Review Summary: Pink Floyd is one of those rare bands whose vast catalog of music is filled with hidden gems & overlooked classics. Meddle, their 5th studio album, is an entire collection of them, along with a finale that may be the peak of progressive rock altogether.
Meddle was recorded at a period in Pink Floyd's career when all the members were pretty much creatively bankrupt. Although Atom Heart Mother, their 4th & then-latest studio album, topped the UK album charts in 1970, it was pretty lousy & they knew it. And despite having no material to work with, they returned to the studio in January 1971 in hopes of being inspired as they went along. Out of various studio experiments, they gathered some ideas, which eventually grew into songs. This kind of free-form songwriting might seem extremely unlikely from the Floyd to fans of their later albums, but this is how they worked for quite a long time!
The obvious problem with their more recent albums, however, was that this approach simply did not work when the members were not writing or playing music as a group. Although they were all extremely talented, their previous individual efforts came with mixed & even disastrous results due to a lack of discipline & interesting ideas. They were also still having trouble filling the gap that their former lead guitarist & songwriter Syd Barrett left in 1968, after he went insane & was fired. Fortunately, Meddle was when they finally got their act together & collaborated to the fullest extent on every one of the 6 tracks presented here. As a result, it is their last transitional album & the final significant stepping stone to achieving international success.
Indeed, its release in October 30, 1971 was met with praise & wide commercial success. Its response in the United States was less remarkable, though, due to poor promotion. Still, the favorable reception marked a point when Pink Floyd became poised to take their place as the next biggest band in the world. All this, even though the album originated from almost nothing & they had yet to realize their true potential.
What makes Meddle so interesting to many listeners is that its content simply has no ego. Pink Floyd wasn't trying to make any obvious important statements here, nor were they overextending their musical reach. The songs here are tightly constructed, they flow nicely & the lyrics are comparatively slight. The main focus above all else is on musical textures & a vague, stormy atmosphere, which is where the album succeeds the most; the aquatic, distorted cover perfectly represents the nature of the music as with their other iconic images. This makes it, unlike most of their albums, purely enjoyable & charming in its own unique way. Just 6 solid songs, beautiful music, a strong sense of ambiance, no pretense. And it starts off with a loud, unorthodox bang of an opener!
One of These Days
The quiet blowing wind calls forth the beginning of this menacing instrumental. Out of that emerges a simple pulsating bass line, played by both bass guitarist Roger Waters & lead guitarist David Gilmour. For the first 3 minutes or so, this is almost all you hear. Only a few organ chords & some pounding drum fills punctuate the monotonous bass, but they only increase the tension. The beauty of this track lies in its simplicity; only 2 notes are played throughout the entire song, but that's all they needed to create one of their most relentlessly intense songs ever!
Without warning, a deep creepy voice (provided by drummer Nick Mason) shouts the sole disturbing lyric:
"One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces!!"
And the song immediately erupts into a hard rock frenzy of wailing guitar solos & explosive drumming! Over the simple musical backing, Gilmour delivers plenty of searing guitar solos, some of which are suspiciously similar to his famous solo in "Money" from 2 years later. The overall tone is madness, conveyed in a way that no other band could. This is clearly where Pink Floyd succeeded in their early career: long jams with excellent musicianship & an almost unparalleled sense of atmosphere. And for the first time in years, they were playing effortlessly as a group & displaying superb results from the very beginning.
After that sweet insanity, the music gets abruptly cut & all that's left is the familiar sound of wind blowing.
A Pillow of Winds
Picking up from where One of These Days left off, we are treated to a pleasantly light folk song awash with waves of acoustic guitars, a perfect contrast that sets the tone for most of the rest of Meddle. The delicate sound seems to suggest a cheerful mood, but it frequently shifts to a more ominous one. The ambiguous lyrics don't really help to clear things up, merely describing a feeling of love & a setting for this romance. For some reason, though, a few of these random quips seem unusually dark! It can only be explained as Roger Waters' brilliant but sometimes unsettling lyrical perspective.
The obvious highlight is the dreamy quality provided by Gilmour's gentle voice & layered guitar playing. The subtle details make the seemingly repetitive central music much deeper & simply can't be heard entirely in a single listen. One of my favorites is keyboard player Rick Wright's extremely subtle organ playing that fills up much of the music's empty space without cluttering the sound.The amount of depth in Pink Floyd's music is frequently astonishing, as in this deceptively complex mostly acoustic performance.
Fearless
Yeah, now this is what I'm talking about! Perhaps the band's most purely enjoyable effort ever, Fearless is both breath-taking & wonderfully slight.The performances are simple & relaxed, mainly driven by Gilmour & Waters' chromatic guitar riffs. Along the light drumming & some occasional elegant piano melodies, this is simply a pure, care-free musical experience. And what better lyrical theme could go with that than... a person being dared to climb up a hill?
Yeah, sure. Even then, the lyrics are vivid, oddly whimsical & charming, something which owes a lot to Gilmour's effortless vocals & breezy melodies. They also compliment the music well due to the trivial, amusing theme. This perfect mixture allows the song to breeze by for about 4 minutes without getting the least bit annoying or boring. However, as if that wasn't good enough, we're treated to an absolutely bizarre & nebulous ending unlike any other.
The last line of the final chorus is the only foreshadowing of what happens next. After that, the simple music carries on for a little longer, leaving the listener to assume that it will probably just fade out. Instead, an indistinct, booming sound begins to grow louder & louder in the meantime. It comes from out of nowhere & eventually overwhelms the rest of the song until you hear nothing else, in a classic Floyd twist of epic proportions. So what in the world could this transcendent, otherworldly sound be? Well... it's a football crowd singing.
"And you'll never walk... alone...
You'll never walk alone!!"
Apparently, Pink Floyd were big fans of both atonal musical elements (such as sound effects) & soccer. Here they randomly incorporated a recording of a crowd singing You'll Never Walk Alone, the official anthem of the Liverpool Football Club, the band's favorite team. Where they got the idea to do that we may never know for sure, but somehow it works perfectly! It's actually quite inspiring to hear a crowd singing to you! It's a defining moment of Pink Floyd's inexplicable genius & unrivaled use of unusual musical ideas to create experiences unlike any heard before or since. With all this greatness combined, Fearless is one of my favorite songs the band has ever recorded.
San Tropez
Roger Waters later became infamous for his bitter, overly serious lyrics as the band went on, but here he was relaxed enough to pen the exact opposite: an idealistic recollection of a vacation at the namesake beach in France. How quaint! The music, of course, reflects this accurately with a steady drum beat, light acoustic guitar playing & sparsely placed piano chords. Waters presents his only lead vocal in the album & delivers his witty lyrics in a monotone but charming fashion. The perspective seems to go back & forth from the exploits of a rich vacationer to his views of his loved one, an odd contradiction but not for Waters. They're still humorous & provide a sweet resolution in the end of each chorus.
After the 2nd chorus Gilmour kindly provides us with a unique solo in his career, one that is very languid & smooth. It's played mainly on a slide guitar & it lends just the right touch for the beachside ambiance. Better still, the final chorus is followed by a lovely improvised piano solo from the great Rick Wright (is anyone else reminded of the soundtracks for the Peanuts TV specials?). Rarely did he show his unique talent & splendid musicianship after the band's early period, but it was always welcomed. The upbeat, melodic solo continues until the song unobtrusively fades out. It should seem fairly obvious that Meddle's sound is mainly characterized by gentle, loose music & cleverly skewed lyrics, & this calm acoustic reverie represents this mostly overlooked side of Pink Floyd very well. I also think it's fun to hear Roger Waters enjoying himself for once.
9/10
Seamus
Perhaps the only joke song the band ever officially released, it's easy to understand why some fans call it their worst track ever! It is rather silly & pointless, but I've heard worse.
The main "gag", I suppose, is that it's a blues parody about a depressed dog. It's not very subtle at all, going as far as to feature a dog (whose name the title is taken from) on backing vocals! David Gilmour also delivers a poor imitation of a Southern accent in his sparse, lazy vocal performance.
Speaking of lazy, that's pretty much the vibe of the entire backing music. The guitar playing sounds like it's falling apart, there's no drumming & it sounds like all the solos are hastily improvised! Even in this ridiculous anomaly of a song Wright's smooth piano playing stands out & adds flavor to it. And throughout the whole thing, Seamus just howls away for no obvious reason. This bit of silliness lasts for only about 2 minutes & is harmless enough, but it's not particularly good & only works as a proper ending to the 1st half. The extended final track, of course, more than puts the album back on track. Just be prepared for the length.
Echoes
Ping...
That simple ping motif, generated by Rick Wright, was the sole genesis of this 23-minute epic as well as the rest of the album. For Pink Floyd, it was the sound of divine inspiration & it still amazes me how they built such an extensive opus out of such a simple sound effect! It effectively sets the mood for Echoes, the band's only true foray into the deep realms of the ocean. As the opening seconds tick by, more ambient sounds can heard before any actual music kicks in. Out of those effects, the melodies come bubbling slowly to life until Gilmour's watery guitar playing leaves the listener permanently gripped. Clearly, these musicians were the ultimate sonic architects. They took their time building up to the initial burst of energy, with Mason's drums kicking in after almost 2 minutes of serene beauty.
The guitar riffs, subtle bass backing & waves of sound are brilliant enough, but they only set the stage for some of Roger Waters' deepest, most contemplative lyrics. They are descriptive but vague in meaning, although they seem to use vivid underwater imagery as a metaphor for humanity. More specifically, the idea of humanity's urge for contact as a herald for becoming something greater. The lyrics manage to convey this grand statement in such a way that they sound more cosmic & exciting than his later works, which are largely very direct & cynical. Without a doubt, these are some of his finest words ever recorded. Especially in the soaring choruses, guided by Gilmour & Wright's airy harmonies.
Each chorus is followed by one of the best riffs in any Pink Floyd song, a dark but beautiful Gilmour riff that, while already stellar with its ascending & descending passages, almost floats right out of the record when combined with the wondrous backing music. After the second chorus, though, he practically steals the show with a transcending distorted guitar solo that set the standard for his later contributions. The raw power & strong sense of melody further define the greatness of Echoes, yet by the time it end its has barely been 7 minutes.
From then on, the song flows effortless through a smooth blues jam and dives further down into the abyss. As it fades out, another movement fades in featuring unearthly sound effects and free-form ambient backing. The sounds suggest many things, from screeching whales to unidentifiable blips to rushing vortexes of terror.
Gradually, the random screeches & blips begin to quiet down, making way for a sweeping sustained chord that lifts the listener out of the abyss, leading to a wondrous progression. Meanwhile, in one of Nick Mason's finest moments, he introduces a propulsive burst of delicate cymbal playing, perhaps the sound of light shining through the surface. Sparse bass notes add more volume & drive to the ever-growing sound, while the signature ping also returns. The excitement is building further but there's still room for one more beautiful performance to bring Echoes to its defining climax. Of course, that's where David Gilmour takes it to the top with some stupefyingly gorgeous ringing guitar riffs. This perfect combination of stunning performances, angelic aquatic sound effects & gripping buildup makes for what I think is... the best moment in any Pink Floyd song ever! That, along with the climax that follows it.
After such thrilling hype, one can except no less than a peak above all else, a masterful moment of unsurpassed greatness. And this is exactly what we get, as a tidal wave of shimmering guitar arpeggios crashes through & breaks the tension. After about 17 minutes of sublime anticipation, the payoff is more than enough. Wait... what's this? The music starts building further still, recalling the central riff in the first movement. But what could possibly follow up to that? As usual, the answer is truly satisfying.
Waters' thought-provoking lyrics reach their dramatic conclusion, serving up some more ambiguous imagery & describing a final sense of longing for human connection. For this moment, the music retreats to the more relaxed ambiance from before.
"And no-one sings me lullabies
And no-one makes me close my eyes,
So I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky."
Finally, the priceless main riff returns once more for the ultimate conclusion. As the song begins to die down once & for all, one can only sit back & revel in just how wonderful these 21 or so minutes have been (or at least I can). Without any doubts or reservations, Echoes is Pink Floyd at their peak, with all 4 members contributing to their fullest extent & playing at their best. It also defines everything great about progressive rock in a single long masterpiece: it's intelligent, thoughtful, imaginative, well-played, complex, atmospheric & exciting in ways that no other form of rock music can accomplish.
The last noteworthy sound in Echoes & Meddle is a strange infinite loop of ascending voices, known as a Shepard scale. Simply perfect.
In the end, I can only wonder: how could an album this good be so frequently overlooked? Perhaps there are other Pink Floyd albums that are more deserving of unrequited appreciation, & it may not be their best work, but Meddle thrives on a charm of its own & remains consistent as a whole. Personally, I prefer it over The Dark Side of the Moon! In a unique move for progressive rock, these mostly quaint songs rely not on elaborate stories or meticulous song structures, but strong atmospheric identities & some rather slight lyrics with eccentric themes. It's a joy to listen to, but never predictable or boring. Almost all these songs have a wealth of wondrous music & plenty of surprising but effective moments that could have only been devised by the masters of prog rock. And then there's Echoes.
Taking up just about half the total run time, Echoes is more than enough to justify listening to Meddle. By itself, it's a masterstroke. Combined with the rest of the songs, the overall experience is bliss. It only makes sense that the post-Barrett career slump was redeemed with an ambitious, well-crafted effort like this. Pink Floyd never sounded more comfortable with their craft, & it's a miracle to be able to hear them at this turning point in their career.
This review is dedicated to Richard Wright (1943-2008), one of the best keyboard players to leave his richly textured mark on rock music.
