ECHOES - THE BEST OF PINK FLOYD

I'll be honest. I had to check out the "ultimate" Pink Floyd compilation, and I was impressed, but not hardly enough. Echoes isn't just any greatest hits collection, but yet another trip through the years of the band. The problem is (see Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Volume I/Volume II) in the edited versions of a few of these songs. It was probably done for time, but The early stuff is very surprising. Though I never cared too much for Syd Barrett, there is a good representative output of material featuring him. Speaking of the 70s, there are four tracks from Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall on here, the two best- known albums by the band, which might have been overkill in some cases. Of course "Money" and "Another Brick in the Wall Part II" are here, but couldn't something be sacrificed to make room for the missing seven minutes of the actual song "Echoes" (even though at 16.5 minutes as it is, I sure don't notice). While I am at it, where the hell is anything from Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother, or even something from one of their Barbet Schroeder soundtracks? There has to be something from those! Still, the collection is semi-diverse, for it gets deep into real gems that age like wine. Great instrumentals are here, such as the bass-enriched "One of These Days", "The Great Gig in the Sky", and even "Marooned" from The Division Bell which unfortunately is the worst victim of the editing process, only giving us the first two minutes of this 5.5 minute piece (it could barely fit on here, please, there's no need for that early fade). I will give credit to the fact that almost all of the tracks run together, as it sounds best that way. This would be a great collection of some solid essentials, but it feels somewhat butchered. Pink Floyd is still masters of their own game (no matter the period) on Echoes, and this compilation would prove it if it weren't for the whole 80-minute CD thing. That must be how hard it is to put the Floyd on two discs.