MEDDLE

This is my fifth review of a Pink Floyd's album. The others are their eighth, ninth and tenth studio albums "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals" which were released in 1973, 1975 and 1977 respectively, and their third live album "Live 66-67" released in 1999. Now it comes the time of "Meddle". "Meddle" is their sixth studio album and was released in 1971. The album was recorded at a series of locations around London, including the Abbey Road Studios, and at several occasions between January and August of 1971. "Meddle" reached gold record in 1973 and platinum and double platinum in 1994.

"Meddle" has six tracks. The first track "One Of These Days" written by David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright is an instrumental piece of music that can be considered the first song that would mark the future sound of the band. It became the final expression of the Pink Floyd's trademark, and it also features the traditional double-tracked bass guitars played by Gilmour and Waters. The second track "A Pillow Of Winds" written by Gilmour and Waters is an acoustic song, calm and something different from the usual characteristics songs performed by the band. The song also features slide guitar work by Gilmour. It's a very nice and relaxing acoustic piece of music that has the ability, if we close our eyes, to make us dreaming and painting a picture in our own way. The third track "Fearless" also written by Gilmour and Waters follows the logic of the two previous songs and also begins to change the usual musical atmosphere of the album, creating a real vivacious sound. Waters plays all the acoustic guitar parts on the studio recordings and all the strange and intricate guitar work presented on this track is performed by Gilmour. The fourth track "San Tropez" written by Waters is one of the two smallest and weakest songs on the album. The song reflects an idealized vision of Waters of what a day in San Tropez might be like. It's the only song on the album sung by him. On the song, Waters plays the acoustic guitar and the track also includes a Gilmour's short slide guitar solo and an extended Wright's piano solo work too. Despite being a good ballad, this song is somewhat dislocated from the rest of the musical context of the album. The fifth track "Seamus" written by Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright is the other smallest and weakest song on the album. It's a blues song about Seamus, the Gilmour's dog. It's sung by Gilmour and in the bottom of it we can hear the dog barking, as if he sang along with its owner. Fortunately, it's the smallest song on the album. Sincerely, besides having one of the most bad and absurd lyrics I've ever heard, it's also, in my humble opinion, completely dislocated from the rest of the musical context of the album. Finally, we have the last but not the least, the sixth track "Echoes". It represents the great masterpiece of the album and was written by Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright. This is one of the best known tracks from the group and it's also the third lengthiest song from the group with 23:29, behind "Atom Heart Mother" with 23:44 and the nine parts of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" with 26:01. This song would become the great discovery of Pink Floyd and would also become their secret key which allowed them to find their real musical roots. It represents the new real starting point of Pink Floyd and made that this was the band that would appear two years later with their great trilogy, "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals". This is the only reason why I give 5 stars to this album.

Conclusion: In my humble opinion, Pink Floyd released five studio masterpieces, "Meddle", "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here", "Animals" and their eleventh studio album "The Wall" released in 1979. However, there are slight differences between them. While "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals" are three absolute masterpieces, "Meddle" and "The Wall" are also masterpieces but with inferior value, but for different reasons. About "Meddle", if instead of "San Tropez" and "Seamus" had two other better songs, it would be certainly a better album. About "The Wall", I will explain my personal point of view when I do make the review of it. "Meddle" was the album that started the turning point of the band's sound, which became more evolved and original. "Meddle" launched the roots of what would be the trademark of their music, which would influence so many bands of so different styles of music, all over the time, and even today. "Meddle" launched the band, particularly through "The Dark Side Of The Moon", to the world of fame and stardom, beyond the realm of the progressive rock, having reached a so high level, that we can say that no more other progressive band reached, until now. Finally, I'll leave you with a phrase of Gilmour that, in my humble opinion, defines the importance that "Meddle" had for the group: «"Meddle" are among of my favourite Pink Floyd albums. For me, it was the beginning of the walk of Pink Floyd"».

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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