Meddle

A lot has been said in these reviews, and "Meddle" is obviously one of the more popular efforts by the Floyd. I bought it twice on vinyl, once on cassette, and then on CD, but I sat on it, breaking it, so I bought it again. Willingly each time. The cover art is a play on words; if you look at it from a distance, you can see it's a close-up of an ear, with the surface of water superimposed over it. Hence, "waves of sound." These things come up in Floyd covers quite a bit, if only you take a minute to study it. The music, although only six selections, pretty much runs the gamut, from menacing ("One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces!"), to soft borderline romantic; the words to "A Pillow Of Winds" show Waters' ability to assume any role he pleases in his lyrics, and Wright and Gilmour are the perfect vehicles for delivering his lyrics. You are shown optimism and perseverence in "Fearless," even with the much criticized sounds of a stadium full of soccer fans singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" appended to the ending, it's still a good, well-made song. As popular as "Meddle" is, the two most hated Floyd songs ever, "San Tropez" and "Seamus," follow, sort of a diversion from the majesty of the opening numbers, I guess one can call it a "breather. "San Tropez" is a light jazzy number, and if you didn't immediately recognize Waters' voice, you'd never know it was Pink Floyd. It's not that it's a bad song, it's just not what people would expect from such a progressive Pink Floyd release. The guitar solo is played almost like Hawaiian slide, and the piano solo at the end, is like something from 1950's jazz records. It's well-done, but very much maligned by casual fans, and some more serious fans, as well. "Seamus" is a slow, lazy blues number, not much substance, and the howling dog in the background has gotten some funny reactions by house-dogs; they don't know where this imaginary dog is, and go crazy trying to find it. The highlight of the record, and by many, many accounts, their collective career, is "Echoes," probably the most-played FM radio request in history. At least when FM radio was worth something. I guess I shouldn't make such a blanket statement, but every facet of the entertainment industry has been so polluted with useless, flash-in-the-pan junk, that I know, myself, I don't bother listening much anymore. "Echoes" is a multilayered opus the took up a whole side of the original LP. If you are into "expanding your consciousness," this selection can do it naturally. I've always held the conviction that Pink Floyd is an "anti-drug" band. Yes, a lot of their fans like to get stoned, or "trip" on certain substances, but the thing about this type of band, and this band in particular, is you don't need any of that, all you need is some imagination. If you can think in pictures and concepts, performances like "Echoes" will take you on a journey, from the tranquil seascapes hinted at in the beginning part, to the ornate, colorful images conjured up in the "funky" part of the instrumental. The art of the segue is mastered here, when you hear this fairly simple rhythm, peppered with guitar and organ interplay, fade into this formless "abyss" of swirling noise, with truly creepy, shrill, I don't know what to call them, high-pitched "calls," I guess, in this grey fog, no signs of life otherwise in this void, so desolate, so full of nothing, and the gentle return to the surface, droning keyboards, the "pings" from the intro come back, with this rhythm accompanying it, the anticipation is almost tangible, when this explosion of sound comes at you, almost a "jump start," and you're back into the verse, the chord progression follows, taking you to what I call the "take-off." The band is playing softly, and these voices fade in, at least they sound like voices, maybe voices mixed with wind, not sure, slowly encircling you, getting louder as the instruments fade away, and off you go, into the Cosmos, and it all slowly fades into nothing. And you stay wherever it takes you, until you open your eyes. With this stuff, who needs drugs? That would just spoil it!

Never a major fan of the group, one must recognize excellence. They are. I do. I agree with other reviewers, the album does hint at future releases. My favorite is Wish You Were Here. Major memory of college apartment living '75? on release day of WYWH.. Sunny warm afternoon. Almost nice enough to forget the inevitable horrid soul sucking cold Wisconsin Winters back in the 70s. Lil Ice age. Nuclear Winters. Cute names for misery. The rag reviewers were not kind in reviewing Floyds WYWH. We lived by these reviews. Will always remember my roomie was bat poop crazy over Floyd. Still is. Watching his antics over what he perceived as perfection. He expectations were low. If memories serves. If memory serves. The hint of herb was in the wind, as usual, Point beer in paw, and WYWH blasting out of seemingly every other apartment window. Not quite the same feeling as opening the Prime package today. Contents being some Floyd, ultra supremo Sprayway glass cleaner, paper plates, and disappointment over a backordered Louie Prima re-master. Meddle sounds great! Forgot there was some dog treats added. Much appreciated by a pair of unregistered mut country music loving dachshunds. Vinyl helps too. I've some classic rock CDs sounding fine. This copy and my double album WYWH sound better than my fancy dancy mucho yen Japanese re-mastered Dark Side of the Moon CD. Am seriously thinking about doing a Amazon Prime vinyl Dark Side. In short, Meddle great music on great format.

Great album especially echos

"Meddle", Floyd's '71 masterpiece, is finally available on 180-gram vinyl via "Pink Floyd Records". This is the second batch of remastered titles, released in groups of four, but "Meddle" is the first I have purchased on vinyl (since the originals, I mean). "Meddle" marked the "second-phase" in Floyd's career; Sid Barrett was long gone and this album marks the real starting point where Waters and Gilmore turned the corner and headed toward the Dark Side Of The Moon. But on to the vinyl. The LP was mastered "from the original analogue tapes" by James Guthrie, Joel Plante, and the great Bernie Grundman. Those familiar with past & current releases on vinyl from Quality Record Pressings, among others, will know Grundman to be one of the best - I always know the sound will be top-notch when he's involved, and it is on this LP. It did, however, take two copies - the first was perfect on side one, but had several loud "pops" during "Echoes", which takes up the entire second side. And natch, they were during the quietest section. Even after carefully cleaning on a Nitty Gritty and treatment with Gruv-Glide, these popping sounds remained. The second copy was absolutely flawless. Flat (neither copy had any warp) and dead-quiet, there was no trace of surface noise of any kind, and the music emerged from a totally black background. This 2016 remaster is true to the original, but with seemingly better separation of the vocals/instruments, with clear, grain-free highs (for example, the cymbals seem slightly clearer) and deep, tight bass. The album contains no info about who or where this superb-sounding LP was pressed, but this is about as good as a early-70s recording can sound, assuming you get a defect-free copy. BTW - my neighbor ordered the vinyl, and for what it's worth, like my (second) copy, it was perfect. For fans who prefer the vinyl format, this is highly recommended!

Nouvelle édition vinyle de 2016 de l'album paru en 1971, le disque est épais, lourd, 179 grammes vérifié sur la balance pour cette galette, Galettes très propre, pas de poussière ou d'autres pollution, exemptes de rayure. Pas de défaut d'ordre cosmétique. Pas de voile. Excellente qualité de pressage, pas de bruit de surface sur les blancs ni sur les plages musicales, et ce qui est rare ni aucun craquement, pourvu que cela dure. Très très bonne dynamique, bonne richesse spectrale et quelle basses :), de bons effets stéréo, bon niveau de gravure qui permet de ne pas de pousser l'ampli dans ses derniers retranchements. Qualitativement un pressage que l'on peut qualifier d'audiophile. Cet avis sur la technique, bien entendu, est valable pour l'exemplaire que j'ai reçu; la production des disques vinyles est "industrielle" (me semble-t-il) il est tout à fait possible, probable qu'il y ait des disques bien moins bons et d'autres bien meilleurs. On ne peut qu'espérer que cet échantillon soit représentatif de la qualité moyenne de fabrication de ce disque de Pink Floyd et il aurait été particulièrement chanceux d'être tombé sur un exemplaire parfait (tous les gagnants au loto ont néanmoins tenté leurs chance :) ) ou à contrario de tomber sur un échantillon "pourri" et inaudible relèverait de la loi de Murphy mais cela arrive plus souvent que l'on croit, et j'imagine, j'espère que dans ce cas là, Amazon le remplacerait. Belle pochette double pour un simple vinyle. Le disque est très bien protégés dans une pochette en papier noir, doublé à l'intérieur d'un film transparent en polyéthylène (?) très fin. Graphisme de la pochette par Hypgnosis, c'est une habitude le Floyd, me semble-t-il, nous a souvent fait des pochettes qui faisaient nous poser des questions, non ? Celle ci particulièrement ! Très belle photo en noir et blanc de Pink Floyd sur la double page intérieure. Pour cette nouvelle édition l'éditeur aurait pu faire un effort et fournir les lyrics. Les titres : Face A One of these days Pillow of wind Fearless San Tropez Seamus Fabe B Echoes Album homogène du Floyd et avec et surtout "One of these days" un atout majeur de cet album, morceau instrumental, magistral et violent, avec la basse surpuissante de Roger Water, ligne de basse hallucinante (si si), oui je sais je suis parfois un peu excessif, ravageuse, martelant ce morceaux , voix trafiquée et distordue, envolée aérienne (pléonasme ?) de Gilmour à la guitare qui répond à la basse lourde. Presque 40 ans plus tard ce morceau n'a pas pris une ride. "Echoes" au thème d’une beauté simple on en oublie qu'il fait plus de 20 minutes. Peut être deux titres plus faibles "Pillow of the wind" et "San Tropez" Très belle ré-édition de Meddle !

Great album, nice remastered great sound.

Thank you Chalkys UK

Excellent album, quick delivery

Good quality nice sound