Pink Floyd

The Best Of Pink Floyd

Not a bad compliation for an album-rock band

Review Score:

(10/10)
Pink Floyd's 2-CD set "Echoes" is the first official "best-of" released by this band, which spans the eccentric psychedlia-laden days of 1967 to the Gilmour-led "Division Bell." And surprisingly, for a band that put out such a long body of album-based music, this compilation holds up well, even though it pales next to their classic albums ("Dark Side of the Moon," "The Wall," or "Meddle" just to name a few). The tracks are not sequenced in chronologial order, which to me, is a great thing, since with a band like Pink Floyd, you never really care about what era a particular song is from and just concentrate on the music.

The opening cut on disc one is the spage-age psychedelic piece "Astronomy Domine," (from the classic first album "Piper At the Gates of Dawn") and is a pretty darn good opener in my opinion. Syd Barrett's musical genius is reinforced yet again with the inclusion of "Astronomy" as well as a few other cuts he did with the band. This is quite amazing, since he only appeared on the first two albums (the second one in a limited capacity before being replaced by David Gilmour). Another neat feature is the use of sound effects to transition from one song to the next. I think this only made sense since transitions were a huge part of Pink Floyd's albums. The helicopter noise taking us from 1967's "See Emily Play" to 1979's "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" is one particularly good example of this. The wind noises used to transition Meddle's "One of These Days" to Dark Side's "Us and Them" also work quite nicely. If this was issued in chronological form, I don't think it would have had nearly the same impact.

This is the perfect place for anybody who is just starting to get into Pink Floyd (though I'd also strongly recommend "Dark Side of the Moon"). It covers all eras of the band and their evolution is noticeable throughout. It also contains a rare cut ("When the Tigers Broke Free" from the Wall movie soundtrack). This was actually my first Pink Floyd album, although I had heard a lot of their stuff before (from the radio or old vinyl records) and liked it. After this, I quickly became a fan, and for the past two years, I have amassed a decent Floyd album collection (along with two t-shirts). And I must admit that I don't listen to this album much anymore after hearing their proper albums.

However, as an experienced Floyd listener, there are a couple of flaws that I've noticed regarding some of the tracks here (don't pay any attention to this if you are only a casual listener). I think "The Fletcher Memorial Home" should have been removed. I don't particularly like the album it came from (1983's The Final Cut), and I think that it is far too bleak, both musically and lyrically. I realize that Roger Waters frequently wrote pessimistic lyrics, but I think by that time he had taken it too far. Also I wish they would have included stuff from the More soundtrack instead of just focusing on the more well known albums. But these are just minor nitpicks. I don't expect everybody to agree with me.

If you are just now getting into Pink Floyd, then I encourage you to pick this one up. I would also recommend Dark Side in addition to this so you can get a feel for an actual album.

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