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By the way, which one's Pink?-Pink Floyd reviewed
I am going to attempt to review and evaluate the entire Pink floyd catalogue. Considering that they are one of the biggest selling bands of all time, a lot of people just associate them with DARK SIDE OF THE MOON or THE WALL. I would like to introduce people to what has been a highly influential and certainly in their early years; an eclectic sound.
PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN 1967 http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/5...zzzzzzzev8.jpg The Floyd's debut along with Sgt. Peppers shaped British pop music for ever and is a stunningly original debut in it's own right. In a strange twist, this album was being recorded next door to where the Beatles were themselves recording Sgt. Peppers. Floyd were led by the talents of Syd Barrett; who indeed named them, and gave them their sound and was the main songwriter. Having gotten a reputation as one of the finest live bands around at the time, it was only a matter of time that they were signed to a major. That major was EMI. On the strength of their first single ARNOLD LAYNE, EMI were hoping for more radio friendly hit singles. This was not to be. Their free form experimental side was something the band desperately wanted to harness and so on the 9 minute epic INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE, the band produced an undeniable classic in experimentation. Sonically original and produced brilliantly, it features one of the best speaker to speaker phases you will ever hear which is completely disorientating even now. What people thought of it then must have been mind blowing. It is also extremly heavy and could put a lot of metal bands to shame. This however wasn't just what the Floyd were all about. In Syd Barrett they had a highly original talent whose guitar experimentation coupled with his child like whimsical nature produced some of the albums most astonishing tracks. THE GNOME appears on first listen as a nursery ryhme and almost laughable. Listen again. It is an exercise in beautiful simplicity and lyrically brilliant albeit simple. THE BIKE is in similar vein and features a great time signature change. The albums opener ASTRONOMY DOMINE is one of the finest opening tracks ever and proclaims that music will never quite sound the same again. Elsewhere LUCIFER SAM is a great song with a catchy hook but peek beneath the surface and listen to it on headphones. It sounds incredibly multi layered and innovative. POW R TOC H has some great piano work from Richard Wright . The albums innovative production, Syd Barrett's songwriting and the bands experimentation produced one of the very finest psychedelic albums ever made and should be rightly held as a must have album on any self respecting music fans shelf. |
Piper at the Gates of Dawn is pme of the few Floyd albums I've really clicked with. I'm glad you started after reading/responding to you in the Bob Dylan thread I was about to go bug you about starting it.
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Great review.....
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I am surprised by the lack of posts but I will persevere!
A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS (1968) http://www.myblackroom.com/wp-conten...of_secrets.jpg Ahhh. the difficult second album syndrome. Nothing could be more apt for Floyd's follow up to Piper. Syd Barrett was becoming increasingly more removed from reality due to his copious amount of acid taking. The band had to take the momentous decision of having to bring in a replacement for Barrett. As their chief songwriter, it was a brave; and in terms of their career, fortuitous desicion. Dave Gilmour was drafted in initially to fill in for Barrett live, but his mental state gave them no option to have Gilmour replace him permanently. This gives SAUCERFUL a disjointed feel with Barrett performing on three tracks and Gilmour the remainder. The album has moments of brilliance and utter pap. Let's seperate the wheat from the chaff! In a rare songwriting spurt, Richard Wright supplies two tracks of which REMEMBER A DAY is undeniably the better. It is a brilliant piece of psychedelic pop with a hypnotic beat replete with Wrights soft soothing vocals. Another highlight of the album is the beginning of Floyd's link with the term Space Rock (which annoys the hell out of me to be honest) and the Roger Waters penned SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN. Expansive, hypnotic and trippy, the track was also the first time we heard Waters willingness to become one of the main songwriters in Floyd. The opening track LET THERE BE MORE LIGHT is probably the best example of what was to come from Gilmour. He contributes vocally and there are some guitar chords and motifs that would become the mainstay of the classic Floyd sound. The title track is a thoroughly disjointed 12 minute instrumental, and could be classed as avant garde. There are some interesting ideas but it lacks any structure. The Floyd became masters of overcoming this trait. Corporal Clegg is quite frankly terrible. Badly produced and featuring a kazoo (!) hook, it is a rare filler in their discography. The album closes fittingly on Barretts JUGBAND BLUES.While musically it is not hugely impressive, the lyrics point to a fractured soul and the beginning of a loss to music in general. JUGBAND BLUES: And I'm most obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here And I never knew the moon could be so big And I never knew the moon could be so blue And I'm grateful that you threw away my old shoes and brought me here instead dressed in red And I'm wondering who could be writing this song I don't care if the sun don't shine And I don't care if nothing is mine And I don't care if I'm nervous with you I'll do my loving in the winter And the sea isn't green And I love the queen And what exactly is a dream? And what exactly is a joke? To sum up-an interesting album with many ideas bouncing around, and while it lacks direction, it's plus points far outweigh it's minuses. |
I'm indifferent to Saucerful Of Secrets , you could see that Barrett was burnt out at that point.
I probably would have liked it more if Vegetable Man was included on it. |
Unbelievably I have never heard any Syd Barrett solo albums!
If anyone feels that I've missed something in my reviews or have any comments to improve the thread, feel free to let me know. I have never reviewed before, so I am learning all the time. |
great review, i amazingly havent heard pink floyds debut album... sad huh?
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MORE(1968)
http://www.vinylrecords.ch/P/PI/Pink...yd_more_01.jpg The Floyd's approach and sound linked itself to movie soundtracks succinctly and they made a flurry of tracks for films over a period of 3-4 years. However a combination of not very good films and lack of director/band communication resulted in a couple of albums being decidedly patchy, but nevertheless interesting in Pink Floyd's musical progression. More was a film directed by Barbet Schroeder aimed at depicting the hedonism taking place in Ibiza at the time (so ignore all the Ministry Of Sound kiddies telling you they found it first!). The film was an interesting but shambolic mess and did little to help the Floyd's cause. However in retrospect it can be seen as an exercise in the Floyd's continuing path of finding it's own identity. The most obvious (and forgotten) facet of this album is that it is the first complete album post Barrett. The next is the unmistakeable stamp that Gilmour stamps over this album. His contribution is easily heard and recognisable, laying a blueprint for the future Floyd sound that became so successful. CRYING SONG and (especially) CYMBALINE are a perfect example of Gilmours simple yet effective arrangement of music. Remarkably Cymbaline is a Roger Waters track that is dominated by Gilmour. THE NILE SONG and IBIZA BAR (it's companion piece) are two the heaviest tracks the Floyd have ever put down. They are standard rock numbers but they really stand out amongst the Floyd's general output at this time. CIRRUS MINOR is a lazy drifting piece of hippiedom, that still sounds fresh today. MAIN THEME has the same hypnotic space rock (yuk) feel of SET THE CONTROLS and can be seen as a precursor to a sound that Hawkwind readily adopted in the 70's. To review. It is obviously not one of the better Floyd albums, yet it points to what is to come via instrumental passages, motifs and tempo and as such still merits a listen (or in my case a great space on my CD shelf). |
A review for UMMAGUMMA will be up soon.
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Lee, I've listened to Piper At the Gates of Dawn, Animals, Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. I think I liked Piper best, though I also liked Wish You Were Here alot which one should I get next?
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PIPER is basically a different beast to the rest of the Floyd's output. ANIMALS is by far my favourite floyd album though! Try MEDDLE, if that does'nt grab you then maybe AFINAL CUT. To Floyd fans that sounds like a strange recco, but the album is so nihilistic and emotionally cold it provides a great juxtaposition to the warm lush sounds of DARK SIDE and WISH YOU WERE HERE.
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I'll try Meddle, I was also told I should get Welcome to the Machine.
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Welcome To The Machine is the second track from WISH YOU WERE HERE fella!
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I see :o: I was told to listen to it I assumed it was an album.
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Try Meddle, yeah. And Relics. And Live At Pompeii.
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'Meddle', is only second to DSOTM in my record collection. (When it comes to the Floyd) 'Echos', which takes up the whole second side is amazing.
No Floyd thread is complete without bringing up the DSOTM/Wizard of Oz thing. I used to do it monthly with a bunch of friends. It's alot of fun with drinks and a few joints. |
I'd say these are some of your strongest reviews yet, man.
Keep them coming and hey, maybe there's a zine out there that might want to run them for the February issue. |
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UMMAGUMMA (1969)
http://www.myblackroom.com/wp-conten...ummastudio.jpg A very strange beast in the Floyd canon but one that should not be immediately rejected to the bottom of the pile solely on it's surface credentials. One half compising of four live tracks and the other half of approx 10-12 minutes sections of each band member creating their own music. This gives credence to the fact that when Pink Floyd are on the money (live) they are millionaires, but when flying solo they can sometimes have trouble rustling up the respective quarters required. Part one consists of: ASTRONOMY DOMINE CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE, EUGENE SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS Recorded live over two gigs: Birmingham and Manchester April/May 1969, the live tracks are truly brilliant pieces of Psychedelic rock. CWTA,E is the standout track both musically and historically. It is a truly brilliant piece of work that has it's origins in some early John Peel sessions and on the 1969 tour as BEAST FROM THE CREATURES OF THE DEEP. The primordial scream of the title track's name from Roger Waters still raises the hairs on the back of your neck nearly 30 years after it was recorded. The three other tracks are equally a shining example of the Floyd's continuing talent at conjuring a stunning live atmosphere. Part 2: The four members of Floyd get a short amount of time to showcase their talent. Unfortunately it comes out as an interesting but supremely flawed experiment, with most of the members disliking what they had done. Rick Wright starts proceedings with his 4 part keyboard workout. Now we know he is an accomplished pianist but he wants to dispel this theory. At times this could be a soundtrack for a surreal Italian film, it lacks focus and genuinely great passages of play. Roger Waters begins with a lazy but alluring acoustic led piece of pure Britannica. The background has a constant (but not distracting) soundtrack of the English countryside with birds cheeping and streams nonchalantly winding their way through the land. What follows seems to be the anithesis of this. Discordant and chaotic, SEVERAL SPIECES OF SMALL FURRY ANIMALS GATHERED TOGETHER IN A CAVE AND GROOVING WITH A PICT is an assault on the ears sonically, however the recording techniques used are very innovative and ahead of their time. It's still unlistenable though! David Gilmour gives us a three part piece with vocals dominating the middle piece. It is both the most generic of the experiments and the safest and although it features some interesting guitar sounds (reverb, echo etc) it is some of the worst work he has ever done (and that as a huge Gilmour fan is a huge admission). Gilmour himself admitted he did'nt have a clue what he was doing. Nick Mason closes the album with the most interesting work. Musically it is still not a cohesive work, but there is a sense of genuine experimentation apparent and there are some startling effects used in the track. Funnily enough Percussion is kept to a minimum on his section and it is all the more alluring for it. This album is still worth it for the sensational live tracks and for anyone interested in avant-Garde/ Experimental music. It did'nt always work but kudos to the Floyd for attempting something different, and in hindsight galvanised the band to become a whole songwriting unit and not a disparate bunch of ideas fighting to get noticed. |
ATOM HEART MOTHER (1970)
http://www.myblackroom.com/wp-conten...art_mother.jpg Before any analysis of the music is commented on, kudos to the Floyd and creative consultant Storm Thorgesen/Hipgnosis for creating a simple yet iconic album cover. Talk about distancing yourselves from the music....curiously it was'nt just the cover art that provided this. ATOM HEART MOTHER is one of the most ambitious, yet undeniable failures in Pink Floyd's back catalogue. The attempt to marry orchestral/choral work to the Floyd's undenieably ambitious musical leanings was a deeply flawed undertaking. The title track is a 20 minute plus extended piece that includes a few snippets of classic Floyd but nevertheless falls short of the sound that both the Floyd and co-writer (a rare credit for an external writer) Ron Geesin were searching for. The rythmn section (Bass and Guitars) were recorded in one take due to the protracted nature of the Orchestral recordings and a terrible lapse in tempo is evident early on in the track. Even listening back after a long hiatus, it is difficult to find any significant points to recommend this track. The latter half is more tolerable with contributions from both Wright (SUMMER 68) and Gilmour (FAT OLD SUN). however it is Roger Waters' IF that provides a tiny glimpse into the Floyd that was to come. This acoustic/folk tinged track was an indication both musically and lyrically to what Waters was striving for within Pink Floyd. ALAN'S PSYCHEDELIC BREAKFAST end's the album is to be truthful an awful track, and one of my least favourite Floyd tracks. Featuring many interludes of engineer Alan Parsons providing a running commentary on his breakfast running over a fairly standard piece of rock/physcedelia that was so prevalent in the late 60'/early 70's. In summation. A missed opportunity for the Floyd but it still somehow pushed an undisputed masterpiece kicking and screaming from it's tired and flabby body.... |
The title track is awesome.
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great reviews... yet pink floyds sound changes around alot and sometimes will tie differnt concepts from other cds together....like mention a qoute from a different cd that meant something in that song.. so it would be cool to add a bit of where they changed this aorund and what the concepts in teh albums were... i havent really heard these cds yet so they might not've started to do this yet so my bad if they havent..
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MEDDLE (1971)
http://patf.net/blogs/media/patf/meddle.jpg For many this was the beginning of the classic Floyd sound that defined them through the 70's an indeed, David Gilmour and Nick Mason both proclaiming it's amongst their very best work. The original idea was again to work separately (á la UMMAGUMMA) but instead pooled their collective ideas to produce one song that filled up one half of an LP. Of course this was the masterful ECHOES and it happened to be the first track (barring the usual TIME/ANOTHER BRICK ETC) that really described what the Floyd were all about. Beginning with a piano note sent through a Leslie speaker, this note sets the whole tone of the song. The track contains a dirty funky bass section replete with some great guitar work from Gilmour. Elsewhere the mid section is ambient bliss with amplified whale calls which segues into some uplifting Richard Wright keyboard work. This track is easily in my top five all time Floyd tracks. It is 23 minutes of pure Floyd brilliance. Elsewhere the album opens with the rumbling bass riff of ONE OF THESE DAYS which was primarily played by Gilmour. The riff keeps building and climaxes with Nick Mason banging the stuffing out of his drum kit. It has quite a futuristic sound and the keyboards add to this ambience. A PILLOW OF WINDS is a beautiful ballad with great guitar work, while FEARLESS features YOU WILL NEVER WALK ALONE sung by the fans at Liverpool F.C. The album then takes a different route and features a sun kissed jazzy acoustic number penned by Waters and SEAMUS a psuedo blues track complete with a dog howling along to the music! This album was where the Floyd became even more interested in recording techniques and a lot of the album was recorded on 16 track. Other highlights was Nick Mason uttering the words ONE OF THESE DAYS I'M GOING TO CUT YOU INTO LITTLE PIECES with a high pitch voice which was then slowed down onto tape. Echoes will quite rightly be remembered as the catalyst for their success and the album is worth it just for this opus. |
Lee this may interest you
It's a specially recorded gig for John Peels's show to promote the release of Meddle which was broadcast a month before the albums release. RapidShare: 1-Click Webhosting |
:bowdown:
On a side note, the review of Meddle is the weakest so far. I have usually had a couple of sherberts when I do my reviews. It helps the thought process! I may edit later! |
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You might want to check out Meddle as it is similar in mood to the earlier material. |
INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE and ASTRONOMY DOMINE are imo 2 of Pink Floyd's best songs.
The best possible foundation for a band was made on this album. |
OBSCURED BY CLOUDS (1972)
http://img.crocmusic.com/l/albums/46..._by_clouds.jpg Yet another Floyd film soundtrack? Yes, but what sets this apart is that it was delivered in a break from DSOTM sessions and was knocked out in two weeks flat. It is also one of my favourite Floyd albums and represents a band on a much more organic level. Time constraints pushing the band to be spontaneous and deliver recognisable themes. The first thing apparent on this album is the almost total absence of Roger Waters. Although he contributed most of the lyrics and (obviously) played Bass, it is easy to deduce that his energies were firmly concentrated on DSOTM. The second recognisable element is a huge David Gilmour presence on the album. Contributing significantly to no less than seven tracks on here. The third is the bands first use of the VCS3 synthesiser. Even Nick Mason got in on the VCS3 act. Utilising a beat that is prevalent on the title track. The title track and Gilmour dominated tracks such as when Youre In and The Gold It's In The are simple tracks based around guitar motifs, but are nevertheless refreshingly free of bombast. Childhood's End is quite simply one of my favourite Gilmour tracks. It is simple but utterly effective. His guitar work is unfussy, uncomplicated and utterly beguiling. Richard Wright contributes some of his best keyboard work on here. Free from the regimented Roger Waters school of songwriting, his work soars on tracks such as Mudmen and Stay. The album does throw up two very interesting tracks within the Pink Floyd cannon. Namely Free Four and the albums closer Absolutely Curtains. Free Four is completely dominated by Waters and the lyrics are the first time that Waters used Floyd as an emotional catharsis regarding the death of his father. However the juxtaposition is (obviously) puzzling. The song is an acoustic led upbeat track, yet the lyrics are poignant and touching. Absolutely Curtains closes the album. The song's structure, sound and album placing could almost seem prophetic. The Floyd's next album was the phenomonem that was DSOTM which sent them into an altogether different stratosphere. The tracks oblique quality bridges their acceptance that Barrett was truly gone, coupled with the knowledge that their next album would take them to a different level all together. Whether this is for better or worse is borne out by the tribal choruses that close the track. It's a world that they and you are unfamilar with and the transition is not completely known. I am probably reading far too much into the last track but stylistically the song seems out of joint to the rest of the album and (unbeknown to the band) marked the beginning of the end for the band as a co-operative 4 piece. |
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Some very good reviews so far however I don't agree in some points here. I believe that Atom Heart Mother Suite is a great piece, maybe too experimental but very good in so many ways.
Meddle is also on of my favourite Floyd albums but I rank it after WYWH,DSOTM, and The Wall. I can't wait for your next reviews which I'm sure they will be very hard to write. For me the easy way in to Pink Floyd is to start from The Wall which is probably their easiest album for new listeners and then move on to Wish you Were Here. Also I know everybody is familiar with the song Wish You Were Here, so try the cover Thom Yorke did for the soundtrack of Lords of Dogtown.One of the best covers I ever listened to. I was also searching the web to buy 'Oh by the way which one's Pink?' and I was disappointed to find out there were various problems with the original copies so stay away. |
THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (1973)
http://jordanhoffman.com/wp-content/...he_moon-1a.jpg Dark Side Of The Moon. Quintessential floyd. The sum total of their individual parts. The pinnacle. It could also be seen as their nadir. The beginning of the end creatively. Dark Side Of The Moon is of course hugely successful. Over 40 million units sold. Over 700 consecutive weeks in the US chart and the sixth biggest selling album of all time. Let's examine why and does it deserve it? Universally praised by both critics and fans alike, DSOTM was a revolutionary album. Not musically maybe but certainly tonally. One of the earliest uses of musique concrete (a term to explain the use of natural everyday sounds to denote a musical form) and it's sound engineering was something that the band explicitally worked on with engineer Alan Parsons (his contribution has contensiously been lessened with each passing year) to be as flawless as possible. Paradoxically this is one of the albums shortcomings. In being so dedicated to what it sounded like I feel the band lost a lot of their organic quality and the album has a regimented quality to it. Of course the whole concept of the album was just that but in some instances it feels strangely distant. There is no denying that the package as a whole is a watershed in popular music. From the iconic cover art to the superlative lyrical content. Herein lies the problem. Pink Floyd were never meant to be this successful. I think the band reached a commercial zenith that maybe was never their target. Of course they strived to make the best possible album they could but the success seemed to carry them along a tidal wave from which they never really got off. So to the music and is it considered blasphemy to say that there are a couple of average tracks on here? Money is so recognisable and has that amazing 7/4 time but it is a simple rock track with an underlying blues theme and is something that the Floyd could do in their sleep. Brain Damage is also one of the weaker tracks on the album and has never really stayed inside my head as much as some of their other material. On the flipside, when this album hits it hits. Great Gig In The Sky is a joyous piece of music and every time you hear it you hear something different. There has been some debate about this track with original vocalist Clare Torry taking the band to court concerning the lack of a writing credit on the track (and quite rightly so), with Torry winning a co-writing credit on the pulse live dvd. Us And Them is the standout track for me. The lyrics and musical simplicity create such an easy listening aura it is hard not be dragged into its beguiling rythmn. If you are completely new to Pink Floyd then this is probably the best place to start. To an outsider this is the bands masterpiece, to many fans it is a great album but this is not the true representation of what Floyd were or is it indeed their best album. As a sidenote it has to be mentioned that the thematic quality of DSOTM supposedly fits the opening 40 minutes of Wizard Of Oz and it was purposefully made to fit the scenes.I will let you make your own mind up about a bunch of dopeheads catching both at the same time lol. |
Nice review.
...:D |
WISH YOU WERE HERE (1975)
http://s.yottamusic.com/i/bsXQ.51kJ/375x375 How do you follow up the commercial and critical beast that was DSOTM? No mean feat considering it's success. Initial plans were for tracks such as Raving and Drooling to be included (which later became Dogs from the Animals album) but already Waters discontent with the music business was beginning to rear it's ugly head. There was also a conscious decision to honour Syd Barrett, thus Shine On You Crazy Diamond was born and bookends the album with the track split over a 25 minute running time. The track has added poignancy due to Barrett turning up at the Abbey Road studios at the recording of Shine On You Crazy Diamond. SOYCD has now become a staple in the Floyd's live set and is usually the set opener. The central guitar motif is recognisable to even the most casual fan, yet I actually prefer Part two. Although it is essentially a set of musical jams pinned together, it retains a little of what the band were in the first place: experimental, improvisational and (playing the music they want instead of what's expected of them). Welcome To The Machine is the highlight on this album for me. Many people quote DSOTM as one of the finest produced albums ever. WTTM blows that out of the water. 33 years later it still sounds stunning. Listen to the track on the best quality A/V kit you possibly can and marvel at the soundscape. Utilising a synthesiser rythmn that replicates an industrial machine and sprinkled with a simple acoustic guitar riff that is still the best reproduction of said instrument ever and you have one of Floyd's most underated tracks. Have A Cigar is lyrically brilliant and features the immortal line "by the way, which one's pink?". Which was supposedly uttered to them by a music executive early on in their career who actually thought that someone in the band was called Pink Floyd! It is also an unusual track in that it featured Roy Harper on vocals instead of any of the band members. Initially Waters was to complete vocal duties on the track but had strained his voice on tour. Gilmour did'nt like the harsh vocal style (?) so Harper who was recording at Abbey Road at the time performed guest vocal duties. It is strange figuring out Gilmours reticence on this track as the end solo work is some of his best work for Floyd. Wish You Were Here is a simple acoustic ballad greatly enhanced with possibly Waters most complete lyrics ever. "we are two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl" is one of my favourite lyrics ever. Unfortunately this introspection from Waters could be seen as an early terminal seed of destruction from Waters. The production on WYWH is faultless yet it feels slightly sterile in SOYCD (Part One) and it's only when Gilmour kicks back in Have A Cigar or Wright glides on WYWH that you can appreciate the organic quality of a band that seems so desperate to get back to basics, yet are caught in the machinations of commercialism. Welcome To The Machine has never sounded so apt. Welcome To The Machine: |
Brilliant review... after reading that I had to listen to SOYCD again. Such a beautiful and sad tribute to Barrett.
Wish You Were Here and Meddle are probably my fav Floyd albums, followed by Animals and Piper. |
I have been a big floyd fan for a long time and I think those reviews are pretty good man. No "Relics" though? I know relics is just a collectoin of early singles but I rate it as one of the best early floyd albums.
Also, if you hven't heard any solo Syd you should really get "The Madcap Laughs" as it is a very good album. I think I like it more than saucerful in a lot of respects. I find saucerful a bit boring at times (however remember a day, let there be more light and jugband blues are all great!) I saw Roger do darkside of the moon last year and it was bloody amazing. He also did a lot of other floyd, it made me think how great it would be to see all 4 of the boys back together playing live. The amount of money I would pay to see that! |
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Im looking forward to reading your Final Cut review, that is one album that divides many floyd fans. I personally think it is brilliant.
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I agree that Final Cut is great. I think one reason it is not universally loved as it represents Waters vision almost exclusively. Floyd fans blame this on the bands break up. |
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