazzy/bluesy little ditty that highlights some pretty but not technically difficult 'lounge piano' from Richard Wright, and light bluesy play by Gilmour on guitar with Waters and Mason keeping things rhythmically grounded in a cohesive but not particularly special fashion. Seamus is a lightweight tongue-in-cheek blues number that is enjoyable but far from a major musical statement. It's filler, although as filler goes, it's pretty good. Now side two of the vinyl, the 23 minute long epic Echoes. The piece build around the highly unusual harmonic and timbral qualities of one overamplified note on Richard Wright's piano and builds slowly and progressively into a tour de force, initially around Wright's keyboarding and then gradually with the addition of Gilmour's crying guitar. Vocals with evocative lyrics are added (though later there is an unabashed lift from the Beatles' Across the Universe). The strong vocals and the underlying keywork by Wright are highlights. Then, there is a long instrumental break where every band member shines before the reprise. This is a powerhouse cut and one of the most memorable of all their pieces. The lightweight, no sting character of Saint Tropez and Seamus are the only findings on this album that prevent it from being a true masterpiece. This recording heralds the greatness that was to lie ahead (though not immediately ahead- we still have Obscured by Clouds to muddle through). Meddle rates 4 stars.

Yes, good album. One Of These Days and Echoes need no comments, and it is about 2/3 of this album, which makes it 4 star album. Other songs are not so good, but A Pillow Of Winds and Fearless make this album a 5 star album, I think it's objective. Seamus is not the song, it is 2-minutes joke, and doesn't have any influence on ranking. San Tropez... The worst album song (except Seamus), but one day I got fine listening to it. :) But this song isn't good, as I think. But 2/3 of masterpieces, 1/4 of good songs - it is 11/12 of good material, so I give 5 stars to it.

I like the warmth of this album. It relay should have been named "A pillow of winds", after a track. It's like a pillow, warm and cuddly. It suits me the most to listen to this album while I'm in my bed, or around it. Pyjama prog, the finest example.

Excuse me; pyjama rock. I don't consider PINK FLOYD to be a (very) prog rock band, certainly not on this album. But this is rock of high quality. And there are some other things, much more relevant then a technical quality.

The opening track is closest to prog, that's all you have to know, because you already know everything else. So I will skip it in my review, although I like it a lot and I think its historical significance should be more renowned. The Floyds are most of the time overrated, but when they are great, they don't get enough recognition.

A self-titled track (cuddly album version) is enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. "Fearless" is enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. Actually it's not guitar sliding, it's more like a solo on a chorus. It's a bit folksy (not to say country 'n' western) + meditative. "Saint Tropez" is enjoyable rock tune...if you consider CREAM's "Four Until Late" or "Wrapping Paper" rock songs. But it has some guitar sliding. "Seamus" is enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. Honestly. Go pay attention to acoustic guitar. But who listens to guitar when the dog is singing? Forget the sentence at the beginning of the paragraph: this is the closest thing to prog on this album - if you think about a concept of music in general, and only human beings as capable of doing and appreciating art...and we have a dog here as a performer. Cool. By the way, it's not a rock tune unless you consider that form a slow rock , which is something else. The word "blues" is stolen today for something entirely else.

Side B contains a side-long "Echoes", a really enjoyable rock tune. It is not an epic (because PINK FLOYD are not prog band), it's a bunch of ordinary (yet enjoyable) rock songs glued together with some hilarious seagull calls and scary atmospheric sounds. Performed with a guitar sliding. And a sexy funky middle part. (The solo is missing, but don't blame a non-prog band for that.)

So, in general what do we have here:

1. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. 2. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. 3. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. 4. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. 5. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. 6. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding. 7. Enjoyable rock tune with some guitar sliding.

What's wrong with this album. Is it THAT boring?!?

No. Actually it's, as you may guess it, enjoyable. As far as the eclecticism goes, we have a scary space rock as an opener, tune or two of good straightforward rock, a blues piece, a side-long suite and a jazzy one (music hall?). Quite diverse. And do not forget, all the tracks are good. Really. Some people complain about the "Seamus", I don't have a clue why, unless they're Irish.

This album contains six tracks, but I got carried away with copy and paste, the one of the most useful things of 20th century.

I would like to say a thing or two about evolving of the band, about the transition between the two periods and so forth, but why bother? It's obvious that I like this album quite a lot. Actually, it's one of my favourites from the band of which I don't have very high opinion (regardless of yes-prog non-prog nonsense).

So, if by some cosmical coincidence you are reading this and you don't own the album, get it. It's enjoyable, with some guitar sliding.

This is perhaps the most overrated album I have ever heard of, one of the worst albums I've ever listened to. Awful from beginning to end, showing childish musicianship and song construction, at its best (the opener), Meddle is below mediocre, and at its worst (Echoes), vomitable. Echoes is so boring that it saps years off of your life expectancy, the muscial equivalent of the Machine from the Princess bride. Listening for Gilmour solo badly with no technique for what feels like a millenium over the same uninteresting bass riff is not what I would call entertainment. And don't get me started on Mason's laughable efforts on the drums. Simply despicable.

Amazing. Floyd's first masterpiece, and one of many to come. They are one of the few bands who can create more than one, and they created 5. One of these Days opens the album with some mysterious bassage and builds slowly into a great jam, with some great guitar work from gilmour. Pillow of winds is a great folky tune alternating between minor and major sections, with the slide guitar ever present in the background. It seems, on this song, that Waters and Gilmour have finally found their voices with which they will sing their tales of woe and hate. Fearless is a bluesy song, i dont know how they make it work, but its great. ending with some crowd noises. San tropez is another bouncy, bluesy song that sounds like it might have come off a beatles album, but with slightly lower voices singing it. the piano perfectly augments the acoustic sound. Again, nice slide guitar. Seamus is more acoustic bluesy things, you wouldnt think floyd would be able to make it work, but they do somehow. the dog barking in the background is a nice touch. and now, ECHOES. Floyd's best song by far, even bettering Shine On. Building very slowly into a masterful song, it starts with just some binging radar noises. Gilmour slowly leads them in, eventually getting into a riff that appears to be the main theme from Phantom of the Opera, but expanded on massively. When the singing comes in, it could not be better. it makes me very sad, and at the same time blows me away. Of course, there are long sections for Gilmour and Wright to solo, followed by a reprise of the vocal section. this song fluctuates moods so much its amazing.

Overall, I know this seems pretentious of me, but Floyd is amazing, and they have 4 more masterful albums to come.

Pink Floyd's MEDDLE straggles the line between a superb album and a masterpiece. Surely side 2 of the LP covered the entire groove with the 23min31 epic entitled 'Echoes'. For the inquisitive ; I was heavily into 'The Wall' during the end of 1985 - from then on it was everything 'Floyd'. At the local Video shop was 'Live At Pompeii' for hire - me, thinking that it was Floyd performing 'The Wall' I got my Dad to hire it out. I wasn't to know that the Pompeii video was from 71/72 and not 1979/80, as was 'The Wall'. I was greeted with the most amazing music I've ever heard with 'Echoes' (Part 1, the first half) - I just didn't know what it was I was hearing....It was from this performance I knew that the Bass Guitar was the instrument for me - Roger Waters was so confident, self profound and adequate on the instrument it totally blew me away enough to go out and purchase a Bass Guitar. Nothing too complex, but so tasteful and effective it didn't really occur to me that music can be complicated and incredibly clever. Moving on, I received 'Meddle' (on Cassette) as a Birthday gift and listened to it religiously for weeks, months even.... this, after intense analysis over a period of time, became an extremely nostalgic album and something of a 'comparison' for all music I listened to thereafter. Side 1 of the record opened with the superb instrumental - 'One of these Days' - some multi-tracked Bass-guitar (complete with 'Delay' effects) kick off an incredible composition which no other band have equalled ever since. It is Drummer Nick Mason who yells out a distorted vocal line 'One Of These Days I'm Going To Cut You Into Little Pieces'. This intense track leads into a tastefully mellow song 'A Pillow Of Winds' - complete with Fretless Bass playing (Gilmour, no doubt) but so 'warm' and likeable that no-one should dislike this tune. 'Fearless' follows with a catchy riff and accessible song - difficult to put into words but it does interpolate the Rogers/Hammerstein classic 'You'll Never Walk Alone' (one for the Soccer fanatics) and then followed by the Burt Bacharach-like 'San Tropez' (as I've read somewhere) which offers some jazzy piano playing from keyboardist Richard Wright. The side is finished off with 'Seamus' - a blues tune designed to get your pet dog wailing along to - quite experimental and amusing, but not something many listeners would see the point of. 'Echoes' is a progressive-rock masterpiece if there ever was one. How to compose a catchy tune and extend it over a lengthy period of time without losing the listener's attention - this is (partially) what it's all about, and Mason/Waters/Gilmour/Wright succeed no end in doing so. I give it 4.5 stars, as they have achieved consistently stronger moments throughout their career.

I made a pretty bold statement just a moment ago when I maintained that Atom Heart Mother was a more attractive epic to me than Echoes on this release Meddle. There will always be some people that agree with that but I feel a larger number of prog and Floyd fans will disagree. Maybe we should make a poll about it in the forum, hmmm...

Anyway, same as on the 1970 album also on this successor from a year later the epic is the main track clearly. But contrary to the earlier album I feel that on Meddle the shorter songs have more substance and more variation. First track One of these Days already proves that in my opinion. An energetic and interesting instrumental, very catchy and one of the bands favourites at live gigs. Very suitable for those I believe. A Pillow of Winds is more like what they produced on Atom Heart Mother with the shorter tracks. A quiet song with nice instrumental parts. Fearless is a bit more monotonous but still it sounds really nice with Liverpool FC supporters at the end obviously. San Tropez is a pretty accessible track, almost poppy more like typical sixties music (except for the jazzy end). Not bad but nothing special. Seamus is the shortest song here and dogsounds are the original feature here. Nice laid back little tune.

Echoes is a classic of course. And with my earlier statement I don't want to degrade this one into a poor effort by any means. But it's not as superb to me as it as to many others. The reason is the lack of impressive melodies that were to be found on the earlier epic but are absent here. Ok, some melody in the first half but it's not really captivating in my opinion (the second quarter of the track is by far the best but then again the only really great of all four). Instead of it it's more dragging along and many parts are more experimental and less psychedelic than on AHM. Or to put it in other words: it's simply less suited for my personal taste since I'm usually not too keen on experimental music. For many it's the main feature in progressive rock. If that is so then maybe I'm just a half progger because I'm not waiting for these experiments without harmonic melody. So no enjoyment for me with Echoes, it's also a bit boring if I compare it with their other famous epics.

All things put together result in a three star rating with the adjustment that it's just my opinion. I know it's an aberration but it's really how I feel. Still a very good album objectively and I do even understand if people consider it a masterpiece. Four stars seems the most likely outcome but I'll leave it at three.

A truly great album. One of Pink FLoyd's finest. I loved every minute of it.

The album starts with One of these days, starting the album in Floyd's customary way of slowly leading in the album, both in speed and dynamics. After some wind sound affects to build tension, the main bass riff comes in. Kind of repetetive, but still good none the less. There is also their usual synth effects. After a while the guitar comes in with some nice distortion that really adds to the song. Then it goes into a really cool effect on the bass line which just leaves me going, YES! Pretty awesome. A demonic voice comes in saying, One of these days, I will cut you into little pieces. Rather dark. We have some more of the same, and then the song ends, leading into the next track, A Pillow of Winds.

A Pillow of a wind is one of Floyd's only really quite love songs. A drastic change from a demonic voice telling me that it's going to cut me into tiny pieces. It's quite, sad, and relaxing. Very soothing instrument and vocal effects. Over all, a good piece. This leads us into one of their finest moments as a group, the song Fearless.

Fearless is my favorite song on side one. The beginning starts with the main riff. A strong choir of male voices can softly be heard in the background. The main vocals come in. We go through the song enjoying it immensley. It's very easy to get this song stuck in your head. I often find myself singing it. It's great both as background music, or something you can really just sit down and listen to intently. Very soothing. As we near the end, the music starts fading, and we hear the same choir singing that sang in the beginning. A strange ending, but somehow fitting. The next song on the album is San Tropez.

It begins with a peppy guitar riff. Shortly after, the vocals come in with a catch first line, As I reach for a peach. I kind of lose track of the lyrics after that. Sounds pretty happy though. There's an accousitc piano playing in the back. Over all, just very happy and peppy. Catchy too. The song on the album I listen to the least though. Quite enjoyable. This brings us to the next song, Seamus.

I did some research, and I found that Seamus is actually the name of the dog that is heard baying and howling during the song. In fact he is listed on the vocals as Seamus the Dog. That made me laugh. This is a sort of mock blues. Not too bad, but the dog can get pretty annoying at times. It's all worth for Seamus the Dog though. Ha. Good for all of you blues fans, but probably my leasy favorite on the album.

After this we approach side two. This side consists of one epic. Echoes. My favorite of the album. Although this is too long to detail out in full, suffice to say that it is a master piece in my eyes. It fits the band's usual style of randomness and just overall psychadelicness. I love every second of it, and have a feeling of sadness when it ends, yet it leaves me fullfilled as it slowly fades out with just the perfect timing and everything else needed to end both an epic song, and album. A master piece.

Meddle is a mixture of great tracks (ONE OF THESE DAYS; ECHOES), good ones (FEARLESS) and songs I don't care about (the rest). I always put side 2 of my vinyl version on the turntable first. To have Echoes first is just great - and best of all - you got the howling dog of SEAMUS last which I find most fitting as an ending to this amicable record. Although the Floyd hammer out a 23 minute opus the whole album is lacking the pretentiousness we have to suffer on later recordings (especially WYWH, The Wall and Final Cut). Maybe I like it because it's the last of PF's outings I can find humour in (the dog, the crowd at the football stadium). Echoes was a small step for man but a giant leap for Pink Floyd. If side 1 were as good as side 2 this would have been an immortal album. so it's 4 well-earned stars.

Almost perfect - still one song I don't like, Seamus, which is from far the shortest track, but I can't give 5 stars to this album because of these 2,15 minutes. So, 4 stars.

The remainder (the 5 other songs) is perfect, really. From the instrumental opening One Of These Days (which contains at last one single lyric line, 'One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces', sang by Nick Mason) to the long and wonderful Echoes (all of the second side, more than 23 minutes). My favorite ? Not Echoes, even if it's a masterpiece itself. No, my favorite is San Tropez, a funny and jazzy song, performed by Waters. Anyway, I agree that it's not the album's best track, but it's my favorite.

One of the most important Pink Floyd albums. Highly recommended.

Pink Floyd has always been ahead of it's time with sound and production. For 1971, I find Meddle a masterpiece of psychedelic rock with great compositions and diversity, and a great balance between euphoria and anxiety. There are five tracks in total each one sliding from numbness to relaxation, almost encouraging you to dance but only to end up with a huge echo.

One of These Days is a typical Pink Floyd track, you can recognise it from a mile off. Synthesised keys create this, how to call it, almost underwater acoustic environment that is at any point ready to explode. When this happens, the conventional instruments start playing their sets out of which I dare put emphasis on the two guitars that communicate very well using scratchy riffs. Pink Floyd is a very influential band which is why I shall point out what bands followed the same musical approach. In this case I would name Riverside.

A Pillow of Winds really takes off with a melodic assembly of acoustic guitars. The voice is candid as usual. Just the kind of track you often hear on Porcupine Tree albums such as Lightbulb Sun.

The next song, Fearless, continues the softness line of the previous one, only this time you are so far high in the sky you cannot see the ground any more.

San Tropez, with it's jazzy piano and country style acoustic guitar, kind of a makes me dance around. It's amazing how a simple song like this one (there is absolutely nothing special about any of the patters of any instrument and the entire assembly is as common as it gets, I wouldn't even mention the piano solo) can impress this much.

Seamus is more like an interlude that has a country style, actually being of a more old-fashioned one than San Tropez.

After three songs of relaxation, the band decides to close the circle by returning to the melancholic style of the first track, proposing a very abstract piece of music - Echoes. Although long, it's not boring at all, but slow and profound and the sound twists it's self creating multiple types of atmosphere. What comes after is more likely experimental than psychedelic but it never leaves the roots of what Pink Floyd is known for behind.

This was my first Pink Floyd album, I enjoyed it from the start and in spite the fact that I like it very much, 5 stars would be inappropriate. Except Echoes there seems to be too much simplicity in the other four tracks.

Meddle is one of my Floyd favorites... I really like the atmosphere on this album and I really love every tune on it (even Seamus... love that little experiment).

One Of These Days is a killer opening tune and it's very different to the rest of the album. In general I think this is Rick's best album and especially his sound is awesome. His hammond on this track is simply one of the greatest sounds I have ever heard! And I love the way the song builds up.

A Pillow Of Winds, Fearless, San Tropez and Seamus I put in kinda the same catagory. They are all more relaxed and not so sound experimental. I think all 4 of those are lovely and they really contribute to the mood of the album which I really like.

Echoes is hard to describe... in my book it is one of the best musical pieces ever written and recorded... it is simply pure magic. There is really no part of this track that I don't love, so I wont get into the song at all I guess... I think it speaks for itself. I relly like the version on Live At Pompeii... great to see those 4 guys performing it. And also the version Gilmour (and Wright etc.) performed in 2006 was jaw-droppingly. It was with no doubt the highlight of the show I saw in London and acccording to the rest of the crowd they agreed. It was the moment when you could close your eyes and everything was perfect. The sounds, the lights.... it was truly (I guess) just like hearing the real deal with Mason and Roger back in the day!

Hmm what else to be said.... I really like the cover. it's great that you can't see what it is until you fold it all out, and it is really different from most of their other album artwork.

Review 64, Meddle, Pink Floyd, 1971

StarStarStarStar

My first real step (aside from one early, and preferably forgotten, expedition. A rather unfortunate Teutoberg Forest-style incident) into the nebulous world of reviewing Pink Floyd comes with the album that widely seems to be regarded as the start of their classic period. While I think there was a lot of merit, certainly, in the preceding Atom Heart Mother, and there are certainly many admirers of the early psychedelic stuff (I've yet to delve into this, since Floyd is relatively expensive), the view is understandable as the product, the complete booklet, stunning cover art and musical perfectionism does really glimmer from Meddle almost as brightly as it does from the timeless Dark Side Of The Moon. Meddle is often regarded as an album with two unforgettable Floydian gems, rarely, if ever, bettered by the band, while the remnants of the first side are somehow unworthy of these two pieces. I think this view is somewhat fair, if a little exaggerated, and so am taking a slightly different approach to the review's format to try to bring a new angle in.

Echoes is, in my mind, the crowning triumph of Roger Waters as a lyricist. It holds the single finest set of lyrics I have yet heard (and I am very much into the lyrics of our nebulous genre), and so perfectly delivered by the joint Wright-Gilmour vocals. Mysterious, mood-altering and brilliantly, simply phrased, Waters transports the listener to the three-part world of his poem.

The first verse locates the listener in the submarine world, using locative words and atmospheric word choices to ensnare them at the ocean floor, looking up (hence the initial 'overhead'), feeling like a speck in this temporal ocean (everything is green and submarine, and the singularity of the (motivating?) echo and the (inspiring?) albatross compared to the plural and inanimate sand, caves, labyrinths, waves and air). The verse extension introduces the song's theme with the existentialist idea of no-one, no god, no inherent gene pool, guiding our development and understanding how the world works, and yet some thought, some ambitious urge, within us developing (note the sea-land development here. As in the first creatures coming from the sea) and aspiring. Beginning to make the journey towards a greater goal, although it's unsure of exactly what that goal is.

The second takes the idea onto land and into human form, with a chance, uncertain (Do I?, which could also be a nuptial reference) encounter between two strangers, one being the narrator, the other 'you'. Both of these people are in essence the same, but divided by circumstances. The narrator shows an awareness of the meaning, of the understanding, in cooperation, in helping others, and, indeed, in love. Again, the 'no-one', the creator-shaped gap in this reality, encourages or bars us, but this time no-one cooperates or aspires, and no progress is made. The reality of the ultimate, uncaring capitalist ethic is implied as simply mediocrity embodied.

The final, magnificent verse raises the above ideas to their peak, softly, powerfully, the 'you' of the previous verse, whether the sun, or a person, encourages and offers motivation to move on, to grow, to try, and this cooperation (ambassadors) and motivation (sunlight) and open-ness ('through the window in the wall' - a link, a receptiveness to the outside) cause development. And finally, the protagonist in turn calls out and inspires his own muse, throwing the windows wide, and he can do this because there is nothing, no apparent god, no gene pool making him avoid this. The message, then, is to grow and cooperate, that working together with other people will advance you, while selfishness won't have any effect, and this is the single most inspiring piece of socialist/pro-cooperation writing I have ever read. This is my humble view on the subject, and I'm sure there are other interpretations out there. I leave this section with the final verse extension:

And no-one sings me lullabies And no-one makes me close my eyes And so I throw the windows wide And call to you across the sky

The music can only introduce itself, it is majestic, slowly developing, climaxing magnificently and beautifully, inspiring and yet at times lowkey and never remotely pompous. Perhaps the organ solo winds on too long, perhaps the desolate guitar screeching in the middle is too dissonant for the mood, perhaps the actual piece is quite simple and extended without rapid changes in style. However, I do not mind, because the overall atmosphere, delivery and lyrical content is so incredibly overwhelming that I leave the semblance of a fair critic behind from the first notes.

Now, back to the first side: One Of These Days opens the album superlatively, with an immersive windy feel and kicking bass, as Wright adds all sort of brilliant keyboard textures, sharing some of the ideas with Mason's cymbals. Mason too contributes brilliantly with both thudding drums and very subtle percussion. At about the two minute mark, the piece really takes off with Gilmour's gritty guitar wails, a tense section vaguely resembling the Doctor Who theme with very dark ideas and a spoken, thoroughly distorted vocal ('One Of These Days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces) initiates the full-blown chaos of the following section, with everyone simply playing. The Floyd rhythm section simply rocks, while Gilmour and Wright add loads of stunning ideas over the top. Superb, but also irritatingly indescribable. Another wind effect closes the piece off.

A Pillow Of Winds, a rather sweet, relaxing acoustic-dominated ballad with so many stretchy edges (acoustics, subdued electric, bass throbs, keyboard swirls) and a gentle vocal. Intense layering and deep choices feature throughout, and the end result is an odd mixture of haunting textures and relaxing ones, and uplifting choices. Damned weird, but very interesting, and with a good set of matching lyrics.

Fearless, sadly, had amazing potential. If it didn't, I could forgive the ending, which single-handedly kills any risk of the album hitting the fifth star. A great set of lyrics, a good acoustic melody with jaunty rises and accompanying excellent vocals and a tasteful rhythm section, as well as a brilliant break including an acoustic/bass all suggest that the song would be great. It nearly was. Unfortunately, someone in the band decided that it would be a good idea to stick in the most obnoxious football chant possible as an irritating end that breaks all real immersion by what is, presumably an attempt to give it relevance. Urkh!

San Tropez very much suggests a Simon And Garfunkel influence, with a bouncy set of lyrics and music, although both are absolutely top notch. A cheerful bass thing holds up the piece, while Wright's piano substantiates and emphasises, and Gilmour takes a quality solo. Utterly cheerful, and not at all filler.

Seamus is simply brilliant blues, with dog howling and a bit of harmonica incorporating itself into the band's general fun on piano, guitars and bass. I can't see what's so despicable about it. Very soulful.

So, do I give this the five stars of a flawed masterpiece, or the four of something that didn't quite make it? I'm torn, admittedly, but the following Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here albums, though not losing any of the warmth of this slightly weaker effort, do have a complete perfectionism and stunning polish that establishes their brilliance. Meddle doesn't, however excellent it is, reach the same artistic height consistently, and so merits 'only' four stars. Nonetheless, an absolutely essential album for any Floyd fans, and even those who aren't the band's greatest devotees. Brilliant stuff, and deserving to be seen as an excellent album in its own right rather than a mere prototype of Dark Side Of The Moon.

I had up till now 87 ratings in progarchives with Reviews , and i don't intend to rate any album without saying why ? But , few albums i felt concerned about giving my rates without reviewing , and Meddle is one of them . Still , what i want to say in this post is , that Pink Floyd had from 69 till 79 , eight masterpieces , since Ummagumma in 1969 , till the Wall 1979 , eight excellent releases , passing by Meddle , Obscured , dark side , wish you where , animals , all these albums must have the same ratings . the only difference between these masterpieces was & still that they are different , by all means these albums , made by the same line - up , composed & arranged & performed by the same group , have the same level for me as an old progger , it satisfies my hunger to the good progressive music . As far as Meddle's concern , this album was & still Excellent for Progarchives and many members , but for me , and after 20177 plays on my record player in 36 years , with the same impact , all these hours , days & years , i must say ''''''''''''' reconsider !!!! it's a Masterpiece of Prog rock //////

This is when things started to change.

I don't consider "Meddle" a masterpiece in the same level as the four releases that succeeded it. I think that the album is still uneven, with a few weak moments. But there's no doubt that it's the point when PINK FLOYD turned from a very interesting band to one of the best of all time.

The main reason for my saying that is this record's last track, the fantastic "Echoes". This is the first taste that we would have of the band that gave us "Shine on you Crazy Diamond". David Gilmour's trademark, narcotic, celestial guitar melodies and solos make their first true appearance proper. This long epic also announces the arrival of a force never before heard in music. Atmospherics and notes flowing in the space were the new focal point, not kinetic energy. All the magic that was to come in the next albums was already here.

But this time around, the rest of the album has also several brilliant moments. The opener, "One of these days", is just a majestic crescendo piece with a constant idea being developed dynamically from a starting point in the deep corners of our minds to a sudden explosion driven by psychedelic rock. Like most of the previous album, "Atom Heart Mother", this track is vocal-less, purely instrumental. And we really wouldn't have it otherwise. "A Pillow of Winds" is ethereal, pastoral, with Waters-Gilmour's glorious hallucination-inducing voices striking with delicacy over soft sounds coming from above the clouds. "Fearless" is a more straightforward rock piece, with an interesting riff and with some bluesy- overtones. It's a very soothing song, very pleasant.

"San Tropez" is, in my view, the weakest link in the "Meddle" chain. It sounds a little like THE BEATLES, a little like THE DOORS, psychedelic but rather irrelevant. "Seamus" is another low point in the album, a boring guitar-and-vocals dirty little song that thankfully lasts only a couple of minutes. After this, the sonic world of "Echoes" is unleashed upon us, and we can be certain that the Monster has been created. Many have tried to sound like them, most every band sounds "floydian", but there's only one PINK FLOYD, and here it appears in all its glory.

If only for the superb "Echoes" and the fantastic "One of these days", this album deserves recognition as one of PINK FLOYD's best. A few weak tracks stop it from getting 5 stars from me. Nothing would stop the next four glorious albums. And in "Meddle" we get an excellent sneak preview of those.

Interesting opposition of Atom Heart Mother! The structure of the album is almost the same, but there is one big difference. The epic composition of the album - Echoes - is situated at the end of the album, instead of eponymous Atom Heart Mother situated at the beginning of its album. The other difference is about the quality of the music. It's definitely in favour of Atom Heart Mother - indisputable 5 stars masterpiece, while I'm still wondering what will be my mark about Meddle. The epic compositions are both charming, but the difference came from the other songs. All songs on Atom Heart Mother contain the power in its full phase, while Meddle's middle songs give way to the middle songs of AHM. The comparison between One of These Days and Alan's psychedelic breakfast is another equal giants' one. So, we have four Meddle's middle song, two of them melancholic works, a jazzy one and a bluesy one, but they don't meet the requirements for 5 stars. 4 and a quarter stars for me!!!

Meddle is one of the better Pink Floyd albums in my opinion. The psychedelic style and sound was still very much present on the previous Atom Heart Mother album, but with Meddle they moved away from psychadelia for the first time (only to revert to it on the next album Obscured By Clouds).

The album begins with One Of These Days, a rather hard rocking instrumental. Well, there is actually one vocal line in it that I think is out of place and adds nothing of value. This song is not progressive in my opinion since it is based on one single riff that moves through the whole song. As you probably guessed already, I'm not too impressed with this one.

A Pillow Of Winds is a very nice, folky acoustic song that I find quite enjoyable. However, this is hardly the stuff that will blow the Prog fan away. Fearless has a typical Pink Floyd melody, but untypical of them is that it is acoustically based. San Tropez is a more fun, jazzy song. This song also is acoustically based with acoustic guitars and very jazz grand piano parts. I judge this as a throwaway song, but it doesn't distract from the overall cohesion of the album. Seamus is a pure blues number, also acoustically based. It is an instrumental apart from the addition of a "singing" dog! This addition is the only thing that makes this one stand out.

Echoes is in many ways a very typical 70's Pink Floyd song and clearly a predecessor to Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Echoes takes up the whole second side of the album and I think it is quite a bit too long for its own good. There is a too long experimental part in the middle that just goes nowhere. Still, it is one of the better long Pink Floyd songs of all time.

The strong acoustic leaning they adopted for this album is what makes it stand out from most other Pink Floyd albums in my opinion. However, apart from Echoes the song structures of these songs are conventional. The influences are more varied than usual with Pink Floyd; folk, jazz, blues, but they seem not to be able to fuse these influences together. Therefore the music here is not particularly progressive. Thankfully is it also not very psychedelic, making this album stand out from all previous ones and some latter ones.

Meddle was clearly the best Pink Floyd album since the debut and a large step forward for a band that seemingly lost their direction after Syd Barret left (or became insane or whatever). Dark Side Of The Moon would become their commercial breakthrough but Meddle is more interesting musically. It is, however, very far from being a masterpiece of progressive music.

Good, but hardly essential unless you are a Pink Floyd fan (which I am not very much).

While not nearly my favorite Pink Floyd album, Meddle has over time become one of those strange albums I find myself gravitating toward with more (no pun intended at all) frequency. It is an album for both lovers of jazz and psychedelic music.

"One of These Days" The album begins with a pillow of winds, as it were, and Waters's echoing bass (perhaps hinting at the final track). The composition is repetitive, but uses that repetition to build by bringing in the various instruments, but it is without a doubt the wild bass guitar that stands out. Gilmour's slide guitar plays a more prominent role toward the end, but one may still be tempted to focus on the bass (and Wright's punctuating keys). The music ends with the sound of wind leading into the next track.

"A Pillow of Winds" This lovely track looks far into the future, seeing a time when Gilmour would make an album centering around this pleasant sound, which would be called, On an Island. If one is a fan of said album, one should not be disappointed by this satisfying acoustic guitar-based song, which also features slide guitar.

"Fearless" "Fearless" is one of those tracks that I always seem to forget about when I put on its album until it begins, and then I am filled with both delight and pity- delight because I have rediscovered something a song I enjoy, and pity because I find it impossible to refer to it as a memorable track. That said, I really enjoy the layers of guitars, the happy riff, and Gilmour's singing. The singing of "You'll Never Walk Alone" by the Liverpool Football Club is a nice touch.

"San Tropez" This Waters-penned piece reminds me quite a bit of Burt Bacharach, with it's easygoing but upbeat jazziness. Gilmour has a slide guitar solo, while Wright gets an opportunity to delight listeners with some jazzy piano at the end.

"Seamus" This is a short, acoustic blues song featuring the ever-annoying wailing of a Borzoi.

"Echoes" A piano through a Leslie rotary speaker begins this epic Pink Floyd song. Gilmour's guitar is subtle, although less so than the rest of the instrumentation until the drums come in. Three minutes in, the hypnotically beautiful vocals enter, full of mesmerizing lyrics. The guitar riff after the verses is intriguing, fitting the enigmatic nature of the song. Following several minutes of guitar soloing, a funkier, bass-driven ride gives Gilmour more freedom to run about on his guitar. Things take a turn for the strange, though, as the funky groove gives way to out-of-this-world psychedelic noises, all of which are the result of heavy experimentation or sheer accident. Waters used a steel slide on his bass and fed the signal through a Binson Echorec. The ear-piercing screams occurred because Gilmour accidentally had his cables switched around on his wah pedal. Wright contributed to the sonic experimentation by pulling certain drawbars on his Hammond organ. When the music becomes coherent again, reviving the Leslie-induced piano, Gilmour palm mutes rapid notes on his guitar while playing a lovely melody, and the sound builds with Mason's steady cymbal work. The music climaxes in this part to some creative guitar work, but unexpectedly brings the verse section back around. One of the greatest audio illusions ever, a Shepard tone, concludes the piece.

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... >.>)

Pink Floyd albums are particulary hard to review,seeing as they usually don't follow tightly 'album structuring' standards.How many stars does an album which in one half contains completely ignorable tracks,and in the other one of the best pieces of music ever wrote in this so called progressive rock genre deserves?

What we get in Side A is a bunch of songs which lead to nowhere,totally insignificant and irrelevant,yet not exactly bad.Yes,there is a fair amount of trash here,the only way I feel able to classify Seamus and Fearless. But there's also a nice intrumental(even if it's too easily forgetable)named One of These Days,the blues track San Tropez which may even be quite enjoyable,and the harmless(but nothing more than that)A Pillow of Winds.What's worse about these group of songs casted into an extremely poor vinyl side is the feeling that the band wrote a lenghty composition they were pretty conscient to be groundbreaking, and just made four or five fillers to complete the 20 remaining minutes necessary on an LP.But enough talking about the bad half.

As one turns the vinyl side(or make it through the other tracks on CD)and get to listen to water drops,there's an immediate feeling that the band's up for something special now.And boy,do they make up to it.Echoes just gotta be one of the ultimate experiences rock music ever provided us with.Though my personal vote for best Floyd album goes to Dark Side,it's pretty safe to say this is the best piece they ever wrote.

Brilliant lines,uncanny climaxes and constant changing moods define this 23 minutes opus.Here is where the band's experiments with space/psychedelia truly flourished,so being that by the time the band comes back in the up-tempo beat for the last verse(after an indeed scarry mid-break),we're transported to wherever our minds are willing to take us with a simply unmatchable naturality.So being,Echoes is a masterpiece,one that only Pink Floyd could possibly create.If ever a piece of music deserved the tag 'not for the faint hearted',this is it.

I'll take the deepest of breaths:any album that contains Echoes in one of it's halfs shoud not be granted with less than four stars,no matter how despisable and fogettable is the other half.For what it's worth,this is their last proper album before they became stadium fillers all around the globe.

This is Meddle, the begining of the new Pink Floyd, which is more progressive, and less psychedelic. Meddle contains the epic echoes, one of Pink Floyd's biggest achievements, and 5 other songs, most of them being fairly unknown to most people. This is the follower of Atom Heart Mother, which did also excist out of one 23 minute epic and several shorter songs, it was although far more experimental.

The first song is "One Of These Days", a song based around a powerful bassline. The song contains great keyboard playing of Richard and great slide guitar of David. The song is very powerful and fun to listen to, but it's far from being a masterpiece.

The next song is "A Pillow Of Winds", which is excactly the opposite of "One Of These Days", it's very mellow, has relaxing vocals, smooth acousting guitar picking and typical Floydish slide guitar. Many people don't really seem to care about this song, it's just one of the few shorties of Meddle, I don't think of it that way at all, it's a beautiful song.

The next song is "Fearless", it basically is a nice song, It's got a nice riff, catchy vocals, nothing wrong with it right? Well...in fact there are some problems here, I don't have a clue why, but we here singing football supporters on the background, not a big deal, but it makes the song feel like it goes about nothing.

After the dissapointment of Fearless it's time for jazz with "San Tropez". San Tropez is a nice song, it's a pleasant listen, very smooth, very jazzy, but still very Floydish. The songs has some nice piano parts and slide solo's, yes, this album has lots of slide guitar. A nice song which shows Pink Floyd's wide musical skills.

The next song is "Seamus" (also known as "Mademoissele Nobs". It's a simple blues song with a dog barking into the microphone. A pretty funny experiment, but not very interesting except for the dog.

The final song of the album is the epic "Echoes", often seen as one of Pink Floyds true masterpieces. The song starts out with high piano notes through a Leslie speaker. Soon the piano is joined by soft guitar playing of David Gilmour and the song goes on for a while. After about three minutes there are some very mellow vocals, it's sung very lovely, but I don't have a clue what the lyrics are about. After the first verse there is one of the most catchy bridges ever, very lovely. After the second verse we get to hear one of David's best solo's, a haunting piece of guitar playing. After the solo a simplyfied version of the bridge is played, a couple of years later this riff was simply copied by Andrew Lloyd Webber for the soundtrack of Phantom At The Opera. After this we reach the funky part, it's a jam based around a funky guitar and organ riff. David plays some of the finest licks I've ever heard at the funky part. After the lovely jam we hear evil, dark sounds that go on for a while, a while too long if you ask me. After that we get some fine arpeggio's of David Gilmour and a reprise of the vocal part. A lovely song, though maybe a bit too long.

A good album, though far from the band's best.

One of these days, I am going to cut you into tiny pieces...

What a good album. I am not saying that as if it were superior to other PF catalog work, rather, as if I feel it is a bit surprising to hear something so good right before DSOTM.

The songs favor a very watery feel, and each song is something different. Except for the jug band blues of Seamus and San Tropez. Those two tracks I feel dampen the overall flow of the album more than they should have been allowed to. One of these days is a powerful rock psychedelic attack, leading into A Pillow of Winds, which is very floaty and atmospheric. A Pink Floyd love song? Ahaha, perhaps not, but solid nonetheless. You then have Fearless, which is a good enough track, followed by the two tracks I particularly don't care for.

And then there is Echoes. What a slice of brilliance. Pure space rock, pure experimentation, pure atmosphere. One of the ultimate psychedelic space rock statements. It flows so vividly. Utilizing skillful lyrics and a feel that is as if the entire earth were drowning. The haunting vocals, the instrumental sections, the dolphin sequence which is hair raising. An absolute highlight in the Pink Floyd musical collection, and this album should be obtained for this track, alone.

In the end, I shall award this album fours tars. It has some strong (very strong) moments, but are dragged down by A couple songs and segments that drag the flow of the album. Recommended!

Let me begin by saying that Meddle marks the dusk of the remarkable transition from post-Barrett Pink Floyd to Dark Side of the Moon era Pink Floyd. The mood of this album is cemented right from the start, as howling winds are set behind a driving bassline in 'One of These Days.' It is clear from the beginning that the group was determined to refine their space rock sound and give their music a powerful poignancy. Best known for the aforementioned and the sidelong epic 'Echoes', Meddle proves to be an excellent indication of the direction the group would take in the future- combining the experimental edge of their earlier albums with a more focused songwriting that had suffered somewhat since Barrett's departure.

When looking at the sound of the band on this record, it is notable that the music is very pastoral and has a countryside feeling throughout with lovely slide guitar work from David Gilmour and dreamlike keyboard work from Rick Wright. This sound is no more prominent on 'A Pillow of Winds', where Gilmour's placid guitar work shines. 'Fearless' features a wonderful riff; acoustic guitars again keep the music modest- very tight rhythm work from Waters and Mason (I particularly enjoy the sound of Mason's kit on this track: tight snare and beautiful tone on the high hat). Meanwhile, Wright provides great piano work throughout the piece and the piece crescendos into a crowd chant, which surprisingly fits the piece quite well.

The next two feature styles for which Pink Floyd is not known. 'San Tropez' is a jazzy number featuring more slide work from David Gilmour and then an excellent piano solo from Rick Wright; this piece creates so many images and scenes that one rarely would associate with a Pink Floyd song. Likewise 'Seamus' is a bluesy number, with more lovely piano playing from Rick Wright and acoustic guitar work from David Gilmour.

Send a grand piano through a Leslie speaker.you get the tone in the introduction to 'Echoes.' No more sedate pastoral music, no more jazz and blues numbers; this is progressive rock at its finest: boundaries, limits and parameters out the window. The combination of keyboards, bass, guitars and drums creates a sublime atmosphere, only bettered by the entrance of Gilmour and Wright's vocals. The lyrics have underwater and sea connotations; the imagery they evoke is only accentuated by the grace and elegance of the music itself. If there ever was a piece that called out and said, "We are out of the shadow of Syd Barrett; we are and this is what we will be-Pink Floyd," this is it. A 23 minute epic that is worth every second.

The diversity on this studio album is really bar none in the Floyd catalogue; other albums may have a more cohesive style to them, but none of them display the mastery of different styles in a sound and manner that is truly Pink Floyd. Highly recommended for 'One of These Days', 'A Pillow of Winds', 'Fearless' and 'Echoes.' Enjoy!

|C+| A very pleasant album, but nothing more.

Meddle is probably one of the better albums by Pink Floyd, or at least of their discography preceding Dark Side of the Moon. I enjoy this album from time to time, but from the first time I heard it all the way until this review I never really saw the light in terms of why it is considered by many as one of the quintessential album by the band. It's a nice collection of quite experimental and delightful tracks, especially the wonderful though somewhat drawn out epic, which almost pushes this album to a four. Unfortunately, there are a few tracks I really dislike on the album as well, which really stain my opinion of the album overall, however much I like its better moments. Pink Floyd shows us what they've always been quite good at in this album, atmosphere, only a bit more well structured, a progress which would cause the band to later explode with great material by Dark Side of the Moon all the way to The Wall.

The first track One of These Days is pretty cool, a little insignificant, not really anything special to mention. Wind sounds start of the track, in comes some cool bass work and that classic Pink Floyd psychedelic keyboard work, though this really lasts a bit too long, but the distortion guitar certainly helps keep it a bit interesting, as well as the sound effects that enter in the background. It's a bit too repetitive of a track overall though. A Pillow of Winds is a pleasant track, soft and dreamy, good acoustic guitar and soothing vocals, though again nothing really too special about it. Fearless is a classic Pink Floyd track, no doubt about it, it's much like the rest of the album with the acoustic and blues influences, though this track stands out for its various mood changes and sweet, catchy nature, and awesome ending! I wish I could say the same good things about the following two tracks, San Tropez and Seamus, but these are really what bog the album down in my opinion. Just a couple ditty bluesy tracks that don't interest me in the slightest. They just have little essence to them, maybe something easy to listen to every now and then when you're bored at home or something. Hearing Seamus makes me think of myself listening to the song on vinyl when I have a headache and I need something to calm my nerves. Than again I might think those things just because I've never been a real fan of blues music overall. Echoes really makes up for the slump, and perhaps then some, and is a great precursor to the epic material they would produce later on. My only complaints is that it takes so long for the band to really make their musical statements, but than again the whole point of a song such as this is to take time and consideration to make its point. A very slow but very blissful track. "And I am you and what I see is me." What a great line!

Overall it's hard for me to even conceive anyone rating this a masterpiece rating, especially with those two pretty meaningless tracks before the epic, but people have their opinions and I respectfully disagree with them. This is an album worth getting, though, there is some incredible material here, and any fan of Pink Floyd and more psychedelic music overall 'ought to check this album out, even if it's just to hear the wonderful epic. Personally, I could do without this record, but it is nice to hear every so often.

Meddle, though somewhat inconsistent of an album, is one of the greatest works by Pink Floyd. It began what most call Pink Floyd's 'progressive' era due to the final track taking up the entire 2nd side of the record.

The first half of the album is mostly a harmless side. "One of these Days" is pretty much the only notable great track on the album, with a cool energetic atmosphere and an awesome buildup, creating a masterful spacey sound only reproduced again in parts of "Echoes" and "Sheep". The other tracks are nice, mostly acoustic ones, but all soft, like the laid-back San Tropez which brings the listener to a serene beach vacation. Of course, there is "Seamus", a track horribly marred by the sounds of a dog, and is often pointed out as the most notorious track in all of Meddle.

Those tracks are nice, but fans will ultimately get the album for "Echoes", a lengthy track with a wonderful atmosphere. Beginning with a simple ping, the elements of the composition draw together slowly, gradually forming into a slow gentle laid-back song as Gilmour meditates, "Overhead the albatross lies motionless above the air". The song continues, and eventually the composition evolves into an instrumental jam which continually fades away into the ambient sounds of the ocean. Some complain about this section, but true prog fans will know that this may be one of the most brilliant ways to invoke atmosphere into a piece of music, and should adore it as much as the rest of the song. More musical attributes start to flow in, and eventually everything builds into a dramatic crescendo, ending the song with a final verse and a dramatic closer.

Echoes alone will draw many a prog fan to listen to its splendor. Although the first half of the album may get mixed opinions, Echoes is a masterpiece and should be listened to by every prog fan.

"Meddle" is the 6th full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Pink Floyd. The album was released through Harvest/EMI in October 1971. Pink Floyd´s transition from a groundbreaking psychadelic rock act to one of the most influential progressive rock acts of the seventies began with the previous album "Atom Heart Mother (1970)" and while there are still psychadelic rock elements on "Meddle", the transition is almost complete with this album.

"Meddle" features six tracks and a full playing time of 46:42 minutes. Side 1 of the original LP release contains five shorter tracks while Side 2 of the original LP release features the 23:27 minutes long track "Echoes". While the most significant highlight on "Meddle" is arguably "Echoes", the five shorter tracks on Side 1 are almost equally as intriguing.

"Meddle" opens with the dark, hard edged, powerful, and predominantly instrumental "One of These Days". It´s followed and contrasted by the soft, mellow and acoustic "A Pillow of Winds". It´s a track that´s designed to soothe the ears and ease the mind. "Fearless" is a great track too with lots of acoustic slide guitars and soft vocals. It´s not a mellow track like "A Pillow of Winds" but it still features that relaxed and laid back feeling that Pink Floyd are some of the best exponents for. "Fearless" features a field recording of the Liverpool FC Kop choir singing their anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone", which fades in and out several times throughout the track´s playing time. The most prevalent interpretation of the use of the sample is of course that Pink Floyd are Liverpool FC supporters, but that´s actually not the case. At least not for bassist/vocalist Roger Waters (who plays acoustic guitar on this particular track) who co-wrote the song with guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour. He had been an Arsenal supporter since childhood. Some people have interpreted the use of the sample as Pink Floyd´s way of displaying uncompromising unity with a socialist ideology. The last two tracks on Side 1 of the original LP are often scolded and called weak but personally I appreciate the variation those tracks bring to the album. The lounge jazzy "San Tropez" with it´s relaxed atmosphere and the bluesy acoustic "Seamus" with the barking dog sounds in the background might not be the strongest tracks on "Meddle" but both are a part of the great whole and without them the album just wouldn´t be what it is. So shoot me! I enjoy those songs.

"Echoes" with it´s 23:27 minutes long playing time, takes up the entire second side of the original LP and what a side long track that is. From the opening echo pings produced through amplifying a grand piano and sending the signal through a Leslie rotating speaker, to the fantastic guitar solo by David Gilmour, to the brilliantly arranged vocal section, to David Gilmour imitating whale sounds on his guitar though his wah-wah pedal this is simply a fantastic composition.

The sound production is warm and pleasant. Very well sounding and organic. It´s a bit raw and unpolished too which is a sound element the band removed from later recordings, which are more clean in nature. "Meddle" is a consistently high quality release with a great flow but at the same time featuring nice variation between the tracks. Transition albums are not always the strongest albums in an artist´s discography but to my ears "Meddle" is among the most intriguing albums by Pink Floyd and a 5 star (100%) rating is fully deserved.

Overhead the albatross hangs motionless up in the air

I listened to this album after i had listened to Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals. The first time i heard "Echoes" i thought that this is really something that i have to look into more, because i got the feel that it was the Close to the edge of Pink Floyd. And after a few listens with some wine and cigarrs i finally got it. "Echoes" is a track that sums up Pink Floyds music in general. Spacey feeling, psychedelic movements and extremly addicting lyrics. It's an unquestionable masterpiece. However, the album, although great, isn't.

There is just too much weak stuff here to regard this as five star. "Fearless" and "One of these days" are as great as anyother shorter songs by Floyd and easily earns a 4 star with the magnificient "Echoes", but the problem is in the rest of the songs, which in my opinion are a bit boring(even though "Seamus" is very appealing with a DOG SINGING!). "San Tropez" is really the weakest link here. It's sad to hear a corny and cheesy pop song just after hearing a nice tune like "Fearless".

In this album Floyd is still experimenting and i don't think they themselves(btw, which one of them?) regard this one as a masterpiece, but as a great experiment that later gave us the greatest albums of all time. Extremely solid 4 stars.

Meddle album could be considered a transition. Pink Floyd left behind Psychedelic Rock to get almost entirely on progressive rock, though of course with psychodelic and space rock influences that has always characterized this great band. Meddle is the beginning of the real Floyd sound, that would influenced so many bands in the future. The album begins with a menacing sound, a low double melody executed to perfection by Waters and Gilmour that's always right next to Mason and Wright take us out to one of the hardest songs of Pink Floyd. 'A Pillow of Winds "is a song with folk and psychedelic air executed to perfection by Gilmour. 'Fearless': Definitely the most underrated song on the disc. The melody that brings Mr. Gilmour is awesome. perhaps the 'Never Walk Alone' do not quite fit the song ... but that does not matter ... then comes the voice of Waters and some beautiful piano chords of Richard Wright with the jazzy 'Saint Tropez'. 'Seamus'.... this is the disk failure ... but nothing happens, suddenly we heard that the famous' Ping', yes sir, ECHOES: the wonderful piece that definitely exalting Floyd, the mixture of Psychodelic, experimental, symphonic and space rock. The voices of Gilmour and Wright and fit perfectly ......the solos... oh my god! Gilmour's solos are absolutely sublime, divine, awesome. MASTERPIECE!!!

A hit and miss album

I always seen "Meddle" as a transitional album, PINK FLOYD had already abandoned the most radical ideas of Syd Barrett and the four guys were giving their first steps towards the classic sound of "Dark Side of the Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals", but still they carried in their backs a strong Psychedelic inheritance that they would never leave totally behind.

This makes of "Meddle" a very eclectic album not fully Prog, Psyche or Rock, but with elements of the three genres blended with taste by Waters and Gilmour working as friends and peers. I don't believe it's as outstanding as most of the people believes, but already a very good album that leads from the trippy Psyche years to the mature Prog era.

"One of this days" opens the album in a superb way, after some wind noises, Roger Waters bass announces a frenetic song while blending, the excellent organ performance by Rick Wright. After some seconds with the bass hammering on our brains and a powerful drumming by Nick Mason, is David Gilmour who takes the lead with his distorted guitar, and then...the sonic explosion, the band hits us with everything they got,playing some sort of Psychedelia and early Space Rock, one of the best tracks by PINK FLOYD, and the highest point of the album in my opinion.

"A Pillow of Winds" marks a radical change, soft mellow and atmospheric but I believe too repetitive and gets a bit boring by the end; unlike the Beatlesque "Fearless", in which the powerful guitar work by David Gilmour is simply spectacular, and at the end the chants of the Liverpool fans (You'll Never Walk Alone) that blend perfectly with the music of Pink Floyd, another good moment.

But "Meddle" has also some weak moments and "San Tropez" is the weakest of all, the band takes the influence of the Beatles and creates a lame track with absolutely no interest, if the opener was average, "San Tropez" is one of the worst tracks of PINK FLOYD.

"Seamus" is a good chance to press the skip button, I believe they required a couple minutes to complete the album and added a rejected track they had in their portfolio, but at least we know that after this comes "Echoes"

After a weird intro, "Echoes" leads us in Psychedelic territory, the music is dreamy, trippy or oneiric, (choose the word you want) but the sound is typical of the late 60's, less aggressive than early PINK FLOYD but with the same spirit, only that more delicate and elaborate, simply delightful.

But this is a 23:30 minutes epic and the journey is only starting, the characteristic voice of David Gilmour and the nice work by all the band (specially by the bass and keyboards) demonstrates us this band is in the road towards huge achievements. The song goes in crescendo and the instruments keep joining and making it more complex, the tortured guitar of David Gilmour takes us through the eras of PINK FLOYD, from their early acid years, to the classic era, all in a lapse of minutes.

The interplay between Wright and Mason is elaborate and the arrangements are spectacular, each section leads us to the next with perfect coherence and extreme beauty, from the soft and calmed introductory vocals top the wild instrumental in the end, a great song.

People say that everything is well if it ends well, and "Meddle" can't end better, but the fact is that the album is uneven, I admit that "One of this Days" and "Echoes" are outstanding, that "A Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless" are good very good, but the "San Tropez" and "Seamus" are way bellow PINK FLOYD'S average and don't allow me to rate the album with more than 3 stars, that should be 3.5 if our system wasn't so rigid.

Good but non-essential.

How I wish this were a 5-star album! "Echoes" and "One of These Days" are simply sublime, and due to those two songs, belong in every Floyd fan's collection. However, the other songs, while pleasant, simply don't measure up to those masterpieces.

Beginning with DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, the band became perfectionists and began making ALBUMS rather than collections of songs. I suppose this album was necessary in this evolution of the band, but how I wish they had sat on the album a little longer and recorded other songs that perhaps could have measured up to the other two songs. For example, the band's live versions of "Embryo" and "Cymbaline" were on par with "Echoes," also experimenting with long synth passages and sound effects. As much as I love the short version of "Embryo" found on WORKS (it's really a highly under-rated song in my opinion), it seems to me a studio version of the longer version the band was performing would have sat perfectly beside "Echoes" and "One of These Days," and made this album a true masterpiece.

Pink Floyd themselves weren't all that enthusiastic about their avant-prog piece 'Atom Heart Mother' (which I think was a high-light of its era) and with Meddle the band would refrain from implementing avant-garde influences altogether. 'Meddle' has two major progressive rock pieces; the bass riff led spacey instrumental 'One of These Days' and the twenty-three epic 'Echoes' - perhaps their most typical progressive rock recording. Both would be featured in my introduction to the band; the 'Live At Pompeii' film. Echoes would introduce the bluesy and psychedelic type of slow-pace progressive rock the band would investigate further in the future. The psychedelic moods and beautiful guitar leads by Gilmour make this a very memorable song. The comeback section after the soundscapes features one of symphonic prog's finest moments. You probably can't help but loving that echoey galloping guitar riff and those beautiful organ chords. There are two charming psychedelic folk songs 'A Pillow of Winds' and 'Fearless' on side one as well. 'San Tropez' is a comedic jazzy tune and 'Seamus' a simple blues with the performance of a dog (!?). This makes up for quite a mixed bag and a not too exciting record for the fifteen year old version of myself that first listened to it. I've learned to appreciate the folk songs quite a lot, but I still prefer the version of 'Live at Pompeii' of the two most progressive tracks.

Every album that Pink Floyd made before Meddle supplied ample proof of their genius. But never had they succeeded in creating a fully focused masterpiece. That's what too much hallucinating drugs do to you. On Meddle they really got their act together. With Echoes they even created one of the most compelling masterpieces of rock music.

Not everything here is as astonishing as Echoes of course. But still it makes up a consistent album that goes through many different styles. One of These Days does not need an introduction here; it's an archetypical space-rock drone and one of the best ever. A Pillow of Winds is a beautiful melancholic piece from Gilmour, very subtle and understated. His gentle picking around minute 2.00 has served as a blueprint for many future generations: Porcupine Tree, Anathema, Tiamat, Radiohead and so many more have found their inspiration in this soft and textured approach.

Next on is a batch of 3 songs that are often disregarded. I think that Fearless is a very nice blues number though, it evolves into some kind a soccer anthem. It's a style they would revisit on The Wall. San Tropez is slightly out of place. Roger Waters does something in the psychedelic rock style of 4-5 years earlier. It's not bad but it would have fitted better on a Syd Barrett album. Seamus is a real fun blues though. Anyone who has seen the Pompeii video knows how they recorded that howling dog. It's a nice lighter touch that makes the majestic beauty of Echoes all the more overwhelming.

I think that this album contains the best music that Pink Floyd ever committed to tape. The five stars are entirely deserved by the strength of Echoes alone, but also the other tracks contain plenty of grace.

Meddle is first album from Pink Floyd Excellent serie of four great prog albums in rock music history. ( Obscured by Clouds is a different one and stays outside of this line, but TDSOTM,WYWH and Animals all are great).

After years of psychedelia, sound experiments, foly,bluesy,space ,etc. songs, Pink Floyd at least found there own face and sound which will stay in history of rock music for years as classic Pink Floyd sound. Meddley is first evidence of it.

Still soft in many moments, still a bit bulky, still with some traces of early band's psychedelia, their sound became more rhytmic, more organised, mid-tempo melodic. You can hear many future great moments right in all Meddley songs.

One Of These Nights and Echoes both are absolute classics. At the same time, Waters is still not an absolute leader there, so common sound is not so sad, depressive or dramatic.

This album ( near three great PF other ) is must have one in any progressive rock fan collection.

"Meddle was the first real Pink Floyd album." -Nick Mason

Blasting off for Alpha Centauri and all points in between, this sonic tour de force was one of Pink Floyd's most important albums in their creative development. It separated them even further from the acid induced immaginarium of Syd Barrett whose memory would not recurr in their music until their commercial leviathan Dark Side Of The Moon was released two years later.

Ostensibly melodious and quitessentially English embelished with quirky humour and abstractness, Meddle immediately descends into unmitigated sonic mayhem from the get go. The proto-techno instrumental album opener "One Of These Days" was light years away from any thing that they had previously recorded, and commenced with a menacing tape-effected spoken vocal that snarled the warning, " one of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces", a tongue-in-cheek joke directed towards a BBC engineer they didn't particularily care for. Cacophonous echo bass harmonics and angry steel guitar runs enter and virtually burn themselves out after 5 minutes of absolute chaos. An interesting lull is provided by three rather frivolous tracks, one of which features a barking dog ( love that dog ) that offer some respite from the preceding tumult. Their playfulness seems almost farcical when contrasted with the ensuing side long progressive rock space suite, Echoes that occurs on side 2. A sonic frankenstein that was constructed from 36 bits of studio ideas, Echoes main themes attempted to consolidate the concepts of unity and solitude. A forlorn melody centered around a theme stated by a single acoustic piano B note played through an echo chamber, progressively expanded into a expressive middle section that used communicative sounds of bats and whales metaphorically to support ideas in the main lyrical theme. Vast, dense and even distraught at times, Pink Floyd never sounded this far out.

Released in August 1971, Meddle was essentally a juxtaposition of Pink Floyd's past and future and at the time went largely unnoticed until later commercial successes revealed it's signifigance. While thier commercial success precluded Pink Floyd themselves from producing anything this "out there" ever again, other bands such as Eloy, Hawkwind, Jane as well as electronic artists like Tangerine Dream were quick to court the spacious musical ideas heard on this pivotal progressive rock milestone.

Personally, I can take or leave Pink Floyd's recognized masterworks, Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and the Wall and consider Meddle more prevelant in the whole context of the progressive rock movement of the early 70s. Along with Animals, Meddle represents Pink Floyd at the zenith of their creative powers.

Trivia : If you bought one of the first CD editions of Meddle on the Harvest label in 1987 you could have been in for a suprise. Some mispressings made it out into the market that contained the music for the Beatles' second studio album With The Beatles!

I personally thinks that this is the first PF album to succesfully 'escape' from the shadows of Syd Barrett musically, unlike many PF fans that thinks their first was DSotM. And it is their first brilliant album in the prog vein too. Anyway, let's start from "One of These Days". The song begin with Gilmour's riff, reached climax with that famous sentence "one of these days i'm going to cut you into little pieces" and Gilmour's soaring guitar again. "A Pillow of Winds" is a good track, and offered a relaxing moment before "Fearless", a good song with inspiring lyrics and is in the same vein with "A Pillow of Winds", though the chant is annoying.

The next two tracks, "San Tropez", and "Seamus" offered a different approach and is filler tracks in my opinion. But the highlight is "Echoes", one of the most brilliant tracks PF ever made that easily beats DSotM in my playlist. It's a real epic track, with the perfect combination of Gilmour and Wright, funky bass lines from Waters and one of Mason's best drumming.

Overall, "Echoes" and "One of These Days" received 5 stars but the rest is just 4 stars. 4 and a half.

I'll paraphrase Hugues (Sean Trane) in one point: If there is one formula that's here about Pink Floyd, then it must be giving 5-star rating to their albums. Tracks are as following:

1)ranging from psychedelic roots, typical "stoned" track, works greatly for example on Live in Pompeii, but here too, simply not as much.

2)Nice guitar work on rather "mundane" song than some weird exploration, even the sound isn't usual (disharmony in harmony I would say)

3)Football chanting with cleverly combined repeated guitar riff (you know which one) and some nice brickwork (what?). A song with phases of slow and even slower pace.

4)With Roger Waters beautiful voice (which really fits here, does not sound like squeaky floor like usual) with jazz nostalgia longing, Marty says just: Oh yeah.

5)So, what do you want to hear, it's a blues song, ain't it ? However, dog's growling isn't annoying for me (I can imagine animal lovers and sensitive, or simply people with certain standards to be annoyed) and adds something more to this otherwise "normal" song.

6)Well, here we are talking about one of the first prog epics, aren't we ? Simply wonderful, beautiful, full of imagination, harmonic (virtually everything fits in the right place and over the years, I developed sense of liking "the middle piece"). Lyrics are monster. They're mostly nonsense as far as I understand whole sense of this song (and this is not like other epics, where it's more songs altogether, joined only by clever transitions, here it really works as one big track - yes, there are parts, but all about one thing, all in similar style and you can imagine how they work together, what's their purpose). Very interesting concept and again, works perfectly In Pompeii (everything is simply better there, it's like paradise, except it's burned place). Imitating raven's (and other birds perhaps) on synths is nice piece of work from Mr. Wright.

5(-), because of some less prog songs (you know), but it doesn't matter much.

"Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air"

After making 2 experimental albums, Pink Floyd decided to make a style of music that would be their trademark for the next 10 years. And this is the album that would start a long reign of glorious music.have

This album still had a long way to go, if it was going to achieve the monumental status of Dark Side Of The Moon. The songs were alot more catchier, the music was alot more memorable and made more sense.

It's hard to think that this album was made in 1971.

1. One Of These Days - An amazing instrumental with a jaunty bassline and amazing keyboard effects. The death metal vocals (proabbly one of the first, next to Boris The Spider) is amazing. Great musicianship being presented.

2. A Pillow Of Winds - Quite country inspired (but it's not terrible, like most country is). Very soothing and amazingly beautiful.

3. Fearless - One of their most cathchiest moments. Very catchy and incredibly memorable. The ending is quite weird, because it is football related, and me and football have our differences.

4. San Tropez - A very blues orientated song with some humouros lyrics.

5. Seamus - "Roger, do you want to provide some backing vocals..." "nah just get the dog." This quote sums ups this song perfectly.

6. Echoes - One of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard in my life. An amazing use of sonar and incredbily beautiful lyrics and melodies. I have a bone to pick with Andrew Lloyd Webber, becuase the riff in the chorus is almost indentical to the riff in Phantom Of The Opera (the again, he did rip of Dvorak's New World Symphony for Music Of The Night.) The instrumental passage is incredibly wondorous.

CONCLUSION: The start of an amazing string of albums. But it, and the rest of them (well up to The Wall at least).

It's hard enough to find examples of albums with Meddle's ecclectic variety-- but to find one which succeeds at everything it attempts is nearly impossible. Yet, here Pink Floyd blends spacy atmospheres, rousing guitar, and a non-chalant, "lazy day" attitude to create one of their finest releases (and that's saying something).

The album starts with unique, bass-led riffing and powerful guitar noise, giving way to a head- scratching series of beautifully understated mixture of jazzy subtelty and fun, day-dreamy tunes. Of chourse, side-B's "Echoes" steals the show, as a creative, spacy, minimalist masterpiece; one of the most easy to listent to 20+ minute songs of the classic prog era.

Meddle's pure, unpretentious beauty and creativity make it a clear winner. Why not 5 stars? While Meddle is a joy to listen to, it remains somewhat distant and challenging to connect with. This lack of emotion is the only thing tarneshing an otherwise stellar release-- don't let this one get lost in Dark Side's shadow!

Songwriting: 5 Instrumental Performances: 4 Lyrics/Vocals: 4 Style/Emotion/Replay: 4

The album where they finally finally put together their sound completely. They'd had a bit of their complete sound -- that ethereal psych groove jam, in the middle of Atom Heart Mother -- and possibly bits on their live and sound track albums. But Meedle was the beginning of the Pink Floyd sound we'd all grew to love. "One Of These Days" is one of their all time classics. A great album, and I think it was one of my first or second PFs since I'd heard "One Of These Days"at a laser show and loved it. Of course it took me years later to really dig "Echoes", which I consider one of their many masterpieces. (The middle of "Echoes" is still a little too wacked out with spaced out sounds not connected to a groove, but the front and back of "Echoes" are vintage PF)

This is the hidden masterpiece of Pink Floyd.

One of These Days- The 'hit' from the album. It starts of with a couple cool fade in/ fade out noises that build up tension than turn ti a strange synthesizer solo and ends with a climactic jam.

A Pillow of Winds- This song is unfairly bashed often. It is the softest song on the cd and explains the layers of sleep. A nice 'goin-to-bed' song.

Fearless- A more acoustic guitar driven song, one of my most recommended songs. With beautiful instrumentation and lyrics

San Tropez- A nice contrast to the rest of the album. It's more of a 'calm before the storm' to the magnum opus, I think you know what I'm talking about

Seamus: A goofy excursion, if you want to get into this album, I suggest you listen to this last

Echoes: Not only is this the Magnum Opus of the album, but the band as well. But prepare for some strange areas that lead up to a dramatic fade in and then to the "epicest" ending of all time.

If there's any Pink Floyd album that spells COOL, it's Meddle. This record is one step closer to perfection, and I view it as a sort of summary of it's predeccessors. It has the psychedelic drive of 'Piper...', the diversity in style of 'Saucer...', the [thankfully] brief experimentation of 'Ummagumma', and the maturity and format of 'AHM'. Meddle also shows a warmer, more unified band, working together instead of individually. The only thing that lets it down is it's artwork (although even that is quite COOL...)

There's a variety of styles, beginning importantly with some straight space rock. 'One of These Days' really rocks, and has a timeless quality to it that makes it seem futuristic even today. They even slip in a snippet of the Doctor Who theme tune for good measure! (If that's not COOL then I don't know what is). This is followed by the suitably calmer songs 'A Pillow of Winds' and 'Fearless' which employ plenty of acoustic and slide guitar to their advantage. By this point, it is clear that Pink Floyd have improved their compositional skills (and we haven't reached Echoes yet). 'San Tropez' is very COOL; with witty lyrics and a jazzy piano solo from Wright which is a bit of a treat. 'Seamus' is of course avant-garde: the lead singer is a dog. But it's generally forgivable, given the album space it takes up.

Echoes is by far the COOLEST part of the album (or should I say, coolest half of the album?). Who ever had the idea to "abandon the orchestra and work together" was a genius. This "underwater epic" is the best and most fitting way to end an era in the band's career. The intro is chilling, the verses thoughtful, and the chorus agressive, but nothing quite compares to the 7:00 entrance of the Pink Floyd "Mega-Jam" (If only it had an official title). This workout is cosmic, groovy, and totally improvsed. And all of it is achieved with a 'wet', 'splashy' feel that really puts the 'Blue' in 'Blues'. Following this, is another moment of underwater exploration; deep, chillingly atmospheric, and just the right length to provoke an eerie tension before re-surfacing for the verse reprise which triumphantly brings the song and album to a close.

Meddle is good. It's very COOL and it's even closer to 'the special one' than 'AHM' was. I've never listened to it underwater, but that's bound to be even better...

One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces!

One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces! The iconic cover with the sonic sound vibrations of an oversized pig's ear is a symbol of prog rock. The music is incredibly complex and well executed throughout. Floyd took a few jump starts to get going but once the machine was motoring and the wheels were in motion, there was no stopping them.

From the word go this album boasts one of the finest instrumentals put to vinyl. 'One of these Days' begins with a wind effect signifying the calm before the storm. An echoing bass and a chugging one note riff launches the track before the organ swells rise up and crash down like ethereal sonic waves. Wright is masterful on this and the dynamics and drama created by simple staccato chord swells is incredible. The extraordinary light show on the DVD 'P- U-L-S-E' would complement this. The half time feel is an effective delay bass heavy acrostic hook that creates an ambience that is ominous and foreboding. This is the part of the song where the pigs appear in concert. The drums crash down as we imagine someone bashing at the door to get in and then the monstrous voice roars, "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces!" As the door is broken down the murderer enters ready to kill, and then the music rises to a crescendo and Gilmour slaughters us with slide guitar slashes, performing torturous glissando runs and screaming bends with finesse. The wall of sound is glorious and then the freakout ends with the soul chilling delay effect. Quite simply, quintessential Floyd. After this opening there are four tracks that range from poor to OK. The worst being 'Seamus' and 'San Tropez' that are candy flavoured throwaways and really hinder this album from masterpiece status. 'Seamus' is literally barking mad and features a dog barking through the jazz infused music.

There is no better reason to buy this album than the title track. 'Echoes' has become a legendary opus that has been returned to by Gilmour as a solo artist and the band themselves in recent times. It stands the test of time as a prime example of space rock at its best. 23 minutes of headphone bliss. It begins with the infamous pitched ping that may be akin to a sub sonic sonar sound underwater. The lonely sound alienates the listener immediately and then an ambient keyboard swells in, Wright is superb on this track. The band were not only experimenting with sound, they tore the heart out of the music machine that was churning out manufactured bubblegum pop in the 70s. They showed that it was possible to create provocative music outside the box that was still listenable. The beautiful melancholia is enhanced by heartfelt vocals from Gilmour and Waters, and the lyrics are profoundly stimulating. 'Overhead the albatross, Hangs motionless upon the air, And deep beneath the rolling waves, In labyrinths of coral caves, An echo of a distant time, Comes willowing across the sand, And everything is green and submarine. And no one called us to the land, And no one knows the where's or why's. Something stirs and something tries, Starts to climb toward the light.'

The guitars ascend and descend a series of fractured notes with precision; very effective and haunting. The lengthy instrumental break is mind boggling, keyboards take off and drums pound, Gilmour's guitar is always ready to improvise riffs; undoubtedly this is the definitive lineup of Floyd and when the band take off in full flight they burn their firebrands right between the eyes. When Barrett was axed, the band were freed up to blaze trails of glory. And this was only the beginning. Having shed their trippy, psychedelia image, Floyd were yet to launch into the stratosphere and make world changing music with the cognitive classic 'Dark Side of the Moon', the legendary 'Wish You Were Here', not to mention the brilliant conceptual mindbender 'The Wall'. The flood gates were not just about to open, they were about to be blown off their hinges, and everyone would want a piece of Pink Floyd pie. This underground psychrock quartet were knocking at destiny's door and would soon be a household name worldwide. But it really started with 'Meddle' which shows what happens when you put four brilliant minds into a recording studio. This album indelibly changed the lives of the virtuoso musicians who created it, and indeed carved a deep wedge into the tombstone of the Rock music industry.

There are some albums that you really, really love...

This is the case of this fabulous piece of music which was fortunately created almost 40 years ago by one of those dinosaur bands that you may love, or even hate, called Pink Floyd.

A band that did not have the talent and psychedelic touch of Barrett, but a band that did not contemplate the limits and avoided the idea of being redundant an unoriginal and instead, decided in elaborate imaginative, creative, intelligent and vivid music to the pleasure of all the people who were (at the moment) looking for something unique and extraordinary, and for the pleasure or us, music lovers that really appreciate what great musicians composed four decades ago, music that I am sure inspires the deepest pleasures and people's feelings.

So there is this album entitled "Meddle", featuring 6 songs and a total time of 46 minutes, an album that once you start listening to it, you will not stop until the very end. Since I discover it several years ago, I keep it as one of my most appreciated CDs, a real treasure in my collection, and that has only one reason, its music.

An album with first an hypnotic even strange cover art, that comes from a psychedelic, progressive rock band, whatever you want to call them, and later with captivating music created by very talented musicians that used their imagination and creativity to brilliantly put together a mixture of sounds that secretly are growing into you while the album is being played.

The first sign of musical life will be found with a song called "One of These Days", instrumental, attractive and even visceral music, that sound of the bass is really provocative, enjoyable and lovable since the very first seconds, but that is not the only thing, actually what success the most is the elements the put together in order to "help" that bass sound and complement the song, the atmosphere created, the stops and even that raw vocal line in the middle of the track, will let you seated with your eyes closed enjoying a musical (but visual) trip. An amazing first track.

"A Pillow of Winds", after the storm comes the calm, it's how I would describe this beautiful track that is the first one featuring Gilmour vocals, great acoustic guitar and some gently slide guitar here and there, the atmosphere is really tranquil and in moments relaxing, so it is great how they suddenly changed from a provocative and strong opener, to a soft and calm second song, so enough are two tracks to appreciate their mixture of sounds and feelings.

The next song is named "Fearless" and it is one that I really loved since the very first time I listened to it; again, the use of a gently guitar sound that is progressing brings an inciting beginning so you will be trapped under its chords, in this song I can also close my eyes and let the music do the work, seconds later I see different things and imagine different scenarios that mainly have to do with some pleasure nature views, though the lyrics suggest different things, what I most appreciate in a song, is indeed, the music.

Now, I have to admit that there are a couple of "weak" tracks here both are the shortest ones and come next. The first one is "San Tropez" a kind of friendly song that in moment sounds comfortable but in others sound as a simple filler, it has some nice kind guitars and a sweet piano solo in the end, but after the first three songs, it is obvious that the strong part of the album is not here. The second track is "Seamus", a 2-minute piece that features a dog, besides all the musicians this animal is the main character here, this song is basically a blues, nothing especial, actually, it is an unnecessary track.

And finally?the mighty "Echoes", an impressive, outstanding, amazing, unique, spectacular, chaotic, trippy and in the end, beautiful song that can be described with thousands of adjectives and will leave a mark on you, one of those songs that you keep in your heart and in your mind forever, because it really transmits you something, it really does something on you, you are not the same person while you are listening to this magnificent 23-minute epic. It is a buffet of sounds, vast mix of emotions and thousands of sensations gathered in one long piece of music, a trip within a trip, it's like taking your bags and leave home in order to go to unknown places which you are about to explore, so you don't know what's coming next but you already feel ready for it. So the only thing you can do is continue your life and wait for the next episode, the thing is here, that each and every of the episodes will give you nothing but pleasure, this is something that not every song can provoke, at least with me.

So Echoes, plenty of musical intelligence put in one long song, all the instruments doing its work and fitting perfectly in every single second of the track, a song that may be divided in several parts because of that mixture of sounds and passages, I mean, there are parts that sound very different to others but in the end all really fit into one place. Despite its running time, I have never been bored by this song, ever! So that is also worth mentioning, just an extra addition to my praise for this song.

Now, don't really put attention to my rating, because to be honest I am not being as objective as I wish, because as I previously mentioned, there are a couple of weaker tracks here, and even one that I qualified as unnecessary, so for that, this album is not perfect; the thing is, what I feel when I listen to this album, all the things it provokes and does on me, that is priceless. And for that my final grade will be 5 stars.

Enjoy it!

Almost everything has been said about Pink Floyd and it's vain to believe that I have something useful to add..But being a new ''reviewer'', I felt almost forced to write some words about PF. ''Meddle'' is not so overanalyzed as other PF's albums and it still has a sense of mystery in it. From the wonderful abstract cover until the last note of ''Echoes'', there is a divine aura, the higher intelligence of a band that is ready to conquer the world..The first track ''One of these days'' is an explosive dynamite, possibly the heaviest PF moment ever and the proof that you can write history with 2 notes,literally. As a bassist I still find myself inspired by Roger Waters' minimalistic bass lines and especially the moog pedals use of the intro.Glorious! ''A pillow of winds'' is an awesome song, a delicate elegy, Gilmour's fantastic vocal lines and slide guitar stand out. Few talk about ''Fearless'' a seemingly simple but very psychedelic track, one of the best ''unknown'' PF tracks in my opinion.Have you ever noticed the influence of its main riff to 90's alternative artists?Jeff Buckley for instance? ''San Tropez'' is Waters' ironic moment and extremely cool at the same time, while the bluesy ''Seamus'' brings a jamming, relaxing break before the epicness of ''Echoes''. I have no words for ''Echoes'', not only the best PF song ever but one of the most amazing sonic journeys we will ever experience. Beyond description, just 20 minutes of perfection. Within ''Meddle'' we can hear most directions of all PF discography, from their psychedelic past to their future's milestones. ''Meddle'' stands in the middle, perfect and clear.

If I had to describe this album with only one word then it would definitely be Echoes!

The basic formula of Atom Heart Mother proved to be successful with the British audience and so it was only natural for Pink Floyd to rehash this blueprint for the followup studio album. Still, it would be unfair to call Meddle a mere clone of its predecessor(s) since this album definitely improves on almost every aspect of the formula plus pushes the band even further away for the psychedelic era of their past.

One Of These Days is a magnificent album-opener famous for its double bass attack and groove. Contrary to popular belief, the bass tracks were actually played by both Waters and Gilmour making it quite amusing to hear how much of a skill difference there was between the two players. Even if I consider myself a big Roger Waters fan I will still get behind the opinion that his instrumental playing skills were never on par with those of either Wright nor Gilmour. But let's not forget that his talent lay elsewhere and he proved, time and time again, how crucial his contribution to the band's songwriting, sound experimentation and concept creation has been to Pink Floyd's success.

Unlike Atom Heart Mother and Ummagumma, this release doesn't feature a side full of single member compositions. Instead we actually get two tracks, A Pillow Of Winds and Fearless, that are co-written by both Gilmour and Waters. Even though the results of this collaboration comes off quite dissatisfactory to my ears it's the fact of the collaboration effort that counts more than the actually product. The Roger Waters-penned San Tropez has become a notorious hate track among the fans since it comes off sounding like a mellow pop song of its time but I happen to like it quite a lot. It might be far from a masterpiece but much better than the other three tracks that follow One Of These Days.

Richard Wright's mysterious absence from side one of the record makes it all the more welcoming when he introduces Echoes with the sharp keyboard sound effect that quickly sets the mood for the rest of these 20+ minutes of pure bliss. There's no way I can describe this composition since no words can give it the true recognition it deserves. Echoes is Pink Floyd pushed to their core basics but it's that stripped down atmosphere that sparks a totally new vibe with the listener. This is easily my favorite Pink Floyd masterpiece and knowing that there are quite a few to choose from it definitely says a lot!

It's clear that the impact of Meddle was unfairly overshadowed by the next few albums that struck a chord with the audience making the albums between Psychedelic The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and Space Rock style of Dark Side Of The Moon seem like a transitional phase in Pink Floyd's career. This is of course an unfair conclusion because both A Saucerful Of Secrets and Meddle are important pieces to a complete Pink Floyd experience that should be heard by all the fans of progressive rock music.

***** star songs: One Of These Days (5:56) Echoes (23:27)

**** star songs: San Tropez (3:43)

*** star songs: A Pillow Of Winds (5:13) Fearless (6:08) Seamus (2:15)

MEDDLE

Pink Floyd are something of an enigma. Despite their massive success, a question looms large. An indictment perhaps of commercial success as opposed to artistry? Why is it that creating parodies of its former self, and more particularly, of its lost creative soul, Syd Barrett, brings more acclaim than it ever did in the days of Syd himself? Perhaps it could be said that a watered-down dilution and injection of some bland normality does wonders for mass acceptance, retaining as it does, a mere flavour of the soul of Barrett, who was the real thing.

That said, apart from 1-2-3 (later Clouds), Floyd was perhaps the only real innovator present in London circa 1966-67, and arguably earned the right to enjoy fame and glory, by whatever means.

One of these days is a reminder of those sound tapestries that were so typical of early Floyd.

A Pillow of Winds is another haunting piece, Barrett-like, with pretty guitars and major to minor chords. A nice descending middle section is another pleasant surprise.

Fearless is more typically Beatleish. Then again, Pink Floyd and particularly Barrett, had much to do with the concept and music in Sergeant Peppers, so fair's fair.

San Tropez is a bit like McCartney in his vaudeville mode. Unfortunately, rather like U2, Pink Floyd are not so good at anything outside their particular box ? it makes both bands sound ordinary.

Seamus is proof of the comments in the last paragraph. Rather silly as well as rather poor.

Echoes is a masterpiece of sound, Pink Floyd at their best, perhaps their best ever in artistic terms. The tour-de-force of the piece is in the 'earthly' band creeping insidiously into the sound landscape till it takes over completely, then the reverse happens, the soundscape slowly returns to blot out 'the band', eerie, haunting, atmospheric brilliance.

The album is worth 5 stars for the last track alone.

In my mind, there are 3 "levels" of Pink Floyd music. Level 1: ANIMALS, WISH YOU WERE HERE, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON Level 2: THE WALL, MEDDLE, parts of ATOM HEART MOTHER Level 3: Everything else.

While MEDDLE is a great album, and the first epic album from Pink Floyd, (The first "real" Floyd album), I feel it falls a bit short of the 3 "classics". The best here are the monumental "Echoes", "One of These Days", "A Pillow of Winds", and "Fearless". All are great, classic Floyd tracks. However the 2 shorter tracks at the end of side 1-"Seamus", and "St Tropez" are basically silly, throw away tracks that are more in line with the earlier incarnation of Floyd. They are the only thing keeping this from being a 5 star masterpiece. However, a solid 4 star rating is certainly acceptable here. As we all know- the best was yet to come.

Pink Floyd finally became the band that we know them as today with this album. Particularly, the epic masterpiece Echoes finally shows us the powerful but spacy magnificence that would become their trademark. Taking an entire album side, this has always been one of the best Pink Floyd songs ever.

And the first side of the album is great as well, but not as good as the second. One Of These Days, sort of a sequel to Careful With That Axe Eugene, starts the album with Roger Waters' echoed bass, turning into a heavy jam. Another highlight is San Tropez, that almost puts you on a sandy beach.

While this album is not quite as polished as the next three studio albums, it's quite close to being as good.

After Atom Heart Mother that is strongly influenced by the presence and the arrangements of Ron Geesin, with Meddle Pink Floyd have finally found their way. The psychedelia of the beginings is going to disappear. The chaotic part of Echoes is probably their last excursion in the acid realms. At the same time Waters is not yet the band's dictator. Making a collegial work is still possible and this is likely the last album on which we can appreciate the effective cooperation of all the members in the songwriting.

The opener is one of the most famous Pink Floyd's songs ever. A single compulsive bass note follows an intro made of winds. "One of These Days" is also the only one Pink Floyd's song in which we can hear the growling voice of Nick Mason. The song is a crescendo until Mason screams "I'm going to catch you into little pieces!".

Winds are a distinctive element of the album. They are present almost everywhere. In "A Pillow of Winds" they are at least in the title. The sound of Gilmour's slide guitar will become one of the most recognizable Pink Floyd trademarks since now on. The slow tempo behind major chords is something that we'll find several times, even in Mason+Fenn's Profiles.

"Fearless" is something that Everton's supporters probably don't like, as the song is famous for the coda in which the Liverpool's supporters sing "You'll never walk alone". Apart of it, this is the kind of song typical of this period of Pink Floyd. Gilmour is again on the slide. The base is driven by acoustic guitar and everything is calm and relaxing.

"Saint Tropez" is a sort of a joke for what concerns the lyrics, but it's one of their most concrete songs from a musical perspective. It's jazzy and upbeat. For those who criticise the musical skill of Roger Waters. A curiosity about this song: in the late 70s a book of Pink Floyd lyrics was published in Italy but the author didnt get a copy of the originals. He just tried to guess and translate them from a tape reader. That's how "Ringing by phone" becasme in that book "Rita Pavone" who was an Italian pop singer of the 60s. It started a legend. Rita Pavone herself said in an interview that she was proud of having been mentioned in a Pink Floyd's song...

"Seamus" is just a filler. The dog who "sings" was Steve Marriott's dog. He gave it to Gilmour during a Humble Pie tour and it finished to be the singer of this almost improvsed blues.

Finally we have the greatest epic ever written by the Pink Floyd. My favourite song ever. "Echoes" has everything an epic has to have and I have really no words to describe it. Gilmour and Wright singing on it is fantastic. The bluesy part has one of the best Gilmour's guitar solos, the way the main theme "resurrects" after the chaos is unique...if I have to mention a masterpiece this is the first song that appears to my mind.

"Echoes" alone would be enough to rate this album 5 stars but at least half of the A side is at the same level. Even though Dark Side is the best seller and Another Brick the most known commercial song, Meddle is the real "must have" in Pink Floyd's discography.

Meddle is one of Pink Floyd's best albums, without a doubt. This album signifies the start of one of the band's most creative periods, making their best work. While not as complete and coherent as DSoTM or WYWH, without Meddle, these works would not have been realized.

The album starts off with the sound of wind blowing. A bass guitar hits a gnarly, delay-afflicted note. "One of These Days" is one of Floyd's best songs. Sounding a lot like the Dr. Who theme, it starts off with two bass guitars dueling with the sound of synths and backwards cymbals. Guitar enters almost halfway through the track, before breaking into a spacey interlude. Drummer Nick Mason, through a myriad of effects, grunts out a single line, "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces!", and the instruments reenter, as a great slide guitar solo plays out through the rest of the track, before ending with the same wind sounds that began the track. 5/5

The wind segues perfectly into the next song on the album, "A Pillow of Winds". It's a very light track, with great vocals a la Gilmour. It's got an acoustic guitar to provide a framework for the song, while electric guitar provides spacey effects. Rick Wright gives us some great organ work, it may not be a Keith Emerson work, but it fits the track perfectly. 4/5

The next track, "Fearless", is along the same lines as the previous track, but with a much more rock-ish format. While the last song was devoid of drums (save some hi-hat work), this one has Mason working the kit fabulously. Again, Gilmour's vocals are beautiful, and Waters donates some great acoustic guitar work. 4/5

The next two tracks on Side One of the original release are a bit iffy. The fourth song is a jazzy number entitled "San Tropez". It is a Waters piece, with acoustic guitar, again, by him. Rick Wright plays a nice solo in the track, but, other than that, it's a pretty average piece. 3/5

This next track is one of my least favorites from the band, a bluesy piece called "Seamus", after the dog providing some "vocals" on the track. Just piano, guitar, bass, and harmonica. And this dog, just wailing. The lyrics are mediocre. I can see no reason, other than filler, to include the song. Luckily, it's only about two minutes long, but that's two good minutes that could have gone to "One of These Days". 2/5

It all comes down to this. Five songs on Side One, one on Side Two. The longest piece on the album, and Pink Floyd's second longest song (and the longest one without explicitly divided parts), "Echoes" remains my favorite Floyd track to this day. The opening piano notes inspire the feeling of being underwater in a submarine, as the sonar tracks some vessel; or deep in space receiving some alien signal. The intro is spacey, airy, and beautiful. Wright and Gilmour soon enter with the vocals, painting a picture of an albatross floating over an ocean on the breeze. The lyrics on "Echoes" are very mystical. The harmonies of the vocalists are absolutely top-notch. After a short guitar solo, the piece breaks into what seems to be an improvisation, and the feel of the track switches to a quicker one. Gilmour provides a guitar solo, and Wright some organ work, while Mason and Waters provide a constant rhythmic wall that crashes over you like a wave. The jam fades out, into a very creepy and atmospheric segment. Gilmour plays a guitar hooked up the wrong way to a wah-wah pedal, making a seagull sound. The segment continues with some great sound effects for a while, before breaking into a significantly brighter section, with the piano from the intro being reintroduced. Great drumming by Mason, tasteful bass by Waters, beautiful piano by Wright, and amazing guitar work by Gilmour are in this segment. It serves as an interlude to a reprise of the vocal segment. The song ends with a short section with guitar and piano tradeoffs, before a tape loop of what seems like a disorganized choir ends the track. A great way to end the album. 5/5

Overall, this album deserves four stars. It has two amazing works, two very good works, and two songs that could have been improved upon or scrapped. The songs are also presented on the album in an well thought out way. Had "Echoes" opened the album and the remaining five songs pushed to Side Two, it would probably not sound as good, because it implies that the remaining songs are an afterthought. Compare this album to Atom Heart Mother, Tarkus, or 2112. Instead of getting done with the centerpiece and having to suffer through the rest of the works, you enjoy some great opening acts and then get to the main event. To any Floyd fan, this is essential, otherwise, give this album a shot, as it's extremely different than any other Floyd work, but is still an opus.

"One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces ..."

Pink Floyd has always been one of my favorite bands since i was a little boy.I was about 3 or 4 years when I heard "Another Brick in the Wall" ("music of the helicopter, " so to speak), and since then this band is in my life.Although you can not find thematic variations in their songs, as is the case of bands like Yes or Genesis, his music is beautiful, sad, highly psychedelic progressive, not less.

"Meddle"is perhaps the first great masterpiece of the band (can not say for sure because, despite knowing Pink Floyd so long did not hear many of his ábuns than those in the classical period from 1971 to 1979). And what I I can say about it but it's fantastic?

"One of These Days"opens with a piece of dark wind (this, incidentally, is all apart on the album) before the start of the best bass lines in history, for me it was the best contribution to the Roger Waters band, because I never really liked him, and the music desnvolve with this bass line and a body supporting Wright, until a dark section begins and we have the classic line uttered by Nick Mason "One of these days I 'm going to cut you into little pieces "before the main theme returns in a hard-rock form.

"A Pillow of Winds" is the ballad of the album, with a little slide guitar and melancholy lyrics but unusual for the band, since they deal with love.

"Fearless, " "San Tropez" and "Seamus" take things to a lot more optimistic. "Seamus" deserves special mention for his bluesistic appearance... and Seamus, the dog-title that "sings" a song to Gilmour's side..

And finally we have "Echoes", the magnificent epic and one of the best bands ever of Pink Floyd.This track and "Shine on your crazy diamond" is the perfect definition of space Rock.as track opens with a single piano note reminds us of the sonar of a submarine, then it grows, with other instruments taking "their part in the party, " before the sad vocals begins.Are toasted with gorgeous passages, like the section that is very similar to "The Phantom of Opera (and I wonder who plagiarized whom), or section funk that dominates the music from their 60-10 minutes before the famous "Cry of the fat woman" that dominates the music for a long time (this is remarkable here in Brazil because it was played in the Mexican hit series "El Chavo del Ocho"). At about 15 minutes the "Scream" starts to fade and a quieter section dominates the song, but my favorite moment is when the guitar Gilmour returns in full force there by 18 minutes.So the initial themes are repeated, and the music goes to its great climax.

5 stars.This is a great masterpiece! this album is a bit forgotten because it came before the big "Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, " "Animals" and "The Wall", but did not hesitate when I say it is up to them, sure! do not hesitate to hear it!

Classic laid back Floyd.

Meddle marked the start of a new brand of Floyd, much more focused, refined and cerebral than their previous works. The album begins upbeat and vigorous with 'one of these days' which is a bit deceptive considering what is to come. The rest of the album consists of mellow psych rock at its finest capped off by the 20+ minute side long epic 'echoes', one of their greatest achievements.

One of the best things about Floyd is their music from this album onwards hasn't really aged very much at all. The super clean production, intelligent clean structuring and attention to detail are phenomenal and practically unmatched by any other artist of the era.

People will still be discovering and loving this band in another 40 years (it's been that long!).

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.

I'm torn between this and the very first Pink Floyd album as my favourite. The genius of Barrett pervades that first LP, but the rather amateurish playing and recording jarr a lot, though I still prefer it to the technical excellence of Dark Side, a moment when the band became commerically-massive, but lost something of it's dark soul.

What finally swings it for me is the long suite of music on the other side (in more ways than one) called Echoes. This is a wonderful piece of atmosphere making, one that Syd himself would have been proud of. It contains so much that is subtle as well as powerful, for me this is Floyd's finest moment, though much else they did was interesting. If the record here was the same on the B side as the A side, it would be pretty poor by comparison, the first side is very uninspiring. It has its moments, but not enough of them, it struggles for shape and definition. Then comes that marvellous suite of music, and all is forgiven. A must for any serious collector.

Meddle is not only a worthy successor of Atom Heart Mother. It is also utterly better. The band is tighter. Dave's voice and guitar never sounded better. Roger's lyrics are sharper.

One of These Days opens the proceedings in a high note. A typical Floyd's instrumental tour-de-force. Hard and fast, menacing, as proved by the only single spoken line: One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces. Spooky. The "acoustic" songs - A Pillow of Winds and Fearless are by all acounts way beyond their AHM counterparts (If and Fat Old Sun). The acoustic solo of the first is simply beauty - a redundance, as far as Pink Floyd is concerned, I admit - calm, gentle, as romantic as Floyd would allow itself to be. One of the few band's song to deal with the LOVE theme - in a simpathetic way, not cynical as would surface later in The Wall. Fearless is more rythmic, upbeat, uplifting. Two true real hidden gems, overlooked even by Floyd's typical fans.

Following are two of the least appreciated songs in Floyd career. San Tropez is a jazz-pop piece with less inspired lyrics and vocals (provided by Roger). Yet, it has some interesting keyboards, courtesy of Rick Wright. Seamus, the blues number with canine vocals, is generally regarded as the weakest song in the entire Floyd catalogue. Honestly, it is to short to hurt me (or the album), and, even more honestly, it cannot compete with Bike for the title of "most stupid pointless nonsensic Floydian tune ever". And yet, Bike is usually regarded as a classic, so... let it be.

And yet, what would Meddle be without Echoes?

Echoes is the quintessential Pink Floyd music. Every note falls right on place. Every bandmate is 100% at their best. Let me start with Rick Wright - he is such an underrated keyboard player! It is not a matter of whether he's got the skills of an Emerson or Wakeman (he does not), but the beauty of the notes he plays and his own very personal style. Simplistic, some would say. Minimalistic, I claim. He does not feel the need to play 1.000 notes per second - thankfully. He just plays the right note at the right time. Not a single note missing or exceeding. Rick's subtle touch and voice (he shares lead vocals with Dave, which is something most people tend to forget) are the foundations to Dave's dramatic guitar solos and Roger's poignant lyrics.

Let me go on to Roger, then. His talent as a songwriter need not to be overstated - I hope so. The lyrics for Echoes are among his finest: moving, a synthesis of the major theme he would explore throughout his career - finding mutual empathy in between each one's loneliness. Not a topic to be approached carelessly, by the way. Yet, I would also like to point out his job as a bass player here - simple, yet effective.

And how about Dave? His voice and guitar are the reason why Echoes will be forever remembered (at least among Floyd's fans) as one of the greatest moments in rock history. One devastating guitar solo after another, one for every taste - pungent in the first section, bluesy on the second section, a breathtaking fanfare after the sound effects interlude, followed by a quiet and simply beautiful solo to close out the song. Without such a magnificent and versatile guitar work, such an epic song would just not be possible (or maybe it would... but then it would be just boring).

Of course, evaluated as a whole, Meddle could not be regarded as a TRUE masterpiece. Itis uneven, unbalanced, sometimes messy - just as LIFE. And, just as in life, it has moments of pure joy, beauty and genius. Not restricted to, but majorly result of a certain side-long 23-minute song incidentally known as "Echoes". With it, Meddle climbs heights very few living people could ever possibly dream of achieving on ther own. What else could we (fairly) ask for? Neverminding the minor flaws, anyone ought to be part of such an experience. Echoes is such a 23-minute experience everyone should take part of. Everytime you feel down and out, go back to it to recover energy and hope, to feed on the all the potential of human talent.

Pink Floyd was at the very end of their psychedelic era as showed "Atom Heart Mother" the previous year. They tried to make something more complex and clever. It was difficult when we see the the concept of pieces as "Interstellar Overdrive", "A Saucerful of Secrets" and "Careful with that Axe, Eugene". But in fact with this album they succeeded. Maybe because of Waters poetry which became more evident on this album and the association between this, his good bass lines, Wright's genius on synthesitors and keyboards, Gilmour's wizardery on guitars and Mason efficient drums has been more than impressive.

The album began with "One of these days", an instrumental piece which shows Floyd trying to leave psychedelic influences. The bassline sounds great and Wright creates spacy athmospheres, Mason makes a good use of percussions, before Gimour's rageous slide guitar beats for a while. Then the rack became more enigmatic: the bass line changes and we think something sensational would happen. In fact, it happens: Mason said strongly the line: "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces!". This line became cult for lot of Floyd's fans (including myself!!). Then the song ends with slide guitar solo and Mason powerful drums beats.

After this song, critics as Robert Christigau (who doesn't like Pink Floyd and I don't like him a lot) could only say it's genius. But it's just the beginning.

The final wind effect lead to "A Pillow of Winds", a cool ballad. It's dominated by Gilmour's slide and accoustic guitars (he shows a good job as he already did on "The Narrow Way") and his sweet voice which announces the vocal wok on the following albums.

Then comes "Fearless", another folky song with emotive Gilmour's voice and also includes a great and cool guitar riff (played by Waters who claims Syd Barrett learn it to him).

Then there is "San Tropez" a jazzy song composed by Waters alone, led by his vocals, Gilmour's slide guitar and Wright's elaborate piano solos.

After comes "Seamus" a blues with Gilmour soft vocals and a... dog!!! It's surprising and some Floyd's disliked this song. But I think it's interesting because it's a sonic experimentation which would go further on other albums. This closes side A.

Side B is composed of "Echoes" a bright epic. This begins with a cristalline keyboards sounds and then come delicious synth and guitar harmonies. Then the rythm section section starts until the vocals. These are sweet and spacy from Gilmour and Wright (two underrated singers and musicians IMHO) and the lyrics are cool and surrealistics. Then comes a good slow guitar riff until a similar vocals section. Then after few synth melodies, Gilmour plays a bluesy and spacy guitar solo until the next section. This one is jazzier with a good bassline and powerful drums. Gilmour writes some memrable guitar solos during Wright's enthusisamic organ. Then the song became more experimental and remains some "Ummagumma" tracks. Wright gives to his keyboards a frightning atmosphere, during amazing Gilmour's guitar solo sounds which remains a whale (this sound was created with an inversing wah-wah pedals). The next part is pure epic. Wight plays the first notes of the song before Gilmour's busy chords. Wright gives us one his brightest synth solo (with "Shine on you crazy diamond") with effects which remains a flut, during Mason busy work on percussions. Then a keyboards riff sounds really bright when the rythm section comes back. Then great guitar glissando comes until another sweet vocals section. After the main guitar riff comes back and give the song his apotheosis. Then the keyboards quietly lands to finish the song.

This album is excellent and even Christigau writes a favorable review in Rolling Stones. Lot of bands as Pendragon, Tangerine Dream and Camel wer inspired by the dreamy and clever moods of "Meddle" and espeacialy "Echoes".

Who is the genius here? Waters the brain and the poet of the band? Gilmour the one who feels poetry? Wright the sensible heart? Mason the discrete (in studio) percussionist? All of them? Maybe... Anyway, the album anounces the brightest ever: "Dark Side of the Moon".

If you enjoy this masterpiece you have to get the epic jams of Pompeii: "Echoes" with additions of improvisations and wild sections, "One of these Days" becoming an impressive drums track and "Mademoiselle Nobs"(Seamus of course!) with Gilmour on harmonica!

The first side is the opposite side of the coin, Floyd without the genius input of Syd, a very ordinary band indeed, not even recording standard, poor writing and performance. You turn over the record, play the second side, and a surprise awaits you.

Something is beginning to form here that will take over the world. In the primeval swamp of the b-side, echoes, are the signs of something powerful, disturbing, and clever, and though where it leads is ultimately dramatic and successful, I think I prefer this point more, with its suggestions and implications as yet unformed and articulated. Somehow, that's more satisfactory than the wall being built and knocked down on stage, and the spectacle of massive concerts, videos, and record sales.

A good one, but with some not essential songs

Without doubt "Meddle" is an high-rated album only for one reason, and this reason has a name: Echoes. This epic is one of the finest moment of Floyd's career. Instead the previous album, there is no orchestra here, Pink Floyd are alone, but the solemnity of the song is the same of the previous epic "Atom Heart Mother", and with a great performance by the band, particulary by Gilmour and Wright. The silent intro by Wright, the beautiful vocal parts and the instrumental crescendo of the second half are really amazing. The only weak moment are the strange sounds effects in the middle of the song, this part is a little bit boring. However, a masterpiece of prog rock.

So, five stars? Well, unfortunately there is side one. One Of This Days is a good instrumental piece that starts slowly but has a great and dramatic crescendo, with a good bass riff by Waters and a great use of the slide by Gilmour.

And ... that's all.

The acoustic A Pillow Of Winds is inconsistent. It does not add anything to the album value. But even worse is San Tropez that is clearly a filler and is out of place here. The strange acoustic blues variation Seamus is also nothing special. However is a funny piece with a great interpretation by the dog on vocals!!!

Things go better with Fearless that is a catchy and relaxing song, with beautiful harmonies, and the FCLiverpool's fans anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone" in the end. Not legendary, but good.

So, this is not a five star album and my rating is 7/10. Sometimes very catchy, is more easy to assimilate than the previous "Atom Heart Mother", but also less innovative. However for proggers is essential, because ... Echoes is essential.

Four stars. Final rating 7/10.

Best song: Echoes

The first Pink Floyd Masterpiece. The psychedelia worked on this album shows us that the surround sounds can cause psychological reactions of pleasure in listeners It is the first album from Pink Floyd that many young people in love, and he began creating a huge expectations in their future work How will the next job from them? The first track is a violent reaction psychedelic highly accomplished The second track is completely different but very beautiful. Note the special attention from the band's songwriting and singing, because some belong to our imaginary perfect music Chants of Liverpool football team, at the end of another track, give a very special touch to this album brilliant. For me, one of the most important albums of the band, whose tracks are still played live on their tour, and continue to delight young and old. A masterpiece? Undoubtedly. 5 stars

For me this is the best Floyd album before "Dark Side of the Moon". They were making the music much more complex and longer. This one at the time was there most progressive yet. The first song I ever heard on here was "One of These Days". I heard it on the concert dvd, Pulse. I love this song. Roger Waters and David Gilmour both play bass on here and Richard Wright and Nick Mason do great work here. Nick Mason also has "vocals" on here by saying the short line in the middle of the song. "A pillow of winds" is a nice song sung by David. But I think the next one stands out more. "Fearless" is a great song with strong guitar work and vocals by David. Roger then takes over with singing with "San Tropez". A nice and strangely cheerful song by Roger. The next song I find kind of odd, but it's nice. "Seamus" sung by David and a dog! But the best from this album is the final song. For me I think this is best long-track ever, a masterpiece of progressive rock, ECHOES. I could listen to this song over and over and it will only get better. The first time I heard this is when I bought the Pompeii dvd, which is the best version of it. The album version is great to, but it just doesn't have that feel to it like the live one does. Echoes is just one of those songs that relaxes you. It's slow and calm but also it has fast blues sections. The opening note is perfect. This is also the song that reveales how great David's and Rick's voices blend together. I don't know if Roger wrote all the lyrics or what but they are perfect as well as the music. This song has great sections. First is the nice slow sound, then the great guitar solo. That leads to a jazzy groove sound which is taken over by the sound of the unusual sound made by David's guitar. It ends with same music that it start's with. It's the best 23:27 worth of music ever made. David played this song on his "On an Island" tour. You can see it on the Royal Albert Hall concert, which is incredible. This albuml is a true masterpiece.

Meddle is the first Floyd record i ever heard and what a place to Start. Meddle is a must have for two songs. One of these Days and Echoes are magical pieces of music. These two songs are enough to give the album 5 stars. Meddle reminds me of the King Crimson album Red, where the first and last song define the album. In saying that the rest of Meddle is good. A Pillow of Winds and Fearless are good songs in there own right. San Tropez is ok and Seamus is a throw away song, good for a listen every now and then. Meddle is a must have for any Floyd fan.

For change I make a very untypical choice for an album to review: a beloved classic, reviewed hundreds of times. My personal opinion is of course quite unnecessary with these cases, why I don't much review the greatest classics. (And I see that I have some stupid need to explain all this... sorry! Onto the album.)

I think Meddle is one of the best PF albums of all time, even though there is one silly filler ('Seamus', bluesy simple song featuring a dog as a background singer). The second weakest track is 'San Tropez' which shows Waters in an unusually carefree mood. Also 'Fearless' is very positive in atmosphere; you don't hear Floyd in a happy mood too often, so actually this track (which is also rather simple but with a delicious bass pattern) makes a nice addition to their oeuvre. Hmmm, three tracks out of six and no reason for great applauses yet. The main question is, can I rate this with five stars?

The opener is one of their most famous instrumental pieces, which was still featured on concerts in the 90's. 'One Of These Days' has that Floydian intensity at its strongest. The drums and the heavy bass go on and on hypnotically and Gilmour makes his lap steel howl. And more trippy psychedelia is added by the drumless middle part with the ghostly growl "one of these days I'm going to cut ypou into little pieces". The next song 'A Pillow Of Winds' is perhaps underestimated and too badly known. Maybe because it's so serene.

And the best is saved till last: the side-long 'Echoes', which definitely is among my most loved Floyd tunes ever. Right from the start with the slow dink... dink... dink... keyboard strokes it veawes me into a spellbinding atmosphere. And then as the whole band has arrived into the music, the vocals enter: "Overhead the albatross hangs motionless..." etc. The down-tempo vocals throughout the track (which for the most part is instrumental however) never change the melody lines, which is why it's so effective. The lyrics are fantastic, very melancholic and dealing with "strangers passing in the street, by chance two separate glances meet" (if my memory serves). I am more familiar with the 16-minute edition featured on the Echoes compilation, so I'm not quite sure if the full version really fills the 23+ minutes the best possible way. But all in all, even if all the material on this album is not on the highest level (similar case as with YES's Going For The One), this is a Prog Masterpiece. Full stars. Amen.

Easily the Floyd's best studio album since A Saucerful of Secrets, Meddle sees the band both lay their old sound to rest and stumble upon their new approach with the epic Echoes. It is not, however, a wall-to-wall masterpiece.

It's well-known that the group entered the studio this time around with more or less no new material to work with, and had to create the entire thing from scratch. Various experiments - an attempt to make an album using only household items rather than actual instruments, an experiment in which each band member improvised individually without being able to hear the others, with only guidance for what sort of mood to play in and how long to play each mood for offered - yielded nothing particularly special.

Eventually, from this long period of frustration was born the album we have today - on which Roger Waters has a writing credit on all the songs, three numbers being whole-group compositions, two songs being Waters-Gilmour collaborations and one being composed by Roger entirely. This, of course, is the birth of the Waters-led songwriting process which would lend vital focus both to this album and to its followups - but would also lead to Waters personality dominating the group by the era of The Wall and The Final Cut, leading to the infamously acrimonious split.

Here, the results of Waters taking the lead are, I have to say, mixed. Opening track One of These Days is a real scorcher, and I have no quibbles with it. Echoes is, of course, wonderful - though I have to be really in the mood for it to appreciate the three minutes of synthesised wilderness noises in the middle. As for the middle tracks, San Tropez and Seamus are both novelty tracks - not a field the Floyd has ever been especially strong in - whilst A Pillow of Winds and Fearless are psychedelia retreads along the lines of Fat Old Sun or If from Atom Heart Mother.

Meddle is overall a good album. It's got a great opener and a landmark second side, but the remainder of the first side once One of These Days fades out is a bit patchy - on a level of "good but not great" and sometimes slipping below that. Still, at long last the light at the end of the tunnel is visible; this album marks the end of the post-Syd period of struggles over direction as the band tried to chart a "democratic" course only to find that this didn't really match their temperaments, and that (to put it charitably) some group members had better songwriting chops at this point than others. Waters taking the lead may, in the long run, have ended in disaster as far as maintaining friendships went, but at this point in time it was vital to prevent the band from simply dissolving due to a lack of ideas and direction. And the heights which would be attained with the next run of albums were surely worth it.

But as for Meddle itself? It's a transitional work, not a masterpiece. But it's tantalisingly close to being one.

This album sounds very lopsided to me I'm not sure why. It is a great album and is still better than The Wall(I'll never let it go) One of These Days with its bass intro always stuck out to me and could be my favorite track except for one. A Pillow of Winds is ok but not very memorable. Fearless and San Tropez are not bad tracks in fact they are pretty good but they do get overshadowed. Seamus is a funny track that is your typical blues with a dog barking standard stuff but hey I can listen to it just don't take it too seriously. Finally we arrive at Echoes and the biggest problem with this album, Echoes overshadows the rest of the album in my view. Whenever i hear someone talk about Meddle they only talk about Echoes and none of the other songs. I usually talk about the others besides Echoes because we all know Echoes is a great track. Overall, it is a strong album but time has not been good to this one in my mind. Echoes, One of These Days and Fearless still hold up but the rest i say skip. 4 stars. Highlights: One of These Days, Fearless and Echoes

This album is the main subject of this month's Classic Rock Presents Prog. Hence, it is about time to check it out for myself.

I am an admirer of Pink Floyd, but not a fan. Maybe I am turning into a fan, based on the last days purchase of their albums.

For me, Meddle is a transitional album between the avant-garde space proggers Pink Floyd and the stadium filler band Pink Floyd. This album rides two horses at the same time. The dog howling solo on this album is avant-garde. Most of One Of These Days and the best song here, Echoes, is stadium fillers.

I remember Echoes well from their Live at Pompeii movie which I watched 30 years ago on TV. David Gilmour's guitar wall of sound made an everlasting impression on me. I am not kidding. I love this part of Echoes. It is cosmic wonderful. But the rest of this twenty-three minutes long track is als wonderful and by far the best song on this album. To a large degree; Meddle reminds me about an ELP or a Rush album. Some whimsy tracks like Seamus and San Tropez which is fillers to a large extent and one big piece of music. Echoes, that is. Add One Of These Days to the mix and you have a great album.

I regard this as a great album and one I will enjoy for decades to come. And yes, I know I am a bit of a slow in the uptake. 1300 reviews and 30 years later; I discover Meddle. But I have not really been bothered before now, to be honest. But Meddle is worth the wait. In particular; Echoes.

A great album.

4 stars

This is a very important album in the history of this great band. It marks the transition between what had, up until then, been a mainly underground space rock/psychedelic outfit, much beloved by characters such as John Peel, and the mainstream, stadia filling, selling albums by the truckload, band they would become with Dark Side of the Moon.

It is recognisably a band effort, with all four members contributing in spades, and also found them confident enough to perform and produce a masterpiece like Echoes on their own, without the assistance of a third party such as Ron Geesin on Atom Heart Mother. That album, to me, was the sound of a band desperately searching for a fresh identity in the wake of Barrett's departure. On Meddle, at last, they found it.

Many rate it as a masterpiece, but to me it falls short of that. Sure, if we were to rate an album on the likes of One Of These Days, a bombastic, heavy, and extremely violent track, and the sublime Echoes, then, yes, it would deserve such a rating.

However, listening now to the album, I still, as I did all of those years ago on first listen, get the impression that the pleasant, laid back, A Pillow Of Winds (Gilmour led, but co-written with Waters), the dreamy love song that is Fearless, featuring the anthemic Kop crowd at Liverpool FC, the strange San Tropez, a Waters solo piece that sounds as if it is a throwaway from the Ummagumma studio sessions, and the frankly "barking" Seamus, featuring a singing canine, are all numbers put to vinyl in order to make up two sides of a record. Because, of course, back in those days, you couldn't release an album with one side only, as you can on CD now.

They are not bad. Far from it, in fact. They are all very good, and interesting curiosities, but masterpieces? Come on. Not even the band would dare to describe them as such.

It all leads up, of course, to Echoes, which is simply one of the most incredible pieces of music ever recorded. Where Atom Heart Mother was patchy, bitty, and full of so many holes it was almost a cheeseboard on vinyl, this was coherent, full of emotion, and sounded somewhat effortless in its performance.

Right from the very start, where Gilmour's lazy intro blends in perfectly with Wright's incredible staccato keyboards, it takes you to a far away place. Gilmour, in my opinion, really never sounded any better vocally, and his guitar work is simply stunning, leading the band. You also, of course, realise just how good a rhythm section Waters and Mason were. The drums pound away, and the bass guitar keeps the tempo fairly flying along. Lyrically, it was the last time you could take away from Waters' words what you, as an individual, wanted to take away, or you interpret it as you liked. Future releases, of course, had the meaning rather rammed down your throat (and I say that as a huge fan). As an amusing piece of trivia, Waters, years later, accused Andrew Lloyd Webber of plagiarising large parts of the track, hence the somewhat less than complimentary reference to him on Amused To Death.

In the hands of any other band, the mid section, especially Gilmour's incredible reverse wah-wah, would simply have melted away into boring obscurity. With this lot, however, it all builds up to a menacing, and thrilling, climax. I rated DSOTM, Animals, and The Wall as five star albums, and Wish You Were Here as a four star album. All are incredibly brilliant albums, but, truly, musically and collaboratively, the band scaled the heights with this one, and never sounded better than they did on Echoes. It also, in my opinion, set the true standard for all progressive epics in excess of twenty minutes length.

Four stars for this, an album which is, on its leading two tracks, as close to perfection as it is possible to get. Shame about the rest of it, really.

Pink Floyd. Beginning like a psychedelic rock band with great comercial success; exploring space music creating inpressive atmospheres of organs and guitars, and eventually taking rock to a higher dimension. And I have always seen the top of their journey in this album. Some people may prefer The Dark Side Of The Moon or Wish You Were Here, both great albums, of course, but, sincerely, not so "progressive" like this Meddle record. Because here is where they had to arrive. This album is the top they were looking forward to reaching: the great fusion of space rock, psychedelic music, melodic arrangements and chords progressions from another world. And I don't mean Wish You Were Here is less important, it's just that album has not got the union of elements this one owes.

But well, I'm not here to talk about the definition of progressive rock, I'm here to describe the musical feelings of Meddle, starting with "One Of These Days". The album fades in with the usual wind soundscape of that years. And, within just some seconds, the bass enter with only one reverbering note. Another bass joins the first one, and they both play a heavy secuence of two alternatives notes. A very simple thing, and not complex at all. However, the strenght of this song lies on its musical power to make you forget any trouble. When the bass line changes from one to the other, the drum announces the chord change and the keyboard plays the chord just for a second. In the second minute, a breaking guitar enters to scene and plays the solo, which consists in long during notes with great reverberation. As the brief solo fades out, the bass line changes completely, sounding nearer and with a clearly diferent notes secuence. In fact it sounds like some kind of helicopter or other vehicle. If you can notice, there's something in the background. If I'm well imformed, it's the music from the beginning of the famous tv serial "Dr Who". But anyway. Suddenly, a lot of soundscapes start playing louder and faster, and the drums come back with a strong hit. And then, the sentence, like a killing thunder, appears in the path: "One of these days I'm gonna cut you into little pieces". Nothing else to say. And then, the last part of the song, and incredible bass riff with another guitar solo and the sudden ending, making you feel like falling from a cascade when guitar fades out down.

The second song, "A Pillow Of Pills". A guitar ballad driven by the guitar chords progression and the tears of a guitar which is always sounding behind everything, even when the vocal part is sung. The guitar line goes in a different only way, alone, apart from the rest of instruments. The most interesting of the song is the fusion of an aparently simple ballad with the atmospheres of the space rock which Pink Floyd were able to create. An my favourite part: second 1:50.

Next one, "Fearless". An excellent soft rock piece again, and like their last one, in the way of the next album Obscured By Clouds. Pink Floyd were the masters in playing atmospheric ballads which, while transmiting you happyness, they give you melancholy as well. And that's what happens to me when I hear this one, that I feel like staying in the place I'd like to be. After all, the best in this song is the guitar riff which sounds through it.

"San Tropez". Like Cat Food from King's Crimson In The Wake Of Poseidon album. A kind of blue rock songs which makes you feel like resting in a cafe while the piano man is playing his song. Softer than Cat Food, of course, much softer and relaxing. The piano plays very good chords here, while the guitar makes its line. And the piano solo, the only one in the album, is a really good and bluesy one.

And now, before the climax, a short preceding song, which always remembers me to Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, "Seamus". Seamus is the name of the dog which "sings" in the background. The song's got the blues rock sound of San Tropez, but it's quite an improvisation than other think. Despite the fact it's just a relax point before the last epic suite of the album, the songs performs an harmonica in just a few seconds in the background, quite strange coming from Pink Floyd.

Finally, the song, the suite, the one I consider the greatest prog rock combination of symphonic and space rock: "Echoes". And with echoes it starts. The notes from a modificated piano. One note played all through the song and a guitar solo with the magic of the sea. And the bass, slow and empty, floating over the water.

After the instrumental intro, the drum plays its hits and the vocal part begins, talking about green waves, lost worlds and depth. The chords pass from minor to major ones flying over your ears. The piano still plays its notes while the organ arrives and complements the guitar and bust chords, both three giving short riffs between every sentences. And, over all, the piano echoes. At the end of every verse, the guitar plays the famous solo chromatic riff, helped by the whole orchestra. When the vocals end, the guitar plays a solo over the chromatics scales, chords of every instrument, the drum incredible riffs and the melodic echoes from the piano. And this second part ends when you don't know how many instruments are you listening to at the same time.

The next part of the suite it's driven by a bass and organ heavy riff which doesn't stop untill the end of the same. It's incredible to notice the music change, because it passes from a space prog instrumental part to a heavy blues rock stronge line. And the incredible guitar solos which do never stop over the main riff are amazing. Finally, everything fades in to the most strange part of the song: lots of soundscapes representing the echoes from the title and hidden voices screaming for help and yelling in the sea.

Some minutes later, an organ starts to play an harmonic progression and a melody, while a bass fast line comes to help it and everything fates in. The melody which the organ plays here is the most beautiful one I've ever heard, and the guitar arpeggios are incredible, played over the bass and the organ.

To sum up the soul of the song, a new verse like the two first ones is sung ending with the chromatic scales, and, finally, the echoes of the piano, the organ, and the crying guitar from the beginning, everything ready to disappear between the last remaining sound of infinite voices. The last thing we hear is the piano note which the epic began with. The last echoe.

It's 4.5, really. I would rather give it a five than a four; there is just too much good music here. Maybe there is no such thing as a perfect masterwork after all. The math, where the length of 'Echoes' was taken in account, told me that the album deserves 4.375 at most. Since I have such reservations about this album, I will just give it a four and try to be in peace with that. Just remember that I would love to give this album a five, but I have to use fives and ones sparingly.

As of the time of this writing everything already has been said about 'One of These Days'. There is the desert wind, an echoed bass guitar duet, a menacing experimental clip in the middle, and David Gilmour doing justice to the track on the guitar with his proto-metallic style. What else can I say? The track kicks butt. Every metal-head should acknowledge this as archetypal and influential stuff.

The sound of the wind leads us to 'A Pillow of Winds'. The Floyd once again cover some ground in ambient-folk. Enamoring vocal harmonies, hypnotic slide guitar, evocative melodies, and the out-freaking-standing guitar tones ? what more could I possibly want from this song? I see the same kind of deal in the middle of 'Fearless'. If you want more charming folk, here you have it. The rest of the song is solid-enough material, i.e. a couple of acoustic guitar riffs to the left and to the right and a soccer crowd cheering in the end. Who would do something like the latter in folk-rock?

Along come a couple of mild numbers that seem to be sitting there for the sake of diversity. It seems that Roger Waters hasn't left those influences of French pop just yet, which is evident on 'San Tropez'. I like some of his vocal melodies, but nothing else. I think 'Seamus' is here for the sake of humor. Gilmour is playing blues as a dog moans to the performance. Poor dog.

Last, but certainly not least, comes an almost-everyone's favorite 20-minute 'Echoes'. Yes, there are quite a few echoes. We have a variation of 'Across the Universe' (and Robert Christgau himself noticed that, too), a funky jam, a massive guitar assault, and an experimental "wind" section with an imitation of the sound of a seagull (some roadie didn't plug that wah-wah pedal the right way). Then we have echoed electric guitar arpeggios that sound like jolly paced-up folk. It's amazing what those echo machines can do. All the repetitive work is done for you. I think, hence the title. All of that comes to a close with something Dave Gilmour called as an aural equivalent of Escher paintings, although I don't really see it that way. All in all, this is a pretty melodic and brainy proggy work as a synergy of the efforts from all team members. I wished I could play that in high school. Oh, you remember the sound of water dripping on 'Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast', right? That's what that "ping" note on the piano with the Leslie in the beginning and the end of 'Echoes' reminds me of.

I'm very glad that "Meddle" is highly acknowledged on this website, as opposed to what you see on Wikipedia, which is pretty deceiving.

Ratings/comments (if you have to ask):

1. 'One of These Days' - ****

2. 'A Pillow of Winds' - *****

3. 'Fearless' - *****

4. 'San Tropez' - **

5. 'Seamus' - *

6. 'Echoes' - *****

Stamp: "Highly recommended." Oh, yeah.

There are actually more than a few others I'm tempted to consider as being my favorite Pink Floyd albums, and a couple of them come incredibly close, but Meddle is the one I can understand feeling that way towards most, when I really think about it. It may seem similar in structure to the preceding album, and the side-long epic this time around does bear many similarites to the Atom Heart Mother Suite, but Echoes is actually a lot more complex and musically substantial, as good as Atom Heart Mother already was. First, though, I'd like to talk about the other side. Side One opens with one of those slow fade-ins that Pink Floyd does so well, in this case, wind, and not just any old wind. This wind sounds like it was recorded in a desert; one that might be inhabited by supernatural entities. The song it leads into is unbelievably atmospheric and dramatically powerful, and a huge leap forward in their sound. From what I understand, they'd just started using more tracks in the studio, and you can tell. There are not only two roaring, growling guitar parts, but two echoing bass parts to fill out the sound, enhanced greatly by backwards cymbals gnihsarc into brightly lit up, flanged keyboard chords. The jam they go into after the drums enter has an interestingly more classic rock sound than we'd usually get from them, yet those dual guitar leads are really out there, and the way the chord drops back into the wind is very effective. "A Pillow of Winds" begins in a very acoustic progressive mode, with many layers of beautiful acoustic guitars and vocals, a truly poetic use of major-minor key changing that matches the lyrics perfectly, and again, the atmosphere is more evocative than would seem logically possible with the instruments used. "Fearless" is great song, with great encouraging rebellious lryics, and a catchy guitar/banjo riff that's sure to get stuck in your head. Also relish the floating chorus, with Mason's highly laid-back drums and Gilmour's guitar swells. The two completely different styles of "San Tropez" and "Seamus" add even more ecelectisism to this wonderful side of music, the former slightly foreshadowing the next album (Obscured By Clouds), and having a very memorable piano solo from Wright and a great vocal perfomance from Waters. Hear Meddle on CD, not just vinyl, if only for the way "Seamus" segues into the first ping of "Echoes", where the album really takes off. Even if I don't end up sayin' Meddle's my favorite album of theirs, I'll still say "Echoes" is my favorite of all their songs. The gradual build into the main song portion is the definition of transportative, as is the middle section, with the desert notion from the beginning of the album brought into full bloom, and the sung portion itself is just one of the coolest things they've ever come up with, having some of the most breathtaking vocal harmonies from Wright and Gilmour, and they'd been good at writing lyrics to accompany their adventurous musical voyages, but they've really done it this time. Some great lines here, all the way from "Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air" to "and so I throw the windows wide and call to you across the skies." The funk jam afterwards is even funkier than Atom Heart Mother's, the smooth transition into the sounds section could probably literally hypnotise someone, and the layers of sparkling guitars in my favorite section of any Floyd song out there is one of the most profound musical statements I've ever heard in my life. I won't spoil the ending, in case you haven't heard the rest, but I will say that the album is without a doubt an essential masterpiece of progressive rock music, and if there are any albums made to be listened to in complete darkness, 'twould be Meddle.

Stylistically, Meddle is very close in sound and style to its predecessor. But this is a lot more focused and less sloppy than Atom Heart. The production is clearer, and the song-writing is simply superior. Perhaps the two most important things that make this album stand out for me are the dynamic atmosphere and mood changes throughout, and its inclusion of the epic Echoes. Though, side one is far from weak.

The album kicks off with 'One of these Days,' which is an instrumental. Roger plays a chunky bass line throughout, with Wright adding some keyboard flairs and Gilmour with some unique slide guitar. The song is very atmospheric, sometimes spooky, and has a beautifully crafted Crescendo.

'A Pillow of Winds' is an acoustic driven song with soft vocals from Gilmour and some nice keyboard touches. The song really takes you somewhere else with its relaxing atmosphere.

'Fearless' is based on a nice riff that repeats throughout. It's more upbeat, but still retains that beautiful atmosphere that is all throughout this album. My only dilemma with this song is the unneeded chanting at the end.

San Tropez is a fun, jazzy Beatles-esque number with Roger at lead vocals. Again, I like the relaxed mood of this song. Wright's "Vince Guaraldi-like" piano playing is very pleasant. Seamus is probably Floyd's worst post-Ummgumma song, and unfortunately hurts the flow of the album.

'Echoes,' in my opinion, is the best song they ever did. It is hard for me to invoke words that adequately describe how amazing this song is. The melodies are unforgettable, the atmosphere is dark and unsettling, and the mood changes are numerous and contrasting. It starts with the sharp pings of piano, and builds up slowly with Gilmour's classic whining guitar over Wright's keys. Vocals come in for only a few minutes, but provide some thought-evoking imagery. Gilmour has some of his typical amazing soloing before suddenly landing into an atypical groovy part. I really love this part; it contrasts beautifully with the rest of the album with its upbeat and happy nature, but more so because it's just fun to listen to. I can see why the middle section turns people off, but I've gotten used to it, and it offers an interesting, if a bit creepy, atmospheric dynamic. This segues flawlessly into the last 8-minutes, which contains some dramatic instrumentation and vocals to end this stunning masterpiece.

Overall, I would say Echoes is pretty much a better version of Atom Heart. There are some slightly weaker tracks, along with a grandiose epic. While this is not quite as good as Dark Side of Wish You Were Here, it is still a solid album from a confident Pink Floyd who are resting comfortably in their newly found sound.

8/10

1971 was a landmark year for progressive rock. Keith Tippett released two groundbreaking albums, one with his personal group and another with his monstrous 50 piece big band, Centipede. Yes released one of their best albums, Fragile, easily seating them as a prog powerhouse. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer unleashed the keyboard-laden Tarkus upon the masses, exposing Emerson's virtuosity and musical abilities. King Crimson hit a turning point with their release of Islands, splitting their fanbase. Genesis began their short-lived foray into progressive rock stardom with Nursery Cryme, which contained fan favorites The Musical Box and Return of the Giant Hogweed. But, one album stood out... and that was Pink Floyd's newest album, Meddle.

Meddle truly marks a turning point for the Floyd. The previous year, they experimented with avant-garde music and longer suites with their release of Atom Heart Mother. The psychedelia from their years with Barrett are quickly becoming a thing of the past. However, Meddle was the "stepping stone" from their poppy psychedelia and avant-garde experiments into legitimate progressive rock. This really has embedded Meddle as one of my absolute all time favorite progressive rock albums, and number one Floyd album. Onto the tracks!

The thunderous bass of Waters creates a heavy atmosphere in One of These Days. Wright's ominous organ chords truly add to the mysterious and dark nature of the track. Strange effects from Gilmour lead into the garbled mumbling of the famous threat (which was actually Mason's processed voice) "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces". Gilmour then proceeds to lay down a ripping slide tone, while the band still jams around Waters's bassline. After a few seconds, the band stops quite abruptly. An excellent track!

A serene guitar line opens the next track, A Pillow of Winds. The dark atmosphere of the previous track is all but gone. Gilmour's soothing voice and peaceful guitar playing relax the listener. A different, more sad sound comes in near the middle of the song, but it quickly moves back to the peaceful sounds from earlier. Not the best track (especially preceding One of These Days), but would not have been out of place on an album like More or Atom Heart Mother.

Fearless opens with one excellent riff after another. The guitar work from Gilmour here is superb! The football audience saying "you'll never walk alone" in the background adds to the hopeful nature of this track. The lyrics deal with stepping out of your shell and facing authority without fear. The only drawback to this great song is the last minute of the football audience again, this time a little more raucous. A better ending would have made this one of the all time best Floyd songs, but it's still very good nonetheless.

San Tropez runs back to the relaxed nature of A Pillow of Winds, with a nice acoustic opening. Waters's unique voice really drives this track, creating an atmosphere similar to sitting on a beach and basking in the sun. Many Floyd fans pass this song off as "a Barrett ripoff" or "a novelty track", but I humbly disagree. I really consider it to be one of the first Waters solo works (which I adore), and somewhat laying groundwork for the future of the Floyd and Waters himself.

Seamus is one of those love/hate tracks, but mostly hate. It's a more bluesy recording, with Gilmour at the helm. A dog named Seamus (which belonged to one of the producers, if I recall correctly) is howling along in the background. This gives the song a more "sitting on the porch with my guitar and dog" feel, giving it a humorous and down-home feel. It may seem out of place on this album, but it shows the more down-to-earth side of the Floyd.

Echoes. Oh my god, Echoes. This song is my personal all-time favorite. The 23 minute monster opens with a submarine-esque piano sound, played by Wright. It sets the mysterious tone for the song. The note is played a few more times, with Gilmour eventually adding in some smooth guitar work. The whole band eventually joins in, creating a soaring melody before going back into a slow jam. The melody comes flying back in, and the verse begins. Gilmour's smooth voice tracked along with Wright's angelic tone creates a wonderful feeling, and so much emotion. The chorus begins, and the main riff comes crashing down, adding to the lyrics and making one feel like they are truly in the ocean. The verse returns, and the chorus comes again. The main riff falls upon us again, and after a few plays... the magic starts. Gilmour proceeds to lay out one of his best and most emotional solos ever. After Gilmour's spot, the main riff is played a few more times. Suddenly, the band begins a jam session. The group is playing so tightly around Gilmour's second solo, with Waters's funky bass and Mason's precise drumming. After a few minutes of jamming, Gilmour starts to slide down into a darker area. The band fades out, and all that's left is a wind sound. Gilmour starts to create his iconic seagull effects, which are layered with the wind and crow sounds. After a while, Gilmour starts (again) up a straight riff. He continues strumming a few different notes, while Wright brings back the opening piano notes. Mason eventually joins in. At about 16 minutes into the song, one of the most iconic Floyd moments happens. Gilmour launches into another emotional riff, signaling the end of the second jam and the outro of the song. After the riff, the band goes back into the straight-note jam for a little. Suddenly, the final verse starts up again. The chorus arrives, and the main riff is played once more. The jams pretty hard on these last few riffs, and eventually slows down. Gilmour begins his final solo with emotion, almost with a sad tone for the ending of the song. The band jams once again to the end. A spacey/launch sounding effect closes the song, and the second side of the record. An amazing journey.

5 stars to the best Floyd album ever. This album is truly the milestone of Pink Floyd's extensive career, showing their maturity into progressive rock icons. From heavy bass riffs to soft guitar, and hopeful lyrics and lengthy jam sessions... this is the essential Pink Floyd record.

Having heard this album for the first time years after "Dark Side," "Wish You Were Here," "Animals" and "The Wall" is it any wonder that I found it laughable in its simplicity and "derivativeness"?! It is really difficult to try to listen to this from a perspective that might exclude any knowledge of what came after--but I want to! I want to try to appreciate this for the step in the band's evolution towards the masterpieces that were to come next. But I can't. the bass line, the organ play, the effected vocal "samples" and, yes, even the slide guitar work of the first song, "One of These Days" (5:57) are so far from the polish and "maturity" that was to come. 2. "A Pillow of Winds" (5:13) is closer to AMERICA, The OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS, and THE ALLMAN BROTHERS than "Dark Side of the Moon." (8.25/10) 3. "Fearless" (6:08) (8/10) is also nearer to a CROSBY, STILLS, & NASH Southern Rock acoustic ballad than anything PINK FLOYD that came after. 4. "San Tropez" (3:43) (8.25/10) sounds like it's straight off of a HARRY NILSSON album--like "Me & My Arrow" from "The Point" and 5. "Seamus" (2:16) (3/5) is almost impossible to take seriously--Does it have anything to do or compare with the music the band did later? Perhaps they just needed some lighter times after all they had been through with Syd Barrett. And the side-long epic of Side Two, "Echoes" (23:31) (8.5/10) is drawn out so much longer than it needed to be. Three minutes of plucking "echoes" before we get to the singing! Now, I know that the melody, chord progression, singing style and cadences here came before the two "Breathe"s and "Time," but, pleeeez! Can't they be more original? In fact, this song, for me, is just a warm up for the big stuff later--like a freshman basketball or football game when compared to the college or professional games that would come later. Obviously, these boys had a lot of growing to do before they got to DSotM! 3.5 stars rated up for the fact that so much of this stuff made it possible for the later stuff.

How I already said in other reviews...I'm not a Space prog enthusiast and ... so minus a PINK FLOYD fan...However, I entirely agree with the P A reviewers when they have conceded the highest quotation "Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music" from "Meddle". In fact, to me this album along with "The Dark Side of the Moon" and "Wish You Were Here" are the "sacred trilogy" from PINK FLOYD. This album is varied in terms of composition and musical "landscape". The first track "One Of These Days" is a space prog with a strong inclination to hard or heavy prog, the track 2 " A Pillow Of Winds' is a "meditative" song where Gilmour's lap steel ( or something like that ) and Wright's organ make a perfect 'tapestry", the track 3 is similar to track 2, but the repetitive rhythm "transfigure" the music in a type of martial theme, the track 4 "Saint Tropez" have a jazz "flavor", but is one weak moment into the album, the track 5 "Seamus" is another weak point. The track 6 "Echoes" without a trace of doubt, is which more contributes for the high note to this album.... with a fantastic overture when the band work is very consistent and equilibrated between all instruments, a heavy riff, a "improvisation" part, a special effects section and a return to the main theme very elaborated where the music slowly "walk' to eclosion and to retake their course until a almost "ethereal" end. My rate of course is 5 stars !!!

After years of floundering creatively due to the loss of frontman and mastermind Syd Barrett, you would be forgiven for thinking Pink Floyd was over by 1971. At best, you'd expect them to improve slowly and steadily, moving away from experimental tracks and towards more clear- cut songwriting. But what happens on Meddle is the least thing you'd suspect: The new Pink Floyd has arrived practically over night, finally applying their soundscapes and experimental working methods to a solid set of memorable songs. The transformation to the band you know from The Dark Side of the Moon is not entirely complete, as Roger Waters' morose lyrics are nowhere to be found and the band still dabbles in subdued folk and experimental psychedelia, but whatever elements remain from their old style are seamlessly integrated into Meddle's aesthetic.

Meddle inhabits a strange middle ground in Pink Floyd's discography, sitting between the psychedelic excesses of their early years and the focused songwriting that was about to come. But it's also the band's most pleasant and expansive album, one that leaves you deeply relaxed, if a bit exhausted (which is why I can't give it a higher grade), after listening to it, which is a nice change of pace from the band's usual misanthropic attack. It might not have as many big songs as the following two records, but for what it's worth.

Even though Meddle serves as apart of the pivoting point in the band's career, it contains standouts even when compared to their following albums (generally seen as their classics). "Echoes" is undoubtedly much more famous than this album, and it's ON it!!

"One of These Days" was a great choice for the album opener. It's a heavy jam, considering the men playing it. Possibly the closest thing to metal PF ever came. The idea doesn't go anywhere and ends with wind that drifts into "A Pillow of Winds". An alright tune, yes. Logical, because it contrasts from the tone of the opener. The song has a few key changes into minor and back to major. It's the main section that begins the song and returns 2/3 of the way through that'll captivate. The organ chords and simple melody lift up and resolve while sounding a D# over the E chord (major 7th) that gives this tune its sort of lift to the listener. It's a decent track.

"Fearless" is also relatively light. Defined and clearly driven by scaling upward on the guitar, it's just catchy. Nothing more to really go into about this one. It seems like it's supposed to move one a bit more than "Pillow" was meant to, but it's just relaxing again. The song also ends with fade-out into chanting? I'm not gonna question it.

So far there aren't many captivating melodies and harmonic moments to pull you under the spell of Meddle (or under the water and into the ear of, uh.... Ya know what, forget that thought). San Tropez is along the same lines. Acoustic guitar and piano offer for some deviation in timbre from the previous tunes. It's also short but also uses a few harmonic choices that intrigue. It's short. "Seamus" has barking. The song deserves no more words than that.

What partially has your attention at the first tunes just spirals downward into boredom for many. It's hard to wait for "Echoes", which is already a very mellow, even though gorgeous gloom, but it still sounds great by the time you reach it. The journey there is just okay. Only the opener deserves most of your attention. Other than that, we don't have any "bad" songs other than the dreaded "Seamus". If I were to average out these songs' quality, I'd probably come up with 3.0 or 3.5 at best, but all the tracks in context of an album just don't cut it. Unless you don't mind things keeping very tame and simple, Meddle is not for you.

4.5 stars. This marks the precise point in their career where the Floyd finally found their direction post Syd Barrett's departure. Go to this album after you've listened to Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.

This album, Meddle, is often seen as the missing link to The Dark Side of the Moon, and it's easy to see why. Even though there was an album in between Meddle and Dark Side, named Obscured by Clouds, this is a more direct precursor to their big breakthrough. The song that alludes to that magnum opus the most is "Echoes". Brilliant from start to finish, it is the ultimate Pink Floyd song. Complete with Roger's best lyrics, great musicianship (like the jam sequence at 7 minutes), and moments of experimentation. This side-long epic is Pink Floyd at their most focused and most progressive.

Meddle offers a lot of variety in only 6 tracks. "One Of These Days" is a heavy song with double bass playing, "A Pillow Of Winds" is a gentle folky tune, and "Fearless" is a guitar driven song with a great riff. "San Tropez" and "Seamus" are kind of weak but the other songs more than make up for it.

If you have heard Dark Side and Wish already, then by all means, check this one out as well. A fine album made even better by the aforementioned "Echoes". Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection.

I picked this album up because of the praise I had read regarding the epic track "Echoes," expecting to be blown away. Echoes certainly lived up to the hype surrounding it, and I'm glad that I picked this album up solely for that track. I find myself playing "Echoes" more than nearly any other song on this album, and to anyone who has managed to go without hearing this album, I'd recommend getting it solely for that track.

However, there are still 5 other songs on this album, and some of them certainly merit attention. Opener "One of These Days" manages to be catchy and have a really nice buildup. The following song, "Pillow of Winds," also manages to weave nice melodies in a fairly hypnotic and peaceful track. Over time, I've come to actually appreciate Fearless as well. San Tropez, for what it's worth, also does not detract much from the quality of the album. The only track that really does is Seamus, but because it's only a little over 2 minutes and not very relevant in the grand scheme, I'm going to just mostly dismiss it.

Because some of the tracks on here are clearly essential Pink Floyd and the whole experience is fairly pleasant, I've come to the conclusion that rounded up this is a 5 star album.

I've always found Pink Floyd's Meddle to be their first real masterpiece (and the site would say the same). After all, the album was released in 1971, years before Dark Side (1973), WYWH (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979) were recorded. I was actually, in my first inquisitions in the whole sound of Pink Floyd, sort of confused on what to do for the album. I mean, I had never heard of it prior, back when all I had was The Wall to introduce me to the band, so I didn't know what to think. Nonetheless, I purchased the album shorty after hearing the great respect many people had for it. I listened to it excitedly, since it was my second only purchase from them.

Afterwards, I was speechless. I was blown away by the pure skill the band showed on this release, especially with the instrumental of 'One Of These Days'. It astonished me how such an early release of a band could be so masterful, without these guys having tried as much as other bands. That was before I knew that the band had learned what they shouldn't do and should continue to do extremely quickly, and were able to easily produce a masterpiece such as this. This release also marked the turning point for Pink Floyd whole sound change from floaty space-rock to more solid, workable material. It definitely got Pink Floyd on the charts with something like the 24 minute long epic of 'Echoes', widely regarded as the song that changed the band forever. So what about my thoughts? I thought, overall, that this album was exactly how people described it; a colorful masterpiece.

The album, even though it is a lot more progressive, couldn't totally shake off the Barrett days quite yet. A song that reminded me heavily of it was 'Seamus', which, in my opinion, didn't really need to be put on the album due to it's nonsensical attitude and extreme brevity, was very reminiscent to the work of Barrett on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. But aside from that, there are some neat psychedelic ditties on here like 'Fearless' and 'San Tropez', both of which are really cool songs that are great for casual listening. The latter I would say, is a unique gem for the Pink Floyd collector, with it's bouncy, lighthearted attitude, and dare I say it, indie like qualities? I shiver at the thought, but I suppose there's no other way to describe it. As stated before, the opener of 'One of These Days' marks the heaviest song since More's 'The Nile Song' and 'Ibiza Bar'. It is really cool track, centerpieced by a bass riff being set through a 'delay unit', causing it to have a double bass effect. Combine this with some really awesome drumming from Mason and great usage of synthesizer, and you've got a real great piece of Pink Floyd music.

While the rest of the album is pretty typical to Pink Floyd, they are all overshadowed by the behemoth epic of Echoes, which is the second longest song in PF history (next to Atom Heart Mother (23:42)). It finishes off the album with a huge firework that was heard all around the world. Starting in with a single and iconic staccato keyboard key being played for a time until it shifts into a more complete sound. Synth comes in to take over and after some time, the song changes into a more recognizable piece. Let me just say, this song did influence Pink Floyd in a variety of different ways, especially with the art-sy use of synthesizer and melodic space-rock guitar riffs that people know from Dark Side of the Moon. Not to mention that this album features beautiful lyrics and vocals that you could hear on their later concept albums. Towards the third quarter, the song shifts several times, from going back to floaty and then to a hard beat that was on 'One Of These Days'. It overall ends with the original sound and goes out with a bang. A real moving experience. Dare I say, you could listen to 'Echoes' as it's own album and still be quite satisfied.

Overall, this album is, in a way, an underrated masterpiece. Perhaps more known by Prog fans and critics, but it is less known to those PF newbies out there. I highly and warmly suggest that any progressive rock fan take a shot at this great work of art if you haven't already.

Probably the first "proper" Pink Floyd album. There are still the occasional psychedelic tinged "rock 'n rollers" and almost folksy tunes ("Fearless,", "San Tropez") that don't exactly fit in with the "Wish You Were Here" variety, but much like "Atom Heart Mother" before, the spotlight on this album shines on the opener and closer.

"One Of These Days" sounds like a demo that the band just noodled around with that could've easily feel at home on "Dark Side", I kid you not. It's one long build up, the demonic quote, and then just a good ol fashioned jam to close it out. I personally think it encapsulates the quintessential Pink Floyd sound that would be known worldwide for years to come.

I don't want to go so far as to say the middle of the album is very "meh", but like "Atom Heart Mother", these just sound like songs the bad HAD to make in order to be commercially viable, since we're still in the middle of their movie soundtrack period. They're not bad songs at all (I personally like "A Pillow Of Winds" and "San Tropez"), but you just wouldn't recognize the band as Pink Floyd. That is, until you hear Gilmore singing.

Clearly the star of the show is "Echoes", once again, a quintessential masterpiece, highlighting the best the band has ever offered, electronic soundscapes, ambient noises, wonderful vocals and kickass jams and guitar solos. It really reminds me of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a track they'd record 4 years later.

That's the interesting thing about his album to me. "Meddle" and "Obscured by Clouds" (though not their greatest effort) are albums that solidified this band's identity, written only a year apart, and a year after "Clouds" came "Dark Side Of The Moon", one of the all time classics, and even though compositionally "Clouds" is trumped by "Dark Side", the potential can be heard on "Clouds", and especially here on "Echoes".

I wonder if people ever predicted such a future for this band when Meddle came out. Would've been an interesting story to tell at the local bar, mind you.

Despite not being their best work (look to WYWH or DSotM for that), 'Meddle' remains my favourite Pink Floyd album to this day... had I not heard it round at a mate's place back in 1972 when I was still in high school, I may never have got into the Floyd in quite the same way. [Many thanks Nick Garthwaite, wherever you are.] So as a life long fan/fanatic my views may be somewhat biased, or even warped!

The album is topped and tailed by two magnificent tone poems, 'One of These Days' and 'Echoes' - the latter filling the whole of side two of the LP, and effectively being the rock equivalent of a symphony in four movements. In between we have two pleasant romantic songs in 'A Pillow of Winds', and the cocktail hour number 'San Tropez'. A different matter though is the splendid track 'Fearless' which, like 'Free Four' from 'Obscured By Clouds', contains themes that Roger Waters would expand on later, in particular on DSotM, The Wall, and The Final Cut.

Ending side one we have the throwaway track 'Seamus' - I personally feel that had it not been included on 'Relics' earlier in the year, that 'Biding My Time' possibly could have take its place... once again it is a rare romantic song from the Floydian Canon that fits in with the overall warm fireside glow of this album.

#1 on my all time list of favourite albums since 1972!

The first of the generally-regarded Pink Floyd classics, "Meddle" is an album that will undoubtedly entice Pink Floyd's fanbase. But like its successor, Dark Side of The Moon, it leaves little of interest to other demographics.

Unlike about 99.999% of reviewers here, I firmly believe that side one is superior to side two. The album's first side starts with "One of These Days", an exhilarating but compositionally-lacking uptempo number. The next few selections are all slower, more mellow songs. "Pillow of Winds" is the album highlight, with its beautiful lyrics and instrumental harmonies. Side two contains little more than the endless, noodling "Echoes", a low-tier prog epic at best. There are few songs out there that match "Echoes'" sheer low density of musical ideas. The song is perfectly fine if you just want to zone out for half an hour but if you want more than just background music, look elsewhere.

I will give this album 2 stars, not because I think it's bad, but because it really is a fans-only album. For Pink Floyd fan's, this is a must-have as it is an archetypal, representative piece of their discography. For the broader prog fan base, however, this is one that wouldn't be missed.

Meddle is the first in the Pink Floyd canon that actually sounds like a Pink Floyd album. With Atom Heart Mother, the band was progressing towards that now familiar Floyd sound, but they couldn't quite shake off those Syd Barrett-psychedelic cobwebs. With Meddle, Pink Floyd would firmly plant themselves alongside other prog giants such as Yes, Genesis, King Crimson and Gentle Giant, among others. While I have much praise for this album, I'm obliged to note its inconsistencies, which is the reason why it'll never achieve the legendary status of such heavyweights as Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall. Still, I would firmly entrench Meddle in that Top 5 of classic Pink Floyd albums, if only because of the presence of the epic side-length piece "Echoes", quite possibly the greatest masterpiece in the Pink Floyd songbook.

Meddle contains three top-notch songs that rank highly among Pink Floyd's compositions. Those are "One of These Days", "Fearless" and "Echoes". "One of These Days" is an instrumental with a distinct muted bass and a single ominous line from Nick Mason: "One of These Days I'm Going to Cut You Up Into Little Pieces!" It's a high-tempo piece which sets the album up beautifully and segues into the much more subdued "A Pillow of Winds", one of the few ballads the group ever wrote. "A Pillow of Winds" is actually a quite lovely song, but considering the group its from, it's a little disappointing for the average Pink Floyd listener. The next track is the second great piece on Meddle, "Fearless". Ah, the days when David Gilmour and Roger Waters would write songs TOGETHER, and everything turned out wonderful. "Fearless" is a song about an "idiot" who is determined to do everything his own way, and I think it's a wonderful piece about bucking conformity and going about things in your own manner. The track does fade out with a quite annoying chant from Liverpool fans, but most Pink Floyd fans will be able to live with that. "San Tropez" is an easy listening (!) piece from Roger Waters about lounging around said resort island and "drinking champagne like a good tycoon." It sounds hideous at first, but with repeated listens, it's actually not quite bad. Side One concludes with "Seamus", a humorous blues track from David Gilmour's dog. No seriously. The dog puts on quite a good show with the vocals. There's not very many dogs capable of what "Seamus" does on this track.

Now, for the magnum opus, "Echoes". "Echoes" is majestic, as close to religious music as Pink Floyd would ever get - and yes, that includes "Atom Heart Mother"- before Dark Side would release "Time" and "The Great Gig in the Sky". Reportedly, "Echoes" was supposed to be about space, but Roger Waters changed the lyrics to reflect ocean life, because he didn't like that the band was being shoehorned into the "space rock" movement, and he wanted to get the band far removed from that moniker. "Echoes" opens up with a distinctive keyboard note from Richard Wright that would recur throughout the song. The guitar playing from David Gilmour is fantastic, and in the middle of the song the band suddenly shifts gears and transitions into a long buildup, with Wright playing the organ and Gilmour playing muted notes on the guitar, supposedly inspired by "Good Vibrations". "Echoes" is a must-listen track for any prog fan, and especially any Pink Floyd fan. Definitely their best song from the pre-Dark Side of the Moon era.

Meddle is a great album, but because of it's inconsistencies it can't truly be called a Pink Floyd "classic" in the vein of Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Her, Animals and The Wall. However, Meddle is one of the group's best efforts, and it marks the album when the band shook off the chains of their psychedelic roots and steered full-steam ahead into the ocean of prog. That said, Meddle is a landmark album for Pink FLoyd, and definitely an album that every prog fan should give a listen to.

Meddle is for many people the greatest album before Pink Floyd made their breakthrough internationally (with Dark Side Of The Moon), including me. It has a great mysterious and slightly dark/psychedelic ambience over the whole album - well, almost the whole album, it also shows the new style Pink Floyd introduces, a more calm and relaxing feeling. Let's look at the tracks and find out why it's so appreciated by prog fans.

We start off with a very repetitious track, which is a bit of a downside to this track in my opinion. Therefore I can't tell you a lot more about it. What I do have to say is that it introduces the album and it's overall feeling quite well.

The next, "A Pillow Of Winds" is a calming, very listenable Floydian song. It starts out pretty happy, but it gets more mysterious as the song progresses. Gilmours voice suits this song perfectly I think, the song has an own personality and Gilmour is an unmissable element.

"Fearless" is a track which is a little more happy, but it also sounds quite relaxed. Ok, this sets you in a fine mood, but it's a bit boring though, too few interesting things to listen too; almost like it was very late at night and they thus almost fell asleep playing this. Oh yeah and by the way, we like Liverpool.

The first time I heard "San Tropez", I couldn't help thinking if this is truly composed by Pink Floyd, as it's very different. A fine song though, it sets you in a certain, notable mood. Somtimes it seems like if every song on the first side of the LP is made to prepare you for the masterpiece "Echoes". So does the next song "Seamus", making you really long for something different, something psychedelic...

There, we get what we want; and it compensates the first half of the album. Starting very mysterious and melodic, we go through a lot of nice chord progressions, we see the rise of something, but what the song really is about, is totally up to you. The lyrics are so beautiful, lyric, and meaningful and cohese, but it's hard to say exactly what it's about. A way to prove that this song is truly terrific is covering this song on piano, then you'll see the beauty of the harmonic structures and all the effort there must have been put into this piece. Also you hear so many influences and styles mixed, it's one of the most eclectic pieces Pink Floyd have composed. And although we go through a lot of different "rooms" (sounds), as I always like to say, it all flows very naturally. Because it's so eclectic, it suits perfectly as a bridge between the dark/psychedelic Floyd phase and the more symphonic/classic prog phase. Oh, by the way you must have heard Rick playing this (especcially the intro) as played live in Gdańsk. It's the last tour he did and he did it just outstanding.

It's very difficult to rate this album, as there is such a big difference between the first half of the album and "Echoes". All in all it will be 4 stars for me.

Review Nº 62

This is my fifth review of a Pink Floyd's album. The others are their eighth, ninth and tenth studio albums "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals" which were released in 1973, 1975 and 1977 respectively, and their third live album "Live 66-67" released in 1999. Now it comes the time of "Meddle". "Meddle" is their sixth studio album and was released in 1971. The album was recorded at a series of locations around London, including the Abbey Road Studios, and at several occasions between January and August of 1971. "Meddle" reached gold record in 1973 and platinum and double platinum in 1994.

"Meddle" has six tracks. The first track "One Of These Days" written by David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright is an instrumental piece of music that can be considered the first song that would mark the future sound of the band. It became the final expression of the Pink Floyd's trademark, and it also features the traditional double-tracked bass guitars played by Gilmour and Waters. The second track "A Pillow Of Winds" written by Gilmour and Waters is an acoustic song, calm and something different from the usual characteristics songs performed by the band. The song also features slide guitar work by Gilmour. It's a very nice and relaxing acoustic piece of music that has the ability, if we close our eyes, to make us dreaming and painting a picture in our own way. The third track "Fearless" also written by Gilmour and Waters follows the logic of the two previous songs and also begins to change the usual musical atmosphere of the album, creating a real vivacious sound. Waters plays all the acoustic guitar parts on the studio recordings and all the strange and intricate guitar work presented on this track is performed by Gilmour. The fourth track "San Tropez" written by Waters is one of the two smallest and weakest songs on the album. The song reflects an idealized vision of Waters of what a day in San Tropez might be like. It's the only song on the album sung by him. On the song, Waters plays the acoustic guitar and the track also includes a Gilmour's short slide guitar solo and an extended Wright's piano solo work too. Despite being a good ballad, this song is somewhat dislocated from the rest of the musical context of the album. The fifth track "Seamus" written by Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright is the other smallest and weakest song on the album. It's a blues song about Seamus, the Gilmour's dog. It's sung by Gilmour and in the bottom of it we can hear the dog barking, as if he sang along with its owner. Fortunately, it's the smallest song on the album. Sincerely, besides having one of the most bad and absurd lyrics I've ever heard, it's also, in my humble opinion, completely dislocated from the rest of the musical context of the album. Finally, we have the last but not the least, the sixth track "Echoes". It represents the great masterpiece of the album and was written by Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright. This is one of the best known tracks from the group and it's also the third lengthiest song from the group with 23:29, behind "Atom Heart Mother" with 23:44 and the nine parts of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" with 26:01. This song would become the great discovery of Pink Floyd and would also become their secret key which allowed them to find their real musical roots. It represents the new real starting point of Pink Floyd and made that this was the band that would appear two years later with their great trilogy, "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals". This is the only reason why I give 5 stars to this album.

Conclusion: In my humble opinion, Pink Floyd released five studio masterpieces, "Meddle", "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here", "Animals" and their eleventh studio album "The Wall" released in 1979. However, there are slight differences between them. While "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals" are three absolute masterpieces, "Meddle" and "The Wall" are also masterpieces but with inferior value, but for different reasons. About "Meddle", if instead of "San Tropez" and "Seamus" had two other better songs, it would be certainly a better album. About "The Wall", I will explain my personal point of view when I do make the review of it. "Meddle" was the album that started the turning point of the band's sound, which became more evolved and original. "Meddle" launched the roots of what would be the trademark of their music, which would influence so many bands of so different styles of music, all over the time, and even today. "Meddle" launched the band, particularly through "The Dark Side Of The Moon", to the world of fame and stardom, beyond the realm of the progressive rock, having reached a so high level, that we can say that no more other progressive band reached, until now. Finally, I'll leave you with a phrase of Gilmour that, in my humble opinion, defines the importance that "Meddle" had for the group: «"Meddle" are among of my favourite Pink Floyd albums. For me, it was the beginning of the walk of Pink Floyd"».

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

REVIEW #7 - "Meddle" by Pink Floyd (1971)

Following their album "Atom Heart Mother", Pink Floyd was in a dilemma where they really did not know where to go. The previous album was a largely experimental work, but there was no concrete harmony between the songs to create a cohesive album. Nevertheless, the band attempted to correct this issue by recording a new album. Using various recording techniques, and overcoming creative roadblocks, songs began to flow and the album was recorded amidst the band's touring schedule. Upon release, it was a hit in the UK, and is considering to be a great step in the right direction for the band. The cover of the album, once again designed by Hipgnosis, is of an ear underwater (it was originally supposed to be a close up of a baboon's anus, but the band vetoed that idea).

The album opens up with an avant-garde piece titled "One of These Days" (4/5); the lone single to be released from the album. Centered around a bass line, played by two bass guitars (Waters, Gilmour) it is mostly instrumental. After a lengthy build-up, we hear the distorted voice of drummer Nick Mason say "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces" before the song hits a groovy tempo, eventually faded out by the sound of wind to segue into the next song "A Pillow of Winds" (4/5); an acoustic soft song (about Mahjong) reminiscent of the shorter tracks on their previous album. This one however is far better in comparison, attaining a dreamy tone with Gilmour's soft spoken vocals. Next up is the track "Fearless" (3/5); most notable for featuring the anthem of Liverpool F.C. "You'll Never Walk Alone" as a sound effect among the music, then "San Tropez" (5/5); another soft track like the second track on the album, yet a bit groovier. Based on the French town along the Mediterranean Sea, it captures the calm dreamy tone very well. The final song on side one is the humorous "Seamus" (1/5), a bluesy song with the constant annoying sound of a dog barking in the background. Overall this first side is really good - the softer tracks are very strong, while the opener has a solid build up and a great tone thereafter. The only disappointing facet here is that closing track - one of the more annoying songs I have ever heard, and is frankly just not in place on the album. At best, this should have been a B-side, and it unfortunately drags the entire first side down as it ends, leaving the listener confused as to how the album started off so promising, but ended so oddly.

Side two is what this album is famous for. With one track, it is the legendary twenty-three minute masterpiece "Echoes" (5/5). Opening with a trademark pinging noise created by keyboardist Richard Wright after playing a single piano note through a Leslie speaker, the music unfolds, propelling the listener into a different world, as the first verse of lyrics establishes a surreal ocean setting. The second verse is less clear; possibly having something to do about we as humans are interconnected. Following these lyrics we guitar a solid guitar solo as the tense atmosphere gives way to a groovy tempo change before leveling off completely into nothingness. Now with the listener somewhere deep in interstellar space, the music comes back very slowly as you are sent back to the world of the song. Another set of lyrics follows before the song closes slowly and with grandeur. The journey ends as the pinging from the beginning returns, book-ending the song perfectly. One of the greatest prog rock songs, and arguably the best epic to come from Pink Floyd, this song is a must-listen. Whether it be under the stars, or as you are falling asleep, this song has the rare ability to separate you from reality and bring you into a different world. The entire first side does not matter when put in comparison with this song - you could take ELP's "Love Beach" and make it the first side and this album would still be great.

"Meddle" would kickstart Pink Floyd's slow but monumental climb to fame. Emerging from the dilemma of direction put forth by "Atom Heart Mother", the band received acclaim for the album - most notably for "Echoes". Later that year, the band would record a live "movie" of the band playing in the deserted town of Pompeii in Italy with both "One of These Days" and "Echoes" featured (the version of "Echoes" on Live at Pompeii is amazing - I highly recommend you listen to it if you have not already). Reaching #3 on the album charts in the UK, it only reached #70 in the US due to poor advertising. Definitely one of the seminal works by the band, the first side is not recommended listening, but the album is worth listening to (and enduring "Seamus") for "Echoes." This album certainly would have scored higher if it had a stronger first side, but receives a good score nonetheless.

OVERALL: 4.0/5 (B-)

Their best pre-concept album.

Meddle sees Floyd continue experimenting with new sounds and instruments, and putting those to good effect in creating very innovative but also very musical pieces. The standout track is "Echoes", yet despite the prosaic title this is a very well-developed epic with some of the most unique and interesting sounds they ever produced. The eerie 'siren' sound that Gilmour makes in the middle section involved him innovating with his wah pedal, producing a totally unique and never-repeated (except by him) sound, while he experimented with the doubling-up of various guitar pedals for part B of the song (the funky part, with the crazy-loud guitar solos). And the part before the end, like on One of these Days, sees them experimenting with the (then-tape-based) echo units to create the first (to my knowledge) repeat-echo guitar line that The Edge (from U2) would use to such good effect on many of U2's hits (and which Gilmour himself would use again for 'Another Brick in the Wall part 1', and 'Run Like Hell' on The Wall). Indeed, Echoes could be seen as the origin of Andrew Lloyd Weber's main theme for Phantom of the Opera, as he seemingly copied (ripped off?) the five-note descending and then ascending line from Echoes for that. (Could this be why Roger Waters, on his album 'Amused to Death', suggests it would be a "miracle" if the piano lid fell down on Lloyd-Weber's hand while playing it?). Anyway, an iconic wonderful innovative epic, which takes up all of side B. Side A, meanwhile, is also beautiful and sees the Floyd in a much more pastoral acoustic mode. After the experimental echo-based One of these Days, with wonderful pedal-steel electric solo by Gilmour, the Floyd follow with four acoustic numbers, "Pillow of Winds", "Fearless", the light-hearted "San Tropez", and then the dog-blues tune "Seamus". Each of these, while likely somewhat meant as filler, are very musical, and the album moves effortlessly from song to song until the climax in Echoes. The whole album is a really rewarding musical experience, and set them up well for the idea of a concept album. I give this album 9.4 out of 10 on my 10-point scale. A wonderful musical album.

4.75: Is the sixth album by Pink Floyd, most known by the amazing Echoes song, is a collection of songs with different flavors and styles that was recorded in different studios during a tour. Comercially wasnt so succesfully, excluding the UK, at least at the beginning. For me, the best album before Waters took the led of the band, and the fourth of my top. it conserve the style of the pink floyd of the first albumes, more psychodelic, experimental, instrumental and with really good acoustic sections. Seamus, one of the most critized song of the band, is a simple blus song, however I considered it interesting how they combined the music with the dog in the background barking. It is not a perfect album, but the really good momments that it has, bring it to my top 4 of Pink Floy albumes, especially for echoes, one of the best songs of Pink Floyd. This last song is a masterpiece combination of sounds and amazing riff and solos, along with astonish keyboard passages that keeps you delighted by most than 20 minutes, also the lyrics is amazing, talking of the appearance of humans in the planet earth without knowing what is the reason of being here and what to do at the beginning of times, at least that is my interpretation influenced of course by other fan opinions . A perfect addition to any prog collection.

Often I'll find that it takes many listens before my definitive thoughts on an album are formed, with Pink Floyd's Meddle, this has proven to be false, as my opinion on this album is almost identical to my initial couple of listens. While I find this album relaxing and calm, with a very dreamlike atmosphere throughout, I find the majority of the songs here to be relatively mediocre or straight up bad. That isn't to say that this album is completely without merit, as both One Of These Days and the 23 minute epic Echoes are some of the highest points the band ever approached, the former definitely being one of my favourite songs by the band.

One of These Days is one of my favourite rock instrumentals of all time, with a great bassline creating interweaving rhythm, producing a downright infectious groove. The song then further improves once the guitar is introduced, giving it a more dynamic edge as instruments continuously fade in and out, all culminating in utter perfection after Nick Mason says "One of these days I'm going to chop you into little pieces", before the fully realised rhythm kicks in. After this amazing opener. The next two songs are both quite pleasant in nature, each with a great, dreamy atmosphere, heightened by some nice, subtle instrumentation, but ultimately never go beyond feeling pleasant, being slightly above average in places, but never quite impressing me. It's the next 2 songs that I have a lot of issue with, with San Tropez being somewhat nice, but incredibly repetitive and mundane. Seamus is where things reach their lowest point though, with an uninspired blues sound to it while a howling dog is constantly irritating the listener, and while I understand that it was made to be a bit of fun, I see nothing about it that's even mildly entertaining. Fortunately, after this is the masterpiece that is Echoes, a 23 minute psychedelic masterpiece that I find to be completely indescribable in any way other than using the word 'beautiful'. Honestly, this song alone gives this album some merit, and I highly recommend that it is an essential song to listen to.

This album definitely feels transitional in many ways, bridging the gap between the trippy, playful earlier albums, and the dark, brooding rock masterpieces to come, and at points, is executed masterfully. I genuinely find it to be a shame of unmeasurable proportions that other than One of These Days and Echoes, the album is mediocre at best, as this could have been an easy 4 or 5 if not for the fact that the entire middle section is comprised of waiting for Echoes for me. I'd definitely recommend checking this album out for its high points, but honestly cannot consider rating this above a 3.

Best songs: One of These Days, Echoes

Weakest songs: San Tropez, Seamus

Verdict: A really pretty album for its majority, but the entirety of the middle section never really reaches any great heights. Despite that, the first and last tracks are both songs that I highly recommend.

The wind, then a hypnotic bass ride that rumbles on one channel, then another bass turn on the other, keyboards that pass like blades, drums and electric guitar and here's the epochal beginning of the first song of Meddle ("One Of These Days"), which uses keyboards in a futuristic way , then picks up rhythm, with a very nice progression, until the final rush after the short spoken section (Mason). Vote 8+.

The second song is quite different as arrangement (largely acoustic, guitar without drums) and as a mood: it is a restless folk with a good melody but that does not develop and finally tends to be monotonous. Rating 7+.

The third, Fearless, with that guitar riff that repeats, alternates folk acoustic verses, very relaxed, similar in mood to the previous piece, with stage choirs, which give a sense of particular estrangement, but still well toned to the music. Vote 7.5.

Then comes the turn of Saint Tropez, a retro jazzy, swing, like McCartney's songs, cute, perhaps too long, could be the soundtrack to one of Woody Allen's films. Rating 7+.

Seamus is a funny, almost western song with dogs acting as laced coyotes. Rating 6.5.

The first side, after the promising start, beautiful and innovative, leans on a modest retro acoustic folk- jazz. Average: 7,35-

The suite "Echoes (23:27)" fills side B. It's more rock than Atom Heart Mother, in fact is completely played by the band, without strings or brasses. In my opinion after a very good beginning, grit, it become too lazy and repetitive in the instrumental part. Then, comes a desert landscape, we hear wind and howling coyotes, very suggestive moment, almost soundtrack of a film, echoes and sound of birds of prey screeching n the distance. Then, come back the vocals (wright) and the rhythm. with guitar and drums and then finish the song lazily. Very good suite for some atmospheres, but not a masterpiece. Rating 8+.

Meddle has the same structure as Atom Heart Mother (suite occupying one front, easy listening songs on the other), only that the facades are reversed and in general the quality of the suite is slightly lower, while that of the songs significantly lower. It's a more than discreet but decidedly non-innovative album (apart One Of These Days), which repeats a formula filling it with more traditional folk and rock content, with modest results in the case of folk songs.

Rating 7,5/8. Three Stars.

For a long time, back when Pink Floyd was a band I obsessed over, I thought Meddle would be the one album I'd praise for eternity. Of course, that changed. Back when I discovered the magic that is the world of progressive rock, Pink Floyd were the ones that would only come to mind. They're what made me discover the whole genre thanks to masterpieces such as The Dark Side Of The Moon, and Wish You Were Here. But from the very first time I heard Echoes, something magical sparked from it and I couldn't explain what it was. That smooth buildup coming around 14 minutes into the song was a light-beaming feeling that just blew me away. This is what made me love Meddle. But of course, Meddle has way more than just that. Released in 1971, Meddle is the album where the band finally knew where they were going : Progressive Rock. I don't think it was what they named it at the time, as the term came out in the 80's, but musically-speaking they could finally tell where could they go next. What genre, finally, they were. It took 5 albums to figure it out, even though these previous 5 were also very good. But now, with Meddle, something changed. The album starts with One Of These Days, a perfect opening for such an album. You hear an eerie wind sound rising that sets the mood, only to find next some guitar (or bass?) lines, and from there, everything rises in a buildup. Follows next synthesizers that makes you feel small, because of how it's almost echoing. I won't spoil too much... It's a great instrumental and a killer album opener. What comes next is one song that always warmed my heart. A Pillow of Winds is soothing and has a cold yet cozy feeling. It's sad, but on the more beautiful side of it. It's also where the acoustic part of the album starts. Meddle is special, because there's the first and last track which are total rockers, but the rest is fairly acoustic. Fearless comes in after, but it's more upbeat and has less of a dreamy feeling. It's one of those songs where you feel like it's good to be alive. At the end is a part where there's nothing else but a crowd chanting (or what it seems). Although it probably is there because of the theme of the song, I'm not a fan of it because it breaks through the beautiful music that fills the first side. After that, you have San Tropez, a relaxing song by Roger Waters. I particularly like the piano solo at the end. Unfortunately for us, the last song of Side A is disappointing. It could have been good, but Seamus is one of those very few Pink Floyd songs where the taste was good, but the execution was bad. The Live At Pompeii version of it, Mademoiselle Nobs, is much better in my opinion. Finally, you have one single 23-minute piece that fills the B-Side, and it's Echoes. One of the very well-known and praised progressive songs. It's a classic. Once you get used to the freaky middle "screaming whales" part, it truly becomes a perfect song. Unfortunately for us, I'll give this wonderful album a 4-star only, mostly because of the disappointing "Seamus". Meddle was so close from being perfect. So close! But even if you remove Seamus, I think Side A lacks diversity of, well, feelings, by having 3 acoustic songs. It doesn't make it bad, but it can't make it that much outstanding either. But of course, Meddle remains a classic, and a must listen.

With the album Meddle, Pink Floyd takes a new turn in their musical proposal, endowing it with touches of forcefulness and solvency, still very incipient in their previous works, despite the symphonic effort in the Atom Heart Mother suite. Continuing with their constant interest in discovering and adapting new sonorous nuances, but much more mature, a couple of themes for posterity and fundamentals in Pink Floyd's basic discography are dispatched. The overwhelming and aggressive instrumental piece One of These Days, and the immeasurable Echoes, developing in its 23 minutes extensive experimentation, guided by Richard Wright's keyboards, which provide unique atmospheres to the entire development of the song. Less complex, Fearless football is a beautiful acoustic theme and is still chanted today by Liverpool fans, having included their famous sports choir "You´ll Never Walk Alone" in the song. Both A Pillows of Winds, San Tropez, a very digestible light jazz, and Seamus, howled by a dog of the same name as the song, complete the album with a discreet contribution. Meddle is the excellent beginning of a new stage of Pink Floyd, which would end up consolidating in all its splendor with the subsequent album and capital work Dark Side At The Moon.

Review #8

This is where Pink Floyd reached its maturity. "Meddle" is Pink Floyd's sixth studio album released in 1971, and, unlike their previous albums, this album shows real teamwork and shows a more mature and well-planned project in which the four members of the band were working more as a group than as four independent musicians. The sound of the album is fresh and original, filled with different rhythmic styles that go from Hard Rock to soft ballads, passing through blues and, of course, a lot of Psychedelic and Spacey Rock as the main plate.

The album consists of six songs, five on the first side and a 23-minute opus called "Echoes" that closes the album and has become one of the most important and recognized songs in Pink Floyd's catalog. The album is considered by lots of people (as well as well-known websites, magazines, etc.) as one of the best Progressive Rock albums ever released, and I couldn't agree more.

1.- One of these days (05:58): The first track of the album starts in silence, then the sound of a strong breeze and then one note of bass starts to play faster every time, next thing is the organ playing one note once in a while, later the guitar appears incorporating itself to the song with a stingy solo, later the drums with some isolated punches and finally the instrument of the human voice saying just one line: "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces" and that's the moment when the music explodes like a volcano and the song reaches its climax just to go back to the breeze as the beginning, next thing you know, you're hearing an acoustic guitar starting the next song.

2.- A pillow of winds (05:11): The song is really soft, only acoustic guitar with some basic percussions and the voice of David Gilmour as the only singer. This beautiful soft ballad makes an interesting change of tone after the hard rock song that started the album.

3.- Fearless (06:09): The longest song on the A-side of the album is what we could call a softly played rock, it has drums and electric guitar which gives it the rocky style but still is very nice and enjoyable to listen to with a not too high volume. As a nice personal anecdote: this song was one of the most emotional moments when I had the opportunity to see Roger Waters playing it live in Mexico City, 2016.

4.- San Tropez (03:43): This is a jazzy tune in the same mood as "Fearless": nice and not too hard rock music, quite enjoyable with a barbecue under a sunny sky. The song contains one of the most relaxing jazzy piano lines played by Richard Wright. Absolutely gorgeous

5.- Seamus (02:16): A song that I like but I really think it shouldn't be in this album, it is a Blues song with harmonica and slide guitar, it's not a bad song, it's just that doesn't fit with the rest of the album, I believe a better option to fill this space would have been the single "Biding my time" however, it's still a very nice song.

6.- Echoes (23:31): The song that consolidates "Meddle" as an essential masterpiece, structured in three recognizable parts (the sung start, the instrumental jamming section, and the coda). This song shows the maturity of Pink Floyd as a band that says that they finally found their sound and the way they would follow on their following albums. An absolute classic

It's undeniable that Pink Floyd was (and still is) one of the most influential bands in the history of progressive and classic rock, they made remarkable masterpieces of rock and this was the first one. Bravo!!

SONG RATING: One of these days, 5 A pillow of winds, 5 Fearless, 5 San Tropez, 5 Seamus, 4 Echoes, 5

AVERAGE: 4.83

PERCENTAGE: 96.67

ALBUM RATING: 5 stars

I ranked this album #43 on my TOP 100 favorite Progressive Rock Albums of all time.

Meddle was the record where Pink Floyd started to leave the raw psychedelics of their 60s and early 70s so that they could be more focused into song writing and much more detailed music. Pretty much the only reason why this album is popular is because of Echoes, because the rest of the album is either just ok or straight out a joke song.

This album, similar to Atom Heart Mother, has each band member shine in each track. One Of These Days has Roger Waters providing some sweet bass lines. A Pillow Of Winds has some great guitar work even if it's a little monotonous. Fearless is a fan- favorite and probably the best of the short tracks, it has a hypnotic guitar line and chorus.

San Tropez is one of the joke songs in the way that it doesn't fit the album at all, it has a western vibe. Seamus is yet another joke song where you can hear dogs barking, yeah that's all I remember about it. Echoes is very clearly the standout of the album and one of their best songs to date. The chorus is very iconic and the jamming section is excellent. It's a very cohesive track.

Echoes definitely deserves the five star rating, but the rest brings it down. A very enjoyable album nonetheless.

"Meddle"

My second favorite Pink Floyd album ever?

On the low side, beside "Echoes" and "One Of These days", I do not find excellence in the other songs. They are, how is normally said here, "they are good but not essencial".

So, we must set the focus on those two songs, in order to justify this album status as a masterpiece. In "One Of These days" what is there more to be enjoyed are the rhythm section. The bass (if I were to be a musician, I would like to be a bass player), part drives you to a musical way no other bass line may ever conduct you, that bass line cannot be changed in order to preserve the essence of the song! Related to drums, it seems Mr. Mason has always being an underrated drummer. He is one the players I can more easily recognize, he has a very particular way of kicking. And if he changed his playing in this song just a little bit, the whole thing would be compromised as well...

Finally, "Echoes". The great rival of "Atom Heart Mother", and here we see what can be considered the best way the band sing their songs, and it is when Rick and David shares vocal parts. This is the song that made me understand what a "epic" is; and, as well, turned me into a prog fan since? 1979...

PS - By means of curiosity, In the end of de seventies I was a teeneger, and in that slow instrumental part halfway to the end of "Echoes", dominated by Roger´s rhythm on the bass, I imagined myself slowly riding "Tundro" (from the comic "Herculoids"), through a strange and dark forest...

Pink Floyd is one of my favourite bands. I love them since I was 14. I didn't grow up with them. I discovered them when a teacher played The Wall entirely in music class. The classic four are my top 4. Meddle is close to this. But it doesn't only have highlights for me. That said, the highlights are super high.

One of These Days - One of the first tracks I knew from Pink Floyd. I love it. The bass, the guitar, everything. 10/10

A Pillow of Winds - Charming song. But not memorable for me 7/10

Fearless - I like this one. It has some punch. 7/10

San Tropez - Forgettable 6/10

Seamus - Apart from the barking of the dog, it's also a corny blues song. Not my cup of tea 5/10

Echoes- Classic. How can this be on the same album as Seamus? So happy this covers half of the record. Half a record of greatness. 10/10

This album has two classic tracks, 3 okay-ish songs and a rubbish one. Normally this would bring me to 2 or 3 stars. But we are talking Echoes here. This makes the album 4 stars.

The only reason I ever listen to this album is for Echoes, that's it. Side 1 is sort of just a collection of Floyd-esque songs that happen to sit right next to Echoes.

Echoes is great. It's Pink Floyd's incredible first forte into progressive rock, which they've mastered immediately. The entirety of side one is an excuse to release Echoes. One Of These Days, although simple, definitely bops. A Pillow Of Winds is cozy, but gets boring fast. Fearless never grabbed me, most other PF fans thinks it's the greatest thing ever, but to me it's just kinda boring, and a bit annoying. San Tropez is comforting, doesn't have much substance but I still enjoy it. Seamus is adorable, especially the Live at Pompei version. There's no reason Seamus should be hated as much as it is.

Meddle, released in late 1971, saw Pink Floyd's best-known sound taking shape. The instrumental "One of These Days" opens the album. The powerful, reverberating bassline propels the song as stabs of organ, twisting guitar, and the odd strike of percussion continue to build. The unusual effect on the bass acts as an instrument unto itself, particularly in the slower midsection. The song's final two minutes explode with searing guitar and warbling organ.

"A Pillow of Winds" follows this striking opener. While I'd argue that this song fits into the overall flow of the record, its slow, folky composition pales in comparison to the highlights on Meddle. "Fearless" maintains a similar sound palette, but the melody is more engaging, and the inclusion of drumming keeps the momentum up.

Side 1 ends on a pair of less-than-impressive tracks. "San Tropez" is a lightweight, jazzy piece, and "Seamus" is a brief, forgettable bit of acoustic blues with a howling dog in the background.

What everyone knows Meddle for, though, is the closing opus: "Echoes". Covering all of side 2 and clocking in at over 23 minutes, this is one of Pink Floyd's indisputable masterpieces. From the opening pinging piano notes, which evoke a satellite calling out from the icy void of space, the song gradually builds while Nick Mason's drums complement the grand-sounding organ.

Gilmour and Wright harmonize their vocals on this song, giving a gentle, dreamy atmosphere. The chorus swells gracefully before dissolving into a dramatic, downward guitar riff. Following the second verse, the song enters an extended instrumental period. At first, it's a natural extension of the post-chorus guitar solo, but the structure shifts, subtly at first, as the solo builds in intensity.

Around the 7-minute mark, "Echoes" enters a funkier, groovier movement. The irregular stabs of Hammond organ add depth behind Gilmour's bend-filled, bluesy soloing. After a few minutes, the song enters its well-known "whale song" section. Amid a sparse and ominous backdrop, Gilmour's guitar wails and squeals sharply.

These few minutes of eerie atmospherics gradually give way to an extended crescendo. Farfisa organ and a few more piano pings reestablish the opening atmosphere. Light cymbals and muted guitar and bass propel the movement as Rick Wright plays an organ solo over top of it. At 18 minutes, this section reaches its climax. David Gilmour unleashes a magnificent, glimmering arpeggio before dissolving into a third verse. The final few minutes feature one more masterful guitar solo before the song quietly fades out.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2021/03/01/deep-dive-pink-floyd/