US AND THEM - SYMPHONIC PINK FLOYD

I have a relative who knows a great deal about music and is not a fan of prog. Suffice it to say that this album was the focus of much derision! In hindsight, this is an album that probably should not have been done. Floyd fans will be horrified in some places at the butchering of some of their favorite tunes. Classical music fans will be uninterested in fairly generic and boring music. I was too young and too needy of new Floyd to know better, but you have been warned!

Highlights include Time (the first version), Comfortably Numb and Breathe. All are interesting and original interpretations that work. Perhaps I've heard so many versions of Comfortably Numb that I'm more open to deviations from the original, but it's mellow and emotional here. Breathe was by far the best of the album: absolutely thunderous and catchy. These are the only reasons I don't give this album one star.

There are also some major disasters. Most of us could probably guess that Another Brick in the Wall (Part II) and Money would not translate well into classical versions, and that's exactly what happens here. Others are either uninspired (Nobody Home) or decent yet over-extended (Us and Them). I can't even tell you what the purpose of the second version of Time might be, with a light percussion mix and strange recurring breathing sound effects. Needless to say, it doesn't work.

The album art is another highlight. It looks like a Gerald Scarfe piece, but it's actually Roger Dean...I had always thought there was something Yes-like about it but could not put my finger on it. At any rate, I don't recommend this album--this is not one of those cases where you walk into a record store and decide to take a chance, because in all likelihood you will regret it.