Pink Floyd - Meddle (1971) - Harvest Records
Hello friends!
Smoke 'em if you got 'em kids 'cuz tonight we're back for another Prog-Rock Saturday!
On tap tonight is Pink Floyd's 1971 masterpiece, Meddle featuring some fine pre-Dark Side of the Moon psychedelic prog!
The album opens with the sound of distant, swirling winds that are interrupted by the loud, thumping of a delay-driven bass line. "One of These Days" is a crazy, intense and downright scary instrumental that mutates into a spacey jazz jam. Sounding like a demon, drummer Nick Mason's slowed-down spoken word bit probably ruined a lot of good trips back in the day!
From the intensity and future-sounding, "One of These Days", the album takes a much softer and melodic turn with the next two tracks-- featuring some excellent David Gilmour acoustic guitar work and vocals-- "A Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless".
Side One concludes with two comparatively weak tracks, the Roger Waters' soft jazz, "San Tropez", and Gilmour's traditional blues, "Seamus".
The crowning achievement of this LP is Side Two-- which is home to just one song-- the 23 minute epic, "Echoes". Wow! is all we can say. There's clicks & hisses, pinging & ponging, and quiet & loud parts. Ambient and alien noises dance around a highly melodic series of verses about albatrosses, "labyrinths of coral caves" and a "million bright ambassadors of morning." Not sure what the fuck is going on or what the song is about, but who cares? Its PROG ROCK!
Meddle does what a good prog rock album should do and that is create an atmosphere, a landscape. Its certainly not as intimidating or as musically-challenging as other prog rock classics, but its weird and moody and different-sounding enough to make it a classic in its own right!
On tap tonight is Pink Floyd's 1971 masterpiece, Meddle featuring some fine pre-Dark Side of the Moon psychedelic prog!
The album opens with the sound of distant, swirling winds that are interrupted by the loud, thumping of a delay-driven bass line. "One of These Days" is a crazy, intense and downright scary instrumental that mutates into a spacey jazz jam. Sounding like a demon, drummer Nick Mason's slowed-down spoken word bit probably ruined a lot of good trips back in the day!
From the intensity and future-sounding, "One of These Days", the album takes a much softer and melodic turn with the next two tracks-- featuring some excellent David Gilmour acoustic guitar work and vocals-- "A Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless".
Side One concludes with two comparatively weak tracks, the Roger Waters' soft jazz, "San Tropez", and Gilmour's traditional blues, "Seamus".
The crowning achievement of this LP is Side Two-- which is home to just one song-- the 23 minute epic, "Echoes". Wow! is all we can say. There's clicks & hisses, pinging & ponging, and quiet & loud parts. Ambient and alien noises dance around a highly melodic series of verses about albatrosses, "labyrinths of coral caves" and a "million bright ambassadors of morning." Not sure what the fuck is going on or what the song is about, but who cares? Its PROG ROCK!
Meddle does what a good prog rock album should do and that is create an atmosphere, a landscape. Its certainly not as intimidating or as musically-challenging as other prog rock classics, but its weird and moody and different-sounding enough to make it a classic in its own right!
RATING: 4.5 idiots facing the crowd out of a possible 5
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