MEDDLE

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.