Pink Floyd

The Best Of Pink Floyd

My views on "Echoes" as time has passed...

Review Score:

(6/10)
Pink Floyd's "Echoes" and "Is There Anybody Out There?: The Wall Live" were horribly put together. I'm surprised Daivd Gilmour put up with this (especially the hissing sound through out "Is There Anybody Out There?: The Wall Live" (they should have a done a better mixing and production job on both, they felt rushed). I understand the reasons why they did the track order in "Echoes", however, since the songs go back and forth in time periods, they should have made the sound more continuous. If they went with a chronological order, it would have made sense to stick with the original sound. But how the current track order is set on "Echoes", the sound can be best described as intertemporal schizophrenia. When it comes to band members, I firmly put myself in the David Gilmour camp. However, I do have a disagreement with him. In an issue of Mojo Magazine, he stated that he was not too interested in Roger's set list for "Echoes" because people do not want to listen to six tracks from the "Final Cut". Well that is true, but it is also true that no one wants to listen to six tracks from the "Division Bell", especially if the list does not include "Poles Apart" (a damn good song!). In addition, they should have added "Mother" (live) from "Is There Anybody Out There?: The Wall Live", which I think, is the best song on that album. To this day, I am disappointed to have bought Pink Floyd's "Echoes - Best of". The Pink Floyd has a lot of great material out there and it would have been nice if they put some of their released and unreleased videos and tabs on an enhanced CD. They have the respective videos out there and the sheet music to add to their CD's. As a listener, I would have loved to see the videos associated with the songs and as a guitarist, I would have loved to learn some of the solos. The marginal cost of doing this is near zero and it gives the person a fuller experience. "Echoes" was a missed opportunity to really deliver a great sounding off product to the Floyd's fans, because in reality, we should not expect anything new from the Pink Floyd. However, I strongly encourage you to get "David Gilmour Live in Concert DVD" and "Roger Waters In the Flesh" DVD. Great products to add to the collection!

-Leo

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