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Pink Floyd - Meddle CD (album) cover

MEDDLE

Pink Floyd

 

Psychedelic/Space Rock

4.30 | 3494 ratings

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Kempokid
3 stars 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.

Kempokid | 3/5 |

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