RELICS

Like all compilations , this is of limited interest and whatever interest are the non-album singles Arnold and Emily but this is not very prog . The real gem here is the studio version of Careful Eugene, but if you own UmmaGumma, the live version will do. So this is pointless as Emily and Arnold could have been bonus tracks on Pipers without disrupting it at all.

The thing that I really like to point out onthis album is that the track Remember A Day sounds much better than in the Saucerful of Secrets album...anyway, this album is a must for hardcore fans, like me. I never use to put the maximum grade to compilation albums, but this one has four tracks thathad never been released in an album before, and they are fantastic, add it up tracks like Interestellar Overdrive, Cirrus Minor, The Nile Song and it´s quite a good record. Maybe it´s not a record to recommend, but who cares....I like it and if you´re a Floyd fan,buy it...PERIOD

This album is a compilation of all the songs of pink floyd which were quite psycho-dark.Arnold layne is a stunning performance of Syd Barret's brilliant mind, Intersellar overdrive is an instrumental trip to the psychedelic side of pink floyd, See emily play is really interesting,Remember a day is just art, i don't like Paintbox much but Julia dream is fantastic. The rest are kinda simple but they hide diamonds. Careful with that axe, Eugene is a much better version then in UMMAGUMA's live. In conclusion try to focus on it's music and let the magic of pink floyd's masterpieces travel you through times, images, colours, scenes and insanity. Discover Syd barett trough his personal feelings about the world. Absolutely great i bet you're going to watch films like Zabriscie Point or Blow Out....the force of psycho-trips won't let you down.

"Just a collection of antiques and curious"

This album was originally released in LP format on the EMI's budget label "Starline", and cost about a third of the price of a full priced album. It is interesting to note that in an act of overt opportunism by the record company the CD version is now full priced.

"Relics" was released between "Meddle" and "Dark side of the moon" at a time when Pink Floyd were rapidly gaining popularity. Many of those who bought "Relics" after the release of DSOTM would no doubt have done so expecting to hear accessible music in a similar vein. Those who knew the history of the music of Pink Floyd however, were aware that DSOTM was the latest in a series of albums which saw the band metamorphose from the original Syd Barrett led experimental underground band into a premier league prog rock band.

The title reflects the fact that these were already old tracks when the album was released in 1971. New fans would therefore have been surprised and possibly disappointed with this album. For those more familiar with the original Pink Floyd, "Relics" is something of a goldmine of rare and not so rare pieces, offering a good cross section of their early work.

Tracks such as the at times psychedelic, and at times apparently very disorganised "Interstellar overdrive", and the trippy "Careful with that Axe Eugene" display the experimental psych rock side of the band.

"See Emily play" and "Arnold Layne" are simple pop songs which, while sounding very dated today, must have caused a few ears to prick up at the time, especially in respect of the latter's lyrics. Among the numerous others, there's a slice of thumping heavy rock in "The Nile song", a quite beautiful soft track called "Julia Dream" and an amusing finale in "Bike", with its chaotic ending.

As long as you bear in mind that this is not the work of the 1971 Pink Floyd, this album is a great collection of selections from their early years.

"Relics" unearths some artifacts from the not-too-distant '60s, including such indelible moments of spaced-out psychedelia as "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Careful With That Axe, Eugene." You don't have to be high to enjoy this collection, but you might have to be to drop forty bucks for the Japanese remaster. Believe it or not, "Relics" was originally a cheap way to sample the band's early music. Not so nowadays; "Relics"'ll cost you as much as "Piper At The Gates of Dawn" or "Saucerful of Secrets", which are frankly better investments. The selection is excellent, combining album cuts with singles like "Arnold Layne" and "Paintbox" that had yet to appear on an album. While "Relics" might get you off the hook from buying the soundtrack to More ("Cirrus Minor" and "The Nile Song" are two of the best tracks on there), it's suffered the fate of most premature compilations, which pull the trigger too early or become obsolete in the wake of more comprehensive packages. Had someone elected to expand "Relics" to take advantage of CD technology, then you might have a treasure worth saving. Instead, this has been preserved as if it were some sacred icon. If you haven't heard PINK FLOYD's earliest music, you really should. "Relics" is one way to do that, but I'm not convinced that it's the best way. Note that, over the years, "Relics" has featured a few different covers including a black-and-white drawing by NICK MASON.

Relics is an incredible album. This compilation album, made up of amazing tunes, was released before their break-through album, The Dark Side Of The Moon. That's what I find incredible. An overlooked gem that is available on this CD, and nowhere, is "Biding My Time", a jazzy, sort of rag-time piece. Another amazing song on Relics is "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" which is the only studio recording on this song. Overall, this compiliation should not be overlooked, as it has many tunes that are not available anywhere else.

Relics is a favourite amongst Pink Floyd fans, especially the lovers of Syd and the early years. I personally prefer the 1967-1971 era but 1973-1979 was probably more enhanced musically, which i love just as much but i would rather put on piper than dark side most of the time. Still, this is a must for any pink floyd fan and should be in everyones collection. If you prefer the later years to the early years then you will love relics because it plays like a best of the early years cd. If you do prefer the early years, then this record sums that era up pretty well and is enjoyable to listen to. This may be a bit short for a singles collection but the floyd were never a singles band and it is an effective record delivering rarities that weren't released until this album. A must have for Floyd Fans. I think the release of Echoes in 2001 may have devalued Relics a bit but before that this was a classic compilation.

The familiar songs on Relics, "Interstellar Overdrive", "Bike", "Remember a Day", "Cirrus Minor" and "The Nile Song" have been well chosen and well placed on this album as representations of how good the first three records were, pleasing any floyd fan. But the real wonder of this record are of course the not so well known tracks, and luckily these aren't dinky songs that were cut from the other albums, they are full on floyd at their best and brilliant rarities.

"Arnold Layne" is Pink Floyds very first single, not really hinting any sort of prog rock sound but its good to hear, even if the sound quality isn't brilliant. It's a good introduction to Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett and Relics. A well chosen first track. "See Emily Play" is an incredible single, nothing fancy in the lyrics or sounds yet somehow it's a real wonder and an important song by the Floyd. I think it was a very good idea to include these songs on Echoes in 2001.

"Paintbox" is an incredible jam, showing off more psychadelia with the strange vocals. The Bassline on here is killer, hats off to Roger. "Julia Dream" is a brilliant song, showing off their better lyrics and sound, its very gloomy but the vocals here are incredible. It sounds like a leftover from A Saucerful of Secrets and clearly hints at how Pink Floyd have evolved record by record.

The studio version of "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" is good, but not so good. It is nice to finally hear a studio version but it sounds so weak compared to the live version on Ummagumma, in which Roger puts a full blown effort into his scream and the band jamming is twice as mind blowing, making this version seem a little pathetic. Roger and Nick are half as good as they were on the live version, i found this slightly dissapointing. It's also half the length which turned me off.

"Biding My Time" is a very bluesy song sounding like it was done in the "More" sessions. The lyrics are good and it gives Richard and Dave their chance to shine. There's a lovely little blues jam in the middle, again this doesn't sound very proggy but it sounds very Pink Floyd. The trumpet section is mind blowing, as well as the guitar solo.

Overall Relics has managed to be a must have compilation from the floyd ever since it was released. I think the remastered version is more for completionists even though the songs that aren't on other album are a must have. I think during the whole of the 70's this album was much more memorable than it is now as it was the only vinyl that came close to a best of and was a must have for the fans, but after the 70's came more compilations, even though Echoes was the only good one (Works and A Collection of Great Dance Songs were pathetic cash in's), i think these compilations have decreased the amazing value of Relics and the remastered version just seems like a rehash of what used to be a classic. Still you need this.

A fine compilation...it kind of encapsulates in short all the most appealing tracks from 67- 70. The songs have been well chosen. I am not a fan of 'best of 'albums but the Relics package delivers with jewels like ' Julia dream', ' See Emily Play', ' Paintbox' and the incredible ' Cirrus Minor' from the More soundtrack. The only compilation by Pink Floyd worth having.

Very poor early work of Floyd. I do not welcome the sound of this complilation. Arnold layne is a decent start to the album. Interstellar Overdrive is good, but maybe a little long. See Emily Play is by far the best song on this album. Paintbox and Julia dream stink. Care with that axe is good and so is biding my time and bike. The rest suck. Buy only if u are a big Floyd fan.

Out of the 11 songs on this album, there are 4 songs that stood out to me and without them I do not think the album would be worth the price of admission -

1. Arnold Layne - the opening track, this strange song just has a mystery about it that frightens just a little bit but pleases the ear

2. Intersetallar Overdrive - The word "overdrive" describes this song well...actually, the first few minutes. This track lasts over 9 minutes, and at first it strikes you as a great hard rocker (similar to "One of these days" off of Meddle), but after a while the keyboards take over and 'the drugginess meter' rises to about the level of "White Rabbit". Towards the end, the noise goes from right speaker to left speaker to right to left to etc etc etc and it seriously makes you dizzy. Do not listen to the last minute or so on headphones while operating machinery.

3. THE NILE SONG - This song absolutely, positively, without a doubt, is one of the hardest rocking songs I have ever heard in my life. They say there's always one song that doesn't belong on the album - its this one. The whole album has a mood that basically screams "I'm depressed, lonely, feeling empty, so I'll just do drugs." and then this beast tears through your eardrums and knocks your pants off to a far away land, possibly Swaziland. This song alone is worth it. If you can do air guitar, you will drool over this tune. Gilmour is screaming at the top of his lungs, the solo is a combination of Slash plus Jimmy Page...I just cannot say enough about this song

4. Biding My Time - Here's the scene, you're sitting in a poorly lit fancy restaurant talking softly with your date and theres a little band in the corner, the first few minutes of "Biding My Time" is the type of song they play. It could be Tony Bennett just judging by the intro. After a few minutes of just background music, a little brass kicks in, and that gets your attention. At this point, its a pretty jazzy song, which is unusual for Floyd. Think along the lines of "San Tropez" off Meddle, but a little less layed back. Then, the part that makes this song complete - the guitar solo!!! It must last about 2 and a half minutes, completely not like anything you would hear in any restaurant. Once again, the champion air guitar would gawk over this solo, it is magnificent. Nothing super speedy or extremely fast, think along the lines of the Hotel California solo.

The rest of the tracks are good, I find songs like Julia Dream, Paintbox, Remember A Day, and Cirrus Minor to be good songs to listen to while in a sad mood. They have emotion, but what brings this album down a bit is that all of those songs have the same emotion. There are some days where I feel lonely, and there's nothing else that really suits the mood but those songs. They all seem very similar though, which is why they do not particularily jump out at me.

Cheers!

This CD was my first exposure to some of PINK FLOYD's early singles, and in that, I think it does a pretty good job. What makes this compilation worthwhile, unlike the later Echoes, Works, and A Collection of Great Dance Songs compilations, is the fact that you really do get material on here that if it weren't for this would be difficult to get on CD. 5 of the 11 songs do come from other albums (namely The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets, and More), but six of them were, at that point, not found anywhere else on CD. If you're going to pick up a compilation to get them, this is the only one worth shelling out the cash, even at full price, for.

Fans of the SYD BARRETT era will like the album. I do not agree with those who claim this is the only enjoyable FLOYD era at all, but on the other hand, even though it's not my favorite, that won't stop me from enjoying the songs selected here. "Arnold Layne" is really a very witty song that reminds the listener just how clever BARRETT was, before his potential was obscured by drugs, and "See Emily Play" is along the same lines, although not quite as lyrically clever as "Arnold Layne". "Bike" is another example of the witty SYD BARRETT, a song that seems to be about a young "starving artist" with little to give to his love other than his charm. "Interstellar Overdrive", of course, is an excellent BARRETT-era psychedelic freak-out. "Julia Dream" is an early ROGER WATERS lyrical effort with vocals by DAVID GILMOUR, and rather pleasant to listen to. The biggest surprise on here, though, is the bluesy "Biding My Time", with some very nice vocals by ROGER WATERS, and unless a session musician was used, trombone playing by RICHARD WRIGHT, who would play that instrument in concert. WATERS really does do well with the blues vocal style on this and on Meddle's "San Tropez", and in another life might have done well singing for a blues band...one never knows...

Those who enjoy RICHARD WRIGHT's vocals, and the BARRETT/WRIGHT duet will find more than enough material for them. "Arnold Layne", "See Emily Play", "Remember a Day", "Paintbox", and "Bike" all feature him singing in some capacity. Two are even songs that he wrote--the first, "Remember a Day", a nostalgic look at childhood, and the second, "Paintbox", the description of a nerve-wracking date that it seems WRIGHT's character doesn't want to remember! Plus, even then, his music was quite distinct and innovative. It's a shame that after GILMOUR came into the band, RICK WRIGHT didn't seem to trust his voice (nor his writing skills, for that matter--had he let them develop over these last 35 years, you never know what he'd be doing now) enough to take the lead or even harmonies as often, so it's a good thing you get to hear him here.

The only thing I don't understand about Relics is the inclusion of the weak studio version of "Careful With That Axe, Eugene". The versions on Ummagumma and numerous RoIOs do much more justice to the song than that, as well as a superior (although transposed) studio version entitled "Come in Number 51, Your Time Is Up" on the Zabriskie Point soundtrack. This slot would have been better used on one of the rare early singles like SYD BARRETT's "Candy and a Currant Bun" or RICK WRIGHT's "It Would Be So Nice".

Because of the inclusion of so many BARRETT-era songs, I'm not sure this would be to everybody's taste, hence the slightly lowered rating. Still, even with that in mind, I think that of all of PINK FLOYD's compilation albums, this is the one that really does belong in any FLOYD fan's collection.

You cant say this disc is a "masterpiece" only because its sort of picking songs and put them together, But I still think this disc is one of the best from the prog band pink floyd, expecialy because it has "See Emily Play" that only been able to get from the single See Emily Play that worth over milions, I think "bike" is a great song too, so as "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Arnold Layne". The songs "The Nile Song" and "Careful with that axe, eugene" really adding this Disc and make it look more new and not just some "best of" which I dont like, a masterpiece is a masterpiece. really recomended.

all right "the best on here are "careful.."and "remember a day" and the barret songs that is "arnold layne" and "emily.."the rest are good except for "nile song".this is excellent for people starting on pink floyd those who have "piper.." and "a saucerful of secrets"and don't have money don't buy it.

Very early FLOYD music at its best! If only FLOYD's other compilations were as good as "Relics". It is a fan favourite and includes a number of songs from their discography that are simply not available anywhere else.

'Biding My Time', 'Julia Dream', 'Paintbox' and the only studio version of 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene' are the reasons one should acquire this record. The first two songs mentioned are average Waters compositions but not at all poor. 'Paintbox' however is an excellent Rick Wright piece that fans of the early FLOYD will enjoy, as it is very similar sounding to 'Remember a Day' (another Wright composition, and arguably his best, also on "Relics").

The real gem found on "Relics" is the only official studio release of the all-time FLOYD classic 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene'. (A live version of this song can be found on the "Ummagumma" live album)

These rare songs, added to a number of Syd Barrett tunes and a great choice of the immediate post-Barrett era songs (the surreal Cirrus Minor', the spacey 'Remember A Day', and the proto-metal 'The Nile Song') make this one of the best FLOYD compilations available. Recommended, 4/5 stars.

In the evolution of Pink Floyd this compilation album was always a kind of missing link, bridging the gap between the psychedelic pop band of the swinging '60s and the symphonic space-prog pioneers of the 1970s.

At first glance it looks like an arbitrary grab bag of rare B-sides and familiar early album cuts, delivering exactly what the subtitle promises: "a bizarre collection of antiques and curios". But look closely at the track selection and you'll see a definite pattern at work, charting the progress of a band suddenly cut off from its primary source of inspiration and beating the air for a new identity.

In short, it's a valuable portrait of Pink Floyd in transition, from the untethered genius of Syd Barrett to the craftsmanship of Roger Waters...by way of keyboard player Richard Wright, who briefly flexed his compositional muscles with a couple of the post- Barrett acid-bubblegum pop songs included here.

The differences between the two groups is immediately obvious from the pair of improvs framing the collection: Syd's "Interstellar Overdrive", from "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" LP, and the studio version of "Careful With That Axe, Eugene", a 45 rpm B-side circa "Saucerful of Secrets" (or thereabouts). The energetic jamming of "Overdrive" makes a startling contrast to the tightly controlled, artless raga of "Eugene", but the latter would resurface in a definitive live rendition on Disc One of "Ummagumma" (an album that performs a similar function to "Relics", and might even be considered a useful companion volume to it).

All the songs here are presented in more or less chronological order, ranging from the group's first single (1967's "Arnold Layne") to the 1969 "More" soundtrack sessions. The notable exception to the sequence is "Bike", originally the closing track on "The Piper" LP and filling the same role here, as it later would for the more recent two-disc "Echoes" retrospective, and for a similar reason, I would guess.

The song is quintessential Syd Barrett: playful, clever, and more than a little scary in its deeper autobiographical implications. But in the context of Pink Floyd's long, successful career it's also a painful reminder of the pure, brain-wave intuition and creativity lost to the band along with its founding member, and will always make a fitting eulogy to any true Floyd tribute.

I didn't originally think "Relics" deserved more than a respectable 3-star rating, but a closer listen convinced me otherwise. In no way should it be considered a substitute for the complete set of early Pink Floyd albums, but fans of their later music who normally wouldn't venture this deep into their back catalogue might appreciate it as a convenient, one-stop-shopping overview of the group's formative years.

This compilation was an important one during 70's, as there are some of the essential singles from Syd Barrett era here, "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play". Nowadays one can surely find these from a legion of different compilations, so this record cannot be claimed to be very essential anymore, but it still gives a nice selection of bands more psych oriented songs, "Interstellar Overdrive", "Julia Dream" and "Careful with That Axe Eugene". You also get the best songs from the "More" soundtrack album here in my opinion; athmospherical "Cirrus Minor" and the aggressive "The Nile Song". The record is also packed up in a fancy sleeve with an imaginative airship, maybe symbolizing the band's guys architect studies being used to build these innovative songs. The songs I mentioned also make a quite depressive bunch of tracks, and this album should work as a good soundtrack for wintertime melancholy.

I would rather see at the stores the "Early Singles" instead of this one. Half of "Relics" contains amazing FLOYD songs that aren't available anywhere else, like "Paintbox", another great composition by Rick; "Julia Dream", an underrated song which is very mystic and moving and has some UFO-like sounds at the ending; "See Emily Play", one of Syd's best compositions and the again underrated studio version of "Careful with that axe, Eugene", which, in my opinion, is simply amazing. "Arnold Layne" may sound a bit outdated but it still is a nice song.

On the other hand, this compilation's other half fails big time because it contains "Biding my time", a bad Waters' song, with some very annoying trumpet sounds at the middle that give me headaches and various songs already present on former albums. It's always important to point out that PINK FLOYD is an album band, so "best of's" containing songs of other albums surely don't work for them. I don't see the point of adding "Bike" and "Nile Song", for example. "Nile Song" already sounds alien in its original album, and even more in this one. "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Bike" should be in Piper and nowhere else, and "Cirrus Minor" is good but again it is better enjoyed in its home, the album More.

If this were the "Early Singles" (without "Scarecrow", of course) i'd give this 4 stars. But since this contains some of the early singles' best tracks not containing unique gems from it like "Candy and a Currant Bun" though, this compilation deserves its three stars, which is more than enough for it.

One of the better and more substantive early FLOYD compilations, having several excellent non-LP singles from their 1960s psychedelic period. In retrospect it may seem worthless and redundant since the CD era brings many comprehensive and remastered anthologies of their earlier work, but judging it from the context of its release, highly recommended!

The orinal LP sleeve of this album looked liked a pencil sketch of some weird contraption and now has a more sophisticated cover.Don't be fooled though.This album may be a required purchase of Floyd completionists,but its not the genuine article.It was basement bin material even at the time of sale.Okay,Interstellar Overdrive and Careful with that axe Eugene ARE interesting,but Arnold Layne and Bike sound like Spinal Tap in their guise as the Thamesmen.Not all artifacts from bygone eras are worth digging up.Spend your cash elsewhere and learn from this reviewers mistake.

Syd Barrett, the original line-up's creator of playful, psychedelic rock songs, had been gone for two years and Pink Floyd's current work did not have the hit single potential of their work with Barrett. Hoping to rekindle the draw of the Barrett era, Capital Records released Relics, in 1971. The album is a compilation of material from the original Pink Floyd and from the transitionary period when the band attempted to progress without their star songwriter. "Relics" is NOT technically a "greatest hits" album, since it contains 4 previously unreleased tracks.

1. Arnold Layne - The first Pink Floyd single and probably one of the best. Syd Barrett lyrics are the high point here. 5/5

2. Interstellar Overdrive - 3.5/5

3. See Emily Play - is an awesome testament to Syd's whimsical songwriting and his amazing charm and exuberance as a performer. 4/5

4. Remember a Day - 5/5

5. Paintbox - this song have a mysterious atmosphere! 5/5

6. Julia Dream - I think is the best song on the album and is one of the best Pink Floyd songs. Perfect! 5/5

7. Careful With That Axe, Eugene - 4.5/5

8. Cirrus Minor - 5/5

9. The Nile Song - 5/5

10. Biding My Time - 2/5

11. Bike - 5/5

Final Note : For the newer Pink Floyd fan who is starting to wonder what the boys were about when they first started things off, this is the album to buy before investing in all the pre-Meddle albums. Containing their very first single "Arnold Layne," it is a must- have for anyone interested in the early Pink Floyd. A good collection of some forgotten (yet damned good) psychedelic singles of Pink Floyd between 1966-1972 and if you need to round out your collection of early Pink Floyd material, this is a necessary album!

5+3.5+4+5+5+5+4.5+5+5+2+5 = 49

49 : 11 = 4,4

Excellent addition to any prog music collection

Curiosity: The original cover for this compilation was made by Nick Mason , but it was put of side because was to weak.

A compilation, a good one indeed, with material from previous albums and singles - some stuff were amongst the earliest FLOYD's works dating back to 1966.

Another point is the possibility to hear (and enjoy) the acting of both band guitarrists: Barrett and Gilmour - and the album should be even better if the tracks were disposed chronologically.

However, this is not a collection of greatest hits or well-known songs although they appear too; this album contains some obscure and exquisite songs and it accordingly fills some blanks band's history. Musically speaking there are some weak moments but they are not capable to spoil the work entirely.

Best tracks: 'Arnold Layne', a typical proto-psychedelic rock of the 60s very agreeable to hear; 'See Emily play', very pleasant, with touches of psychedelia and a close resemblance with some contemporary HOLLIES' tunes; 'Careful with that axe, Eugene', intriguing and mindful; 'The Nile song', a kind of dirty rock that I appreciate much - the atmosphere is the same of Beatles' 'Helter skelter' or some Stones or Who songs in the same vein; 'Bike' is strange but listenable (although the final is weird).

Concluding: that work isn't a masterpiece but in fact it's an excellent addition to any prog collection. Total: 4 stars.

I started my Pink Floyd-journey (if you can call it that way) with the well known records, like Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, The Wall; you'll probably know them aswell. And I really liked it! But since I discovered the Floyd-material with Syd Barrett, I'm totally blown away! What I hear when I listen to this record is true musicianship. A band that is not influenced by other bands, but is just making music they way the feel it should be.

The production of these songs is rawer than the well-knowed Floyd records, but they contain more beauty and psychodelic images to discover. My highlights: Interstellar Overdrive, See Emily Play, Remember A Day and the beautiful Julia Dream. A masterpiece indeed!

This is a comprehensive compilation for those progheads who are not familiar with early Pink Floyd (67-70) and wanted to explore that era. From the Syd Barrett period we can enjoy the splendid progressive psychedelic pop songs Arnold Layne and See Emily Play. Pink Floyd was charting the single in those days, unfortunately Syd Barrett started to behave himself more and more erratic, eventually he had to leave Pink Floyd. My most precious Syd Barrett song is the long and compelling Interstellar Overdrive, it delivers the unique guitarwork from Syd Barrett: simple and based upon a wide range of guitarplayers but he sounded so innovative, in my opinion he never got the credits for that because we are too much focussed on speed and technical ability. The final part of this song belongs to the most captivating and compelling moments in progrock history, what a splendid guitar riff and how emotional! The beautiful track Julia features the Mellotron, I have never heard Pink Floyd using this ubiquitous instrument after this song?! Other interesting tracks are Careful With That Axe Eugene (one of the best compositions that Pink Floyd created shortly after Syd's departure) and Bike, a perfect example of Syd his both exceptional as weird lyrical abilities. THIS IS PROGROCK HISTORY!

When "See Emily Play" was recorded, I remember how David Gilmour was first introduced to Pink Floyd guys by Syd Barrett. "We will have a session, please come over!" said Syd to David Gilmour when he was at the time still with his band Jokers Wild. David came to the session and found out that the band was about recording "See Emily Play" and what surprised David was that Syd seemed like knowing him at all. It's probably LSD dominated Syd's mind at the time. That's history . And now everyone knows that later, when Syd was out of control, Nick Mason - right after the gig where David attended - offered David a job to replace Syd on guitar. "Why not?" Dave said. Couple of days he joined the band, he left the band and finally begged the band to recruit him again.

Musically this release presents compilation of Pink Floyd's early work with Syd Barret as leader of the band. There must be a lot of psychedelic sounds here and characterized by rough edge guitar work, ponering drums / percussion and keyboard / sounds effects work. "Arnold Lane" has become Pink Floyd's legendary track followed with "Interstellar Overdrive" which represents the culmination of the boys' ideas to push their musical limits. There are avant-garde elements you might find in the track as demonstrated by guitar and keyboards / sound effects. "Careful with That Axe" is my favorite. As I knew rock music in the seventies and at the time I only listened to the kind like Deep Purple, Grand Funk, Led Zeppelin, etc. - the opening organ sound of this track seems similar with the intro of Deep Purple's "Fools" of "Fireball" album. Coincidence? Dunno really. Did Pink Floyd influence Jon Lord of Deep Purple? Probably. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

the best PF compilitaion that is focused on a certain era of the band's history (as most of them are). Half the songs are singls that were never realsed on an album while the others are great songs previously realsed.

"Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play" are by far the besy Syd Barret singles, though it would have been nice to see "Point Me at the Sky" on here. "Interstellar Overdrive" is my favorite Barret song and I'm pleased to see it featured in its full length verison, rather than the shorter single version. A great instrumental epic.

the Richard Wright songs "Paintbox" and "Remember a Day" are great choices, definitly his best before "Great Gig in the Sky"

"Julia Dream" is a weak Waters song, that is comparable to "Pillow of Winds" from Meddle

"Careful with that Axe" is an obvious choice for a singles compilaton and another song that is strangely missing from the "Echoes" compilation. Such a creepy song. One of my favorite instrumentals

"Cirrus Minor" I find to be a dull song and the vocals rather shoddy, but I can see it's importance with the melodic passages and typical early PF sounds (i.e. birds, water). "Nile Song" is great rocker, similar to "Young Lust" on The Wall

"Biding my time" is another previously unrealsed tune, that would have fit perfectly on "Saucerful of Secrets"

The final track "Bike", I can find no importance in and "Scarecrow" would have been a better choice.

Definitly a must for PF fans for the unrealsed tracks. Flows much better than Works.

Relics is a look back to the early days of Pink Floyd: the days of Syd Barrett, of psychedelia, and of catchy pop songs co-habiting with drawn-out lysergic experiments. It charts, quite visibly and more or less sequentially, the group's progress from humble beginnings as Barrett's backing band, through years of innovative studio experimentation as Barrett was replaced by Gilmour, to a point of technical proficiency yet languishing in a despond of creative destitution.

Albums like Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother are much revered by Prog fans and the group's following was rapidly expanding, yet they had produced no hit singles since Syd Barrett left in early 1968. I assume EMI were simply intending to fill this perceived commercial gap in the wait for the next studio album [Meddle], but unwittingly produced both a neat summation of Pink Floyd's early career as well as providing us with some 'rarities' as no less than 6 of the 11 tracks had not been previously released on LP.

Arnold Layne, a story of an infamous Knicker Snatcher, was Pink Floyd's first single. A typical piece of Barrett whimsy, this mono presentation is the original Joe Boyd single release. Interstellar Overdrive is the 'Piper' version in stereo, a lengthy slice of instrumental space-rock experimentation which would become a staple concert piece for several years. See Emily Play was the band's second single from 1967, another Barrett slice of psych popsiness probably inspired by one of the 'in-crowd'. Remember A Day is the version from Saucerful Of Secrets, a song by Richard Wright about the happiness of childhood. Notable for Norman Smith [their producer] playing drums instead of Nick Mason, it also credits both Gilmour and Barrett playing guitar.

Perky yet slightly derivative, Paintbox is about the music industry, another Wright song from '67, originally B-side to third single Apples And Oranges. Julia Dream is Floyd's first post-Syd single, recorded in February 68 shortly after Gilmour had joined, it is more spacey than psych as emphasised by Wright's stately Mellotron. About uncertainty and paranoia, it was of course written by Roger Waters in a similar laid-back vein as Grantchester Meadows. Careful With That Axe Eugene is the second space-rock experimental jam, presented here as a previously unreleased shortened studio version.

The next two songs are taken from the More soundtrack album. Cirrus Minor, a metaphor for a drug experience, is another Waters' stroll through the countryside somewhere near Grantchester Meadows, devoid of drums but with lots of Wright's Hammond and massed chorus of gulls. Appropriately about a beautiful siren luring her man to his doom, The Nile Song is a Proto-Heavy-Metal thrash courtesy of some very aggressive guitar work by Gilmour.

The lolloping Biding My Time features a long coda with some lovely liquid guitar from Gilmour, and Richard Wright playing some decent multi-tracked trombone. Though not previously released, this song formed The Afternoon section of The Man, a song-suite often played in concert but never officially released on record. Finally, the album returns to the genius of Barrett and the brilliant Bike, written for his then girlfriend with some superb rhyming couplets and inspired silliness. This is psychedelia at its best, but also a portent of things to come with chiming clocks and scary effects pre-dating Dark Side Of The Moon by 5 years.

Collections like Relics are no longer the essential buys they once were. For today's turned-online generation of Prog lovers, a quick splash around the Wild Wacky Wilderness will find many ex-obscurities and solve most old puzzles, one way or another. All of these songs are now legally available in other packages, but in 1971 this was a little gem, especially at a bargain-bin price. It is clearly not a 'Best Of', more like a retrospective look back at the group's past at a time when they were about to change gear and head for the moon.

Though essentially a simple and cheap collection of old material packaged for the masses, Relics became an integral and much loved part of the Pink Floyd discography and is still to be recommended today on CD. The sound is a little dodgy in a couple of places, but otherwise it has transferred well. My only gripe about the CD is the cover - sadly, gone is Nick Mason's wonderful doodle, to be replaced by photos of an impressive model of it.

Hugely recommended for anyone who is looking for an idiosyncratic resumé of Pink Floyd's early career.

"Relics" represents a major crossroads for me - the listener. My previous listening experience had been limited to what I found on the airwaves - pop/rock and my leanings at the time were towards bands like Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath etc. I was lent this album by a friend and, as far as I can remember 35 years on, through it the world of prog opened up before me. Given the indelible mark it left on me it will come as no surprise that I loved it to death. I immediately went and bought a copy (in the days of limited funds the budget price was welcome indeed) and it was barely off my turntable for the next few months. From "Relics" I bought "Piper.." and "Saucerful" and then on to "Meddle" and "Ummagumma". (p) I have just listened to it again to refresh my memory and it is impossible to distance myself from all the old feelings and associations from those early listenings. The overall feel is one of a band progressing from the psychedelic Syd period to, what was at the time, a band finding their feet and their own style. It was a dreamy, ethereal style which, sadly for me, would change drastically and forever upon the release of "Dark Side.."(p) Put simply, "Relics" is full of my favourite period Floyd and has some of my all-time favourite tracks - "Interstellar Overdrive", "Julia Dream","Cirrus Minor", "Remember A Day", "Careful With That Axe..". This was the golden age of Pink Floyd and a golden age for me - at my most formative and receptive, with many of my absolute favourite albums coming in the period 1969-1973. Wonderful!

Their record company was so nicely surprised by the commercial success of "Atom Heart Mother" (Nr. 1 in the UK), that they decided to release a compilation of their earlier work. At least this one erases the ignominy of "The Best Of Pink Floyd" released a year before. The cover for the UK version was a drawing from Nick.

The full title of the project was : "Relics, A Bizarre Collection of Antiques and Curios". And that's exactly what we get.

Let's start with the well known Antique : "Arnold Layne" their first single, "Interstellar" an incredible psyche trip available on "Piper", "See Emily Play" another single and "Bike" from "Piper" as well (rather dull actually).

Some of not so Antique (at that time) : "Cirrus Minor" which is one of the very good tracks form "More" as well as "The Nile Song" (one of their hardest song ever).

Then some Curios. Too many curios, actually.

"Remember A Day" : this song was already written (by Rick) at the time of the "Piper" sessions but finally released on A"SOS". "Paintbox" : B-side for "Apples & Oranges" (this should say sufficient, no) ? "Julia Dream" : fourth Floyd single. It is the first song featuring David on guitar and vocals. Believe me, he will do much, much better later on. "Binding My Time" : unreleased Waters composition. It should have remained so. He is even playing trumpet in this track ! Awful.

Finallywith "Careful With That Axe..." we get THE great track from this compilation. Released as b-side for "Point Me At The Sky". The track was first recorded for some BBC sessions (June 1968). It was first called "Murderistic Woman" then "Keep Smiling People" and for some very short time "Beset By The Creatures Of The Deep". Finally, it will turned into the "Careful..." as we know. This is IMO one of the best song of the early Floyd (before "Meddle").

Since this effort is not called "Best Of", we can hardly complain that jewels like "Astronomy Domine", "ASOS", "Set The Control..." are not present. This album will peak at number 32 in the UK and will be almost unnoticed in the US.

I can not really recommend it. For completionist (even if I rate it two stars).

A compilation. I wanted to give it four stars. But I looked on the tracklist again. What do we have here? Two songs from Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, one from A Saucerful Of Secrets another two from More, one unrealesd (Biding My Time), and the rest are singles. Nothing special, although they are a bunch of a great songs. I don't think that this songs were rare in 70's, and now you can find them on almost every bootleg from early Pink Floyd period. So, if you want have the whole discography - buy this lp. If you don't know anything about Pink Floyd - you shouldn't start here. So 3 stars it is.

I am not a fan of compilations of previously released material. First, I believe musicians deserve to have their material heard in the context of the full original album. Second, I believe they are often another scam for the record companies to make money, especially when they extort the fans by including that one "unreleased" treasure that make the fans spend $17 for material they already own.

That said, there are just enough items of interest in this collection to warrant minor consideration. Arnold Layne, Emily, Paintbox, Julia, Careful Eugene, and Biding are tracks that you may not have in your Floyd collection. The first two mentioned are especially wonderful Syd numbers that you really should have if you like Piper. The others are historically though not particularly musically noteworthy. Let's face it, the post-Syd Floyd took a while to find its legs.

It is also lame that EMI chose to replace the fine old white cover with the cheesy photograph on the 1995 remastered edition. Leave artwork alone!!

If you are a latter day Floyd fan with no pre-Dark Side experience looking to sample, don't buy this now. Just buy Piper, Atom Heart, and Meddle which represent the highlights of the pre-Dark Side material. If still interested you can go back and get the other stuff.

Relics was a compilation of material Pink Floyd produced between 1967-1969, mainly consisting of material off their Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets and More soundtrack albums, plus a few songs that were released as singles (A and B sides) or unreleased material. As I think the subtitle on some releases of this compilation says, its basically a collection of antiques and curios. I don't know exactly why this was released other than maybe to take advantage of the band's steadily growing popularity (even in the States by 1971). Certainly it could have been a better selection as they had produced much more interesting stuff during that time period. Nonetheless, it is a halfway decent album and an enjoyable listen.

I would probably recommend this album to the casual listener that just wants a touch of early Pink Floyd to see if you like it before diving into their first three albums. If you have all three of them, this album probably isn't worth your time. If you are a completionist or collector, yes, you probably should get it. Three stars. Good, but non-essential.

Oldie and goldie. The best PINK FLOYD compilation ever - but that is saying more about my taste and musical preferences than the music itself. In a way, everything is very floydian here - from the atmosphere to the cover - and the music is that good old trippy Floyd stuff, squeezed the best from the first two albums that are very good anyway. No throwaway material. And a track or two of previously unreleased material from the same period, everything but below par.

The compilation might seems a bit obsolete nowadays, but I don't know for any better. If you are into British psychedelia - like I am - this is an enjoyable listen but it's unnecessary, because you already have the studio albums. But if you are just about to discover the beautiful new worlds - this might be a good starting place for you.

See Pink Floyd Play.

A collection of their early singles along with some other unreleased tracks, Relics is one of the better Pink Floyd compilations out there. Especially worthy for the people who love Barrett era Floyd freakout tracks, this is one that has caught many ears over its time of being released. Certainly not the most essential Floyd disc by any means, this is still one worth owning for many of the tracks that are difficult of find outside this record. It's still slightly annoying that other tracks that are readily available exist on here, because it would have benefited the disc to be entirely composed of non-album material.

Still hosting a number of the best early (and overlooked) Floyd tracks from some of their studio albums such as the aways fun Interstellar Overdrive, the wonderful Remember A Day, Bike and the two best tracks from More, The Nile Song and Cirrus Minor. But if you already have these tracks in your collection you won't be hearing anything new in these songs.

Among the unreleased stuff (on cd albums anyways) there's a bunch of gems. See Emily Play is a fun, Beatle-esque track that shows the band before their first album, as does Arnold Layne, the latter of which grows fairly tiring after a few listens. A little bit later in the cd Julia Dream is a spaced out track that would've sounded great on A Saucerful of Secrets and paired with Paintbox they make for a great six minutes. Biding My Time is another good lost track, but the most attractive track has yet to be mentioned.

While the other tracks would soon justify the purchase, the biggest buying point for this reviewer was the studio version of Careful With That Ax, Eugine. Unfortunately, this track is actually the most tedious part of the cd! Shorter than it's live counterpart and lacking the energy that the Ummagumma version possesses, this track was better left alone than recorded.

This is a good one for fans of early Floyd fans, but for the rest of the world it's just another compilation. Also good if you want to hear the best of the early Floyd stuff without actually going out and buying it. However, if you don't like Floyd very much (or at all) then give this one a miss. 3 stars - good, but not essential. A worthy compilation disc.

4 stars because a compilation, even if it's a great one (like this one) deserves not a full-stars rate. But everything's really wonderful here (even the cover art, yes ! Yes !). Here, you could hear an unreleased track from the Meddle sessions (Biding My Time), the studio version of Careful With That Axe, Eugene, some non-lp songs (Arnold Layne, Paintbox, See Emily Play, Julia Dream), and some of the most important songs from the three first Floyd albums (Cirrus minor, Remember A Day...). 49 minutes of great music. Highly recommended !

In 1976 one cousin let to one of my brothers an L.P. version of this compilation. But curiously, that L.P. copy had a manufacturing error because in Side One it really had the songs from Side One of the "The Dark Side of the Moon" album (but with the label showing the titles of Side One of "Relics") and in Side Two it had the correct songs from the Side Two of "Relics". So, it wasn`t until 1982 when I listened for the first time to "The Dark Side of the Moon" that I realized that the LP copy that I heard from "Relics" was badly manufactured! It was until this year that I finally bought this album in the CD format, so for me this is the first time that I listen to this album as it was originally released.

Now with the recent death of Richard Wright, and after listening to "Relics" and other Pink Floyd`s albums from the seventies, I think that Roger Waters was wrong about Wright`s skills as a composer and as a keyboard player when his ego fired Wright from Pink Floyd. Wright`s contributions for the band were underrated by Waters when he took control of the band to record the overrated "The Wall" album, an album that I don`t like very much. Also, for the first time I had the chance to listen to Syd Barrett`s songs as I have never listened in full to "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" album. So I consider this album a a very good compilation of songs from their early years (1967-69) before they became more famous.

I can see that Pink Floyd with Barrett was in sound a combination of Psychedelia and Pop, and also it was an experimental band. He was a good guitarist and a good singer, and his songs are psychedelic but also accessible. It is a shame that his mental health changed in a brief time. After he had to leave the band, Waters and Wright had to compose more songs to keep the band alive. Wright`s "Remember a Day" and "Paintbox" are very good too, really showing to me Wright`s contributions to the sound of the band. Waters`songs are also very good, and they show to me that he was a better composer during those years than in "The Wall", and that his leadership qualities were then in better control to keep the band really functioning as a band for several years. It was until he lost control of his leadership qualities that he became impossible to work with and his songs became of less quality in "The Wall", in my opinion. "Julia Dream", one of his songs, is one of my favourites, with a very good use of the mellotron by Wright. I also can say this about "Cirrus Minor", with Wright again playing very good keyboards. "The Nile Song", another song composed by Waters is also very good, played without keyboards, in a heavy way. "Biding my Time" was a previously unreleased song composed by Waters, also good.

In conclusion, it is a very good compilation, in my opinion.

Relics is just that: an old dusty box that you discover in the attic that has all sorts of old antiques that have been long forgotten, but are very important. Though I usually hate compilation albums. (as compilation albums often rip other albums apart, and I especially hate it when compilations add bonus things, because it makes it unfair to veterans who have all the albums). Relics is a great exception to my hatred of compilation albums. Many songs on this album were songs that were not featured on other albums, and thus the only way to get them were through Relics. The unavailable songs were Arnold Layne, See Emily Play, Paintbox, Julia Dream, Careful with that Axe Eugene, which were all released only as singles, and Biding my Time, which was never released at all before that. The other songs that were included on relics that were already released on other albums are good songs that I wouldn't mind hearing again, like Interstellar Overdrive, Remember a Day, Cirrus Minor, The Nile Song, and Bike. Half the songs on this album are not released on another album, and the other half were released before, but at least they're good songs. All songs on Relics are classic pre Umma Gumma Floyd. I highly recommend this album to any Pink Floyd fan, it is one of the few albums you can get a number of their single-only songs. The album is rendered reduntant if you have the Early Singles, except for that last Relic, Biding my Time. And it's a good song. :)

Another good thing is how well all the songs flow together despite how they're from the changing beginning era of Pink Floyd. It has it's perfect balance of psychedelic songs and progressive rock, and it ends with one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs of all time, BIKE!!! Bike is amazing, I sang it with my friends on New Years!

The album artwork looks pretty cool as well. Go ahead and get it, you won't be disappointed.

This compilation is a must have for Pink Floyd fans who don't want to listen to Pipers and Sourcefull but do want some PF music of the early times. This release could also be of interest to the specific psychadelic rock fan that wants all the material there is. This compilation consists of some classics and is has some singles/songs that weren't released on other albums. Arnold Layne, Paintbox and See Emely Play are great examples of proto prog/psychpop of the time. The best songs from minor album More are also handy here, for the More album isn't considered must have by most people. For the vinyl recordcollecter this is also a nice goody because of the nice art on the front and the back of the album that set the asmosphere before you even listen to the music. Seems like a nice reason of four stars!

"Relics" is a compilation album by UK psychadelic/progressive rock act Pink Floyd. The compilation was released through Starline Records (subsidiary label to EMI) in May 1971. The label decided that a release from Pink Floyd was needed in mid-1971 to close the gap between the releases of Pink Floyd´s fifth and sixth full-length studio albums "Atom Heart Mother" (October 1970) and "Meddle" (October 1971), while the band worked in the studio on the material for the latter.

"Relics" is a combined early career rarities and best-of compilation album, featuring single A-side and B-side tracks, an unreleased track ("Biding My Time"), and four tracks ("Interstellar Overdrive", "Remember a Day", "Careful With That Axe, Eugene", and "Bike") which had already appeared on one of the first two albums by Pink Floyd ("The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)" and "A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)"). "Nile Song" and "Cirrus Minor" are featured from the 1969 soundtrack album "More". "Biding My Time" is of course an attraction here, but the A-side single tracks "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play", featuring vocals by Syd Barret, are also some of the highlights of the compilation. "Paintbox", which is a B-side to the 1968 single "Apples and Oranges" and "Julia Dream", which is a B-side to the 1968 single "It Would Be So Nice", are also both great additions to the compilation.

So "Relics" is arguably a good representation of both the most melodic and accessible early psychadelic tinged rock songs by the band, but also some of the most trippy experimental sound collages. In that respect "Relics" is as good a place to start your journey with early Pink Floyd as any. So evaluating "Relics" is actually more about what was left off the compilation, because the label left off some pretty essential rarities, which could have made the compilation even more interesting in "Candy and a Currant Bun", which was the B-side to the 1967 "Arnold Layne" single, the A-side track from the 1968 "It Would Be So Nice" single, and the A-side track from the 1968 "Point Me at the Sky" single. If it was a matter of vinyl quality time limits, they could easily have replaced either "Interstellar Overdrive" or "Careful With That Axe, Eugene", with the three missing single tracks, and as a result "Relics" would have been a more complete early rarities compilation. Still a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

The band's previous studio album might not have been one of my favorites but it did make somewhat of an impact in the British charts meaning that the label soon followed up the success with this compilation album.

Unlike the 1970 compilation called The Best Of The Pink Floyd that covered the band's psychedelic years with Syd Barret, Relics is quite an odd little collection of songs from the '60s. The album did supply the fans with both of the Syd Barrett-era hit singles, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, plus B-sides to three other singles. But it also features studio tracks from the debut album, A Saucerful Of Secrets and the soundtrack from the film More.

The biggest surprises for me here were the tracks Julia Dream and The Nile Song. The former is a slow and soft Mellotron-driven performance with beautiful chorus sang by Roger Waters. The latter is a surprisingly heavy tune that can easily be classified as one of the earliest forms of Hard Rock genre! I could have enjoyed the album more if I was spared the complete version of Interstellar Overdrive and the other B-side tracks since they really don't add anything interesting to the already familiar scope of Pink Floyd's early output.

The main issue I have with Relics is that it tries to be both a best of- and rarities compilation without being particularly good at either one of these goals. It's understandable why the fans would have wanted this compilation back in the day but today there's a wide variety of great Pink Floyd odds & sods releases out there making Relics exactly what its title might suggest. Still the glossy album cover and the fact that it was released before the band's golden era is enough to make it a nice piece of Pink Floyd memorabilia for fans of the band.

***** star songs: Remember A Day (4:29) Julia Dream (2:37) Bike (3:21)

**** star songs: Arnold Layne (2:56) See Emily Play (2:53) The Nile Song (3:25)

*** star songs: Interstellar Overdrive (9:43) Paintbox (3:33) Careful With That Axe, Eugene (5:45)

** star songs: Cirrus Minor (5:18) Biding My Time (5:18)

One of two Floyd compilations that are worth buying (except of course for completionists, who already have the albums). It successfully takes a time period (early Floyd), and gives a good representation not only of the songs, but also the evolution over time. Of course, few could have seen what the band would deliver 10 years later with The Wall, for better or worse.

The added advantage is that this really gives you much of the best (not all, as Astronomy Domini and other notables are excluded, for example) of what spans a lot of albums (and, to be honest, an excruciating amount of poor to average music...that is, unless you are really into unstructured psychadelia and simplistic singles). For example, with Relics, you have The Nile Song and Cirrus Minor from More. I recommend that you needn't listen to anything else off of that album, it's so poor in places. Thus, Relics becomes a very convenient, and affordable, workaround. It also achieves the purpose of teasing a bit, by only giving a taste for those crave more (and thus go out and buy the albums).

As a side note, I owned the cassette version, which had the same cover as the American LP, with the big-lipped, double-eyed bottle opener head. That cover would seriously freak me out...it would give me nightmares. I would avoid the drawer where I kept this tape just to not see that awful head staring back at me. Perhaps others had a similar reaction, thus hampering US sales. The CD cover, on the other hand, which consists of a fairly neutral Nick Mason-designed gizmo, is much less disturbing.

Overall, Relics can be a worthwhile toe-in-the-pool test of early Floyd, which may be helpful in deciding whether to take the chilly and sometimes unpleasant dive into their early discography.

An early compendium of singles, B-sides and lesser-known album tracks, with a fair share between Pink Floyd's three principle songwriters (Barrett, Wright and of course, Waters).

Relics has a nice flow to it despite the chronological gaps between the songs; they must be well chosen. Certainly, the inclusion of 'Arnold Layne' and 'See Emily Play' is beneficial as they are unavailable on any normal studio release. The same goes for most of the tracks actually. And although these songs vary in style somewhat, the fit together almost like an album proper, a song cycle indeed!

I enjoy Wright's quirky 'Paintbox', and the studio verison of 'Careful with that Axe, Eugene' is cool to have, even though the Ummugumma take is probably better. But the real gem here is Waters' cool and bluesy 'Biding My Time', which has uncharacteristically clean production, plenty of horns and a killer guitar solo. How this workout didn't end up on Meddle I don't know. Although I haven't heard the More soundtrack yet, I think the two songs from it are probably the weakest on this album, but they may very well be the best the film soundtrack had to offer! In any case, Relics is mostly good and, being a compliation, is naturally devoid of filler-material.

A good purchase if you own the majority of the Floyd's discography and are looking to go further. A bad purchase if you don't like the Barrett-Gimour-crossover era, because that's the focus. Perhaps more work has gone into the album cover than the song selection.....

I only bought this for "Biding My Time". Apparently a leftover from the Meddle sessions although the band was playing a live version as early as 1969. The song wasn't worth the purchase. Before I got Relics a friend of mine had the Shine On box with the Early Singles CD in it. That was the first place I heard "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play". It had "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" as well but in mono.

Besides the early singles and B-sides, this also has the two best songs from More: "Cirrus Minor" and "The Nile Song". The Piper version of "Interstellar Overdrive" is here. Two good but ignored songs in "Remember A Day" and "Julia Dream". The former is a song written by Wright from A Saucerful Of Secrets; the latter was the B-side to the flop single "It Would Be So Nice". "Julia Dream" is the first song Floyd recorded with Gilmour after Barrett had gone.

Overall, a very all over the place collection. For the longest time this was the easiest way to get "Arnold Layne", "See Emily Play" and the studio "Eugene". This compilation I think had three different covers, one by Nick Mason. Not worth getting if you have all the studio albums. For fans and completists only. 2 stars.

Can this be considered just a compilation? Think to me in the vinyl age, far from UK that was the center of the music in Europe and with no internet. Without any possibility to find obscure sigles released years before and never printed out in my country this album was the first opportunity to listen to the Pink Floyd's songs unreleased on album that I knew existed but have never heard before.

I knew of these songs because the lyrics were printed on a book, the same whose author tried to guess the lyrics by listening to the songs and made some incredible errors, one for all the one that generated an urban legend on St Tropez ("ringing by phone" became "Rita Pavone" a pop artist famous for an omonimous song).

So I had the opportunity to listen to Julia Dream, Biding My Time and Arnold Layne, to have a studio version of Careful With that Axe Eugene and to relisten to some classic songs. Only I wouldn't have included the songs from More as I find them out of context here.

This is a fundamental album for who wants to know the early Floyd and not only for Syd. Juila Dream is one of the first songs written by Waters and the first matching his future style.

One mention goes to the sleeve design. The picture is known for having been drawn by Nick Mason, the last tribute to his architect's career.

4 stars

Relics!

It is strange I had not reviewed this album before. But well, there is actually not much to say. This is a compilation album released back in 1971, a compilation of some of their most representative songs from the 60s, songs that are loved among die-hard fans who follow the Pink Floyd since their very roots. Here you will have a slice of their psychedelic moments with songs such as "Iinterstellar Overdrive" or the awesome (because I really love it) "Careful with that Axe, Eugene".

Shorter compositions like the opener "Arnold Layne", "Julia Dream", "Paintbox" or "Bike" are also shared here. Songs that may not represent the brightest moments of the band, not even the proggiest moments because someone may argue that some songs here have something to do with prog, but nonetheless those are songs that the early phase of the band, which are good if you want to understand their roots and know them deeper.

If you know their most popular albums such as Dark Side or The Wall, and like them, please don't stay only with them, I invite you to listen and know their earlier tunes (though I firstly recommend you the studio albums), so Relics may work for that. My final grade will be three stars.

Enjoy it!

Relics captures the most expressive work from early Pink Floyd. It is a complilation but is well worth picking up because it features lots of jewels not included on any main studio albums. I have been enjoying it since its release, to the extent that I didn't like "Piper At The Gates of Dawn" as much at first! Syd's "Arnold Layne", is a psychedelic classic about a man's hobby; Stealing clothes from washing lines! See Emily Play, Paintbox, Julia Dream, the original studio version of the trippy "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" and "Biding My Time" are other great oldies that should be in your collection. Remember a Day and the dreamy Cirrus Minor are old favourites anyway and good to hear anytime. Strongly recommended.

Many compilation albums just feature songs from a groups past albums, but not Relics. 6 of the 11 songs here are either singles or never previously released and all of them are quite good. See Emily Play and Arnold Layne are the two "hit" singles with Syd Barrett in charge of the group. Interstellar Overdrive is a psych space rock instrumental again with Syd. Bike is the other Syd led song which is from the Piper album. Always a favorite with its "all hell breaks loose" ending.

Cirrus Minor and The Nile Song are two Roger Waters songs from the soundtrack More which itself is not likely to be an album that the casual Floyd fan has. The latter song rocks like no other in the Floyd canon.

Paintbox and Remember A Day are Richard Wright compositions and while the other Floyd's would later admit that they were not always the fairest when it comes to who got their stuff on the records and who got credit for the work done, these two songs show you what Wright brought to the table. Without him, PF is a very different band. As a side note, David Gilmour played and his band played an excellent live version of Remember a Day as a tribute to Mr. Wright after he passed away. One wonders why this song went silent for 40 years.

The studio version of Careful with that Axe Eugene is not as strong as the live version on Ummagumma but it is still quite good.

For me, the biggest surprise is the song Biding My Time, another Waters led song with that finishes with a couple of minutes instrumental section fronted by Richard Wright's trombone! A very good lost gem!!

The original artwork drawing is done by Nick Mason!

No fat on this album as its an excellent look at some hidden and forgotten gems of Pink Floyd. I would consider this essential!

4 stars.

4 stars.

This is an interesting compilation. Released when Pink Floyd was getting quite popular in the mainstream, it was a way to get introduced to their earlier material (it was for me - when I got this, I had "Meddle", "Dark Side Of The Moon" and "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn").

Unlike modern collections on corporate major labels, this set was put together by someone who obviously knew Pink Floyd's music and cared about it. It actually shows a nice cross section of what the group's sixties albums were all about.

Plusses: The album reminds us that there was a time when Richard Wright was allowed to write songs for the band. His Remember A Day and Paint Box are both beautiful. The Nile Song. This is as raw a song as I've ever heard by Floyd. The punks would love it. And Biding My Time, a honky tonk blues song is nice to.

Also, Careful With That Axe, Eugene is much more subdued than the live version on "Ummagumma", but I like it.

With the success of "Atom Heart Mother" some clever soul at the record label company decided it was high time to release a compilation for all the best material produced in the early years of 1967 to 1970 and here is the result. It is indeed a compilation of Floyd relics that captures some of the trippiest space rock that the band executed. These were experimental years of course and the raw psychedelic sound pervades the album throughout.

On offer is the awesome 'Interstellar Overdrive' that runs for about 10 minutes and is never dull. Highlights abound with Syd Barrett's cross dresser anthem 'Arnold Layne' and the dreamy 'See Emily Play'. The bone chilling mesmirising ambience of 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene' is here, as well as classic spaced up 'Julia Dream' and powerful 'Cirrus Minor'.

Other tracks are okay and of course there is nothing new for the Floyd fan who has everything, and it would take the most impoverished Floydian to not have everything here. The best bits of "Piper" and "Saucerful" is here though the title track is missing.

This album is best picked up on vinyl as it has a classic quality, especially the packaging and cover art. It is a product of its time but perhaps enough to satiate the appetite of music listeners interested in the dark mysterious early years of the band. There are better compilations such as "Echoes" but none with this much early psych from Pink Floyd so for that reason alone this is a curio worth snavelling up.

An eclectic compilation of early Pink Floyd songs, Relics includes some album tracks and some early singles from both the Syd Barrett and late 60's-early 70's David Gilmour phases. The two Barrett singles "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play" are possibly even better and more charactaristic than many of the songs on The Piper At the Gates of Dawn, and Waters' "Biding My Time" is unique to the Floyd canon, a song in the style of early swing, and a good one at that. "Paintbox" is a very creative song from Wright, with great piano, and a truly adventurous vocal part. "Julia Dream" would have sounded at home on More, with it's subdued Gilmour vocals, and those unbelievably trippy guitar sweeps that both he and Barrett always did so well. The only drawback to the album is that it repeats some songs that were already released on their first three proper studio albums, and while they're classic songs, if already familiar with those albums, they're sequenced in such a way as to interrupt the flow of raritism that would otherwise have been there, thus feeling a bit unnecessary. Still, though, if you're just starting to get into early Pink Floyd, it could serve as a good introduction, plus it's always good to hear the studio version of "Careful With That Axe, Eugene."

A greatest hits package from 1971 of the early work of Pink Floyd. Not much groundbreaking or different here, just non-album singles and known tracks. I remember when I got this album it was because of the cheap price. This is not the later proggy Floyd but mostly more psychedelic and folky tunes from their earliest Barrett time period. ANd this is not my favourite period of the band by any means. This is really not essential to anyone except perhaps those who must own everything that Pink Floyd ever put out there. Others don't need RELCS. Get the regular albums instead.

This is not just a compilation. This is a good overview of the Syd Barrett period of Pink Floyd and include three songs (Arnold Layne, See Emily Play and Paintbox) which were never released on studio record before and delivers a studio version of "Careful with that Axe, Eugene" which was also never released before. Besides the "new" material this is a carefully mixed record which listens like a album with a good start en end structure. This compilation is actually better then the individual records who delivered the songs (Piper at the Gates of Dawn and More) and I doubt you have ever seen such a better quality cover for a "best of" record!

While I do like the early Pink Floyd sound I was never convinced of More. By having this compilation I should not have to waste money on that record. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and The Saucerfull of Secrets are still recommended, because of their historical value and songs that miss on this record. There are actually no songs from the Saucerfull, so there ain't no overlap with that record.

The record contains short psychedelic rock songs and some examples of early psychedelic spacerock with a 60's sound, which I do really like. This early phase of Pink Floyd is very different then the Dark Side of the Moon period and for those who are into 60' psychedelia might prefer this particular side of Pink Floyd.

This is an essential compilation because of the reasons mentioned above. If it wasn't a compilation it would have been a masterpiece!

Five stars for a review of a compilation album? Surely you jest?

No, I'm quite serious. It's not often that one gets a history lesson as pleasurable as listening to an album like Relics, for starters. It is also a skeleton key, if one knows how use it, to see why Pink Floyd started out as a singles band and could not maintain their stature as a British Top of the Pops hit band.

For those unfamiliar, Relics, released in 1971, contains Floyd's two certified UK chart hits, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play. Both songs contained enough pop sensibility to scale the British charts in the era of psychedelia, while also ensuring a social critique or character study in Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, respectively. This was something that songwriter Syd Barrett would never duplicate in his career and that other members of Pink Floyd either failed to grasp or ignored until Roger Waters started spilling his guts on the Dark Side Of The Moon album that was released in 1973.

When Barrett became mentally defunct, keyboard player Rick Wright stepped into the breach and penned the truly wonderful Remember A Day and the fantastic pop tinged psych wonder Paintbox. Both of these songs delivered on what The Zombies were trying to produce on their Odyssey and Oracle album from the same year but only hinted at. Wright's vocals are sublime as are his understated but heavily treated keyboards, with the rest of the band taking up the slack and virtually carrying this material in Syds' mental absence. However, Remember A Day and Paintbox did not sound like Syd's pop ditties and did not have the lyrical connection that a song like Arnold Layne had with the public. We're all guilty, at times, of doing something that hurts no one and either having regretied it or having been punished for it. So we're all Arnold Layne. We are not all part of Rick Wright's psychedelic daydreams, however, so the British public didn't respond to Remember A Day or Paintbox. Next up in the songwriters box is Mr. Water's wonderfully moody Cirrus Minor and angry Nile Song, with the newly acquired Dave Gilmour showing off his wares to good effect with both excellent voice and guitar playing. Again, two stellar songs, while not intended as singles but certainly had the quality to be released as such, still went unnoticed from the OST from the 1969 movie titled More.

Where next? Another crack at a group instrumental, naturally, with the studio version of Careful With That Axe, Eugene that, while not being as good as the live version found on Ummagumma, is every bit the equal of Interstellar Overdrive which was also included on Relics, having been taken from the seminal Piper At The Gates of Dawn album from 1967. Relics also includes the previously unreleased blues and New Orleans' like brass band concoction, from 1971, titled Biding My Time, which is quite good and displays Water's ever growing lazy vocal style to great effect.

The Floyd still have melodic muscle and inventiveness and decided to go forward from there with their next album, the ambitious Atom Heart Mother. So everything sounds like it will go to plan until we come to the closing track on Relics, the clever endearing Bike, also from Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, that top's off Syd Barrett's great lyrical and vocal work with an astounding sound collage of clocks, bells and chimes which quickly reminds us, after the fading panning kazoo sounds, that the Floyd are in for a steep uphill climb from here until they reach The Dark Side of The Moon.

As I stated, these songs are not only sublime in themselves, they also have been meticulously tracked by the Floyd so as to flow seamlessly from one to another. They are also a most pleasurable history lesson.

Back in my late teens (this would be around 1991) I was starting to explore pre-Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd, as my father never owned anything pre-Dark Side. I already knew "One of These Days" from the totally unessential A Collection of Great Dance Songs, a compilation my father owned.

A Collection of Great Dance Songs gets a beating and rightfully so. Only six songs for a band with such an extensive catalog (even as of 1981 when that was released) hardly does the band justice. But there's an earlier compilation that gets much more respect that's Relics. This includes album cuts, non-album singles, and even one never-before released song (that is "Biding My Time"). Much of it from the Syd Barrett-era, as well as a couple of post-Syd-era tracks (like "Cirrus Minor", "The Nile Song", "Biding My Time" and "Careful With that Axe, Eugene"). "Interstellar Overdrive" from Piper at the Gates of Dawn is a prime example of proto-space rock, that many early '70s Krautrock bands like Amon Duul II and Ash Ra Tempel took and ran off with it and took it its logical conclusion. "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play" are their first singles, predating Piper, and were actually major UK hits (it's easy to forget Pink Floyd were actually successful right from the start in the UK, and it was only with The Dark Side of the Moon that they finally made it big in the States). Two songs from "More", "Cirrus Minor" and "The Nile Song" are included, the latter Pink Floyd almost attempting heavy metal (as it was in 1969, but Led Zeppelin was still heavier than them even then). "Cirrus Minor" is a nice space song, with Richard Wright giving some spacy organ. It's no doubt groups like Eloy (particularly albums like Inside and Floating) and Nektar (particularly Journey to the Centre of the Eye) were obviously influenced by such songs as "Cirrus Minor", "Interstellar OVerdrive", and "Astronomy Domine" (this one not included on Relics). I really wished they left Syd's "Bike" off, I have never cared for that song, I would have felt that song should have been replaced with the much superior "Astronomy Domine". For a short time from 1968 until 1970, Mellotron could be heard on some Pink Floyd recordings, and "Julia Dream" is one of them, featuring tron flute. Although Relics was released in 1971, nothing later than 1969 ("More"-era) is featured here, I guess Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother found the band moving too far from the styles explored on this compilation, as Relics is a rather accessible collection of their earliest material (and Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother aren't exactly easy listens).

I bought this on cassette in 1991, this one featured the cover depicting a strange mask with tongue sticking out (as this was the American pressing, after all). It was a great way for me to been introduced to early Pink Floyd, as I didn't realize (given how lousy cassettes were often at giving information, especially cassettes released before about 1983) a good portion of these songs only appeared as singles and "Biding My Time" appeared nowhere else. Certainly newer Pink Floyd compilations and box sets probably leave this in the dust, it was a great way for me to get acquainted with their early material and it's not a perfect comp, after all, it includes the rather lame "Bike", but it's four star worthy.

Review #20

"Relics" is a really nice compilation album of Pink Floyd's early songs from 1967 to 1971, some of them were part of their first three albums: "The Piper at the gates of dawn" ("Interstellar overdrive" and "Bike"), "A saucerful of secrets" ("Remember a day") and "More" ("Cirrus Minor" and "The Nile song"), but the rest of the songs were singles that didn't become part of any studio album and that is what makes this album so irresistible.

"Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play" are two songs originally composed by Syd Barrett while the recording of "The Piper at the gates of dawn" and are in the same psychedelic/proto-prog style of that album; "Paintbox" (a song composed by Richard Wright and with him as the lead singer) was released in November 1967 (still with Barrett on the group) and "Julia dream" (composed by Roger Waters) was released in April 1968 (now with David Gilmour) these two songs are really in the vein of "A saucerful of secrets" and they would have fit really well on that album.

"Careful with that ax, Eugene" is the last single included in this album, which was released December 1968 and its live version became part of "Ummagumma" (the good version of the song). "Biding my time" is probably the most amazing song of the album, it was recorded sometime in 1969 and released for the very first time on this album; it's an exquisite jazzy suite (Rick Wright plays the trombone quite nicely) with a mind-blowing guitar solo and very powerful drum beatings at the end. In general terms, the album is a great compilation that explores the multifaceted styles of the early Pink Floyd sounds.

I remember listening to this compilation back in 1974, when I started liking rock music at fourteen. It belonged to my sister friend, who were both big fans of Pink Floyd. To us, brazilians, Relics was a very welcomed record since most of Pink Floyd early singles were never released here at the time. Or maybe one or two might have, but if they did, they were hard to find. Contrary to most people here I really liked the music here and I thought it was a great collection that I heard a lot at the time. Songs like Arnold Layne and Julia´s Dream were my favourites (I much rather hear David Bowie´s version of `Pin Ups, which my sister had). The cover art of the brazilian release was very different, being a photo of some odd looking pieces of painted ceramics (porbablçy the same cover as the american one, i guess).

I still enjoy this album to date, being it a quite interesting collection of non album singles and some album cuts that were not maybe their best but still good and representative of their psychedelic phase (nothing here was released after 1969). Although it was out in 1971, no tracks from Ummaguma or Atom Heart Mother is represented in Relics.

Rating: 3 stars

Review Nº 474

"Relics" is a compilation of Pink Floyd and was originally released in 1971. However, "Relics" has been reissued on several occasions and in different places with different covers, and sometimes without the proper authority, namely, without the consent of the band's members themselves. This lack of consent made that "Relics" became, in reality, a true rarity. Finally, the reissue of the compilation in 1995 in CD format, meant that it could be purchased easily again.

The cover of the album was designed by the drummer of Pink Floyd Nick Mason when he was studying architecture in the Regent Street Polytechnic. According to him this was the only concrete product made by him in all the years he spent at that architecture school. As I wrote before, in addition to the original design of the original compilation, it was released in different countries with different art covers. Even the re-mastered CD version, the version released in 1995, has a different cover, a three dimensional version of the original sketch drawn by Nick Mason for the original release.

"Relics" has another peculiar particularity, the rare participation of the five Pink Floyd's members. Syd Barrett (lead vocals on "Arnold Layne", "See Emily Play" and "Bike" and lead and rhythm guitars on "Arnold Layne", "See Emily Play", "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Bike"), David Gilmour (lead vocals on "Julia Dream", "Cirrus Minor" and "The Nile Song", baking vocals and lead and rhythm guitars on all the other tracks except those who were performed by Syd Barrett). Richard Wright (lead vocals on "Remember A Day" and "Paintbox", backing vocals, organ, piano and trombone), Roger Waters (lead vocals on "Biding My Time", backing vocals and bass guitar) and Nick Mason (drums and percussion). We have also the collaboration of Norman Smith (backing vocals and drums on "Remember A Day").

"Relics" has eleven tracks. "Arnold Layne" was released in 1967 as the A side of the first single of the band. It wasn't released on any studio album. It hasn't any sort of prog rock sound but it's nice to hear. It's a good introduction to the music of Pink Floyd in Barrett's era. "Interstellar Overdrive" was released on "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn". It's full of improvisations and dissonant parts, confusing and chaotic. It's very innovative, with some progressivity. It can be considered their first approach to the space rock. "See Emily Play" was released in 1967 as the A side of the second single of the band. It wasn't released on any studio album. It's a song with such an uplifting tune and I just love that psychedelic vibe, really. "Remember A Day" was released on "A Saucerful Of Secrets". It's a song with psychedelic reminiscences with nice keyboards. I like very much of this song with the brilliant piano work of Wright and the nice drumming of Mason. "Paintbox" was released in 1967 as the B side of the single "Apples And Oranges", the third single of the band. It wasn't released on any studio album. It has a mysterious sound and the echoes of the voices have that sense of madness that surrounded everything about Pink Floyd in those times. "Julia Dream" was released in 1968 as the B side of the single "It Would Be So Nice", the fourth single of the band. It wasn't released on any studio album. This is a song that stands out because of its melancholic vibe. The Mellotron flutes are great too. This is a great track. "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" was released in 1968 as the B side of the single "Point Me At The Sky", the fifth single of the band. It wasn't released on any studio album. It's absolutely an amazing instrumental piece. I particularly love the Wright work with his organ. "Cirrus Minor" was originally released on "More". It's a slow song very beautiful and very relaxing too that begins with Waters' acoustic guitar and that ends with a superb keyboard solo performed by Wright. "The Nile Song" was released on "More". It's a very heavy song, one of the heaviest songs written by them. It's a very enjoyable hard rock song with nice guitar solos and where Gilmour screams instead of singing, which isn't very nice to hear. "Biding My Time" is a previous unreleased Roger Waters' song which was never released. It's a very bluesy song. The lyrics are good. It isn't very proggy but it sounds very Pink Floyd. "Bike" was released on "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn". It's a childish and mad song with good lyrics but completely insane. This is a very strange and original song.

Conclusion: "Relics" was one of my first musical experiences with Pink Floyd and represents one of my first contacts with progressive rock. It isn't a pure and a genuine compilation. It's true that five of the songs were previously released on studio albums, but it's also true that six were never released on any studio album and this was the first time that we can have all those songs together and not spread for all those singles. So, I sincerely think that "Relics" is, in reality, an indispensable document to check the first musical period of Pink Floyd, their most psychedelic phase, the Barrett's era. So, consequently, this is an excellent addition to any progressive rock collection. Therefore, I don't share the point of view of those who think this compilation is only important for Pink Floyd's fans who love their first psychedelic musical period, or that it's only essential for fundamentalists and hard fans of Barrett's music. It's a great document of the 70's.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

In mid-1971, Pink Floyd released Relics, an album which collected some non-album singles, B-sides, and unreleased songs. However, five of the eleven songs had already been released on other records. I was conflicted over whether or not to include this release in this article, but if I addressed Living in the Past in my Jethro Tull piece, I'd argue that this falls in the same category.

In addition to the five album tracks, I've already discussed "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play", but there are four more cuts to cover here.

"Paintbox" was originally released as a B-side to the disjointed, less-than-stellar "Apples and Oranges", and it far outshines its A-side. It's a Richard Wright composition and features his usual light, jazzy compositional tendencies, intercut with some sinister minor-key moments. "Julia Dream" is another B-side I prefer over its A-side, "It Would Be So Nice". (Though it was stronger than "Apples and Oranges", this single's verses are a bit too childlike for my taste.) "Julia Dream" is a spooky, simple acoustic piece that utilizes Wright's organ excellently.

"Careful with That Axe, Eugene" opens as a slow organ-based jam, featuring some noodling in an uncommon mode. After the title is whispered, there's a shriek, followed by an extended, dark solo. This is one of many songs in Pink Floyd's early repertoire that was vastly improved in live settings. The shriek and opening of the solo were given much greater impact during live performances, resulting in a more effective, arresting experience. The version on Ummagumma is especially noteworthy.

The final song on Relics to be discussed is the previously-unreleased "Biding My Time". This song was performed live as a part of The Man and the Journey, but Relics was the first time the studio version was heard. Jazz and blues are the primary influences displayed here, with warm piano and guitar tones taking the lead during the first part of the song. This song features prominent trombone, played by Rick Wright, and the final two-plus minutes are an enthralling blues jam. It's clear why this wasn't previously released?it would have sounded odd on any album Pink Floyd had put out up to this point?but it's a solid piece overall.

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