WORKS

This album is almost completely redundant... as are most compilation albums in my opinion. I typically hate compilations, with a few exceptions (One notable exception is Pink Floyd's Relics). I just don't like this album, well for one the artwork is kinda boring. It's some man on a scaffold working. On the inside, there's nothing but the track listing and copywright stuff in tiny letters.

Every song on the album can be obtained by buying another album. They're from Meddle, Relics, Dark Side, Saucerful, Umma Gumma, and Obscured by Clouds. An interesting thing that doesn't make it TOO bad is that the tracks kinda flow together in an interesting way. Sometimes I enjoy listening to the entire CD in the music player like that, but never on say an iPod or something. The album is put in really random order. The climax of Dark Side of the Moon is placed in the middle of the album... so you feel very excited as if it's nearing the grand finale... and then Set the Controls comes on really quietly, and you have 5 more songs to go.

Now there is a few good things about this album, one is the remixed versions of songs in particularly Brain Damage/Eclipse. The other, most important thing about this album is the song Embryo. Obviously this attracted me, as I had never seen or heard of the Embryo before I got this album. It was a very haunting, quiet acoustic piece that was written in the Umma Gumma sessions but never really released, except for a random album Picnic: a breath of fresh air, which featured several artists and was really rare and unknown. This was also done without Pink Floyd's permission.

The Embryo is a good song, it really is. As are all the others. But the only thing you can accomplish with this album, really, is getting the Embryo added to your collection. That's the only use this album has. And that's why I say that this album is only for completionists, and gets 1 star. I am shocked to give a Pink Floyd release so low a rating, but it's not worth it unless you are in fact a completionist. I am one, obviously, so I bought the album anyway, and I am fairly happy with it, but an ordinary prog fan browsing wouldn't get much out of it.

About the Embryo, though, this is just the acoustic studio version, but they've performed it live quite often, and it was in a hugely extended and harder rock sounding form, from 10 to 15 minutes long, and one time even 26 minutes! Only available on bootlegs, unfortunately. But they're really good, I love those versions. And they're also preceded by an instrumental called Corrosion