Meddle - PINK FLOYD****

One Of These Days/A Pillow Of Winds/Fearless/San Tropez/Seamus/Echoes

Meddle was regarded as a transitional album in the development of the Pink Floyd sound, incorporating the experimentalism of early releases but less structured than subsequent albums. (US:70 UK:3)

“Meddle is Pink Floyd's first truly great album and marks a transition to a period of creative maturity. The relaxed songs show the group in a pleasant and positive mood and are fantastic songs to unwind to. The ambitious Echoes is a work of genius, featuring beautiful, lazily harmonizing vocals, superbly catchy instrumental interludes, and a gorgeous and trippy experimental mid-section.”

“The transition from Pink Floyd's playful psychedelic beginnings to their more focused and structured forms that would inform their internationally successful work was hardly smooth, littered as it was with questionable double albums, slightly bizarre soundtracks and albums with cows on the cover. It is perhaps surprising then that smack bang in the middle of this period they managed to release one of their most enjoyable and downright fun albums.”

“There are some things in common with their previous album Atom Heart Mother here, but in many respects Meddle set the tone for the band in defining their '70s sound. By refining their experimental rock style into more of a straightforward rock sound, they really found their niche.”

“This album covers a lot of ground. This is the Pink Floyd I love the most, when they seemed more cohesive as a band playing off each other and not just Roger Waters' backing band, a band that was playful but also serious, but not so serious as to lose all semblance of fun.”

“Meddle is among the least pretentious, most eclectic and melodically sound of any of the band’s records. It's experimental, psychedelic, beautifully produced and contains many of their prettiest moments. Even the filler tracks are clever and never annoying. On the sunny, tropical themed San Tropez, Roger Water's sounds legitimately happy, maybe for the only time. Seamus is a throwaway, Gilmour led experiment but it's not completely awful. The rest are all very good, and Echoes is probably the greatest song the band ever recorded. It takes up a whole side of the record and is fascinating throughout.”