The album kicks into gear with the savage instrumental One Of These Days. Howling wind sets the tone as a pulsing doubled bass line (complete with tape echo) pumps along. Intensity grows with organ stabs, reversed cymbal rolls, and fierce slide guitar. After a creepy bass interlude, Nick Mason makes his (distorted) vocal debut with "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces!!" and slams the song into overdrive. Pounding drums and stinging slide guitar dominate for the next two minutes until nothing but wind remains. It is here that (appropriately enough) the gorgeous ballad, A Pillow Of Winds picks up. Made up of acoustic guitars and sparse bass, this is a beautiful floating piece that takes advantage of Gilmour's tranquil vocals. This gentle mood is held through Fearless, a relaxed mid-tempo summer breeze of a song, again driven by Dave's voice. San Tropez and Seamus show off the Floyd's eclecticism as well as humor. The former invokes a bouncy cocktail lounge jazz feel, while the latter stars Steve Marriot's dog Seamus who "sings" along with Gilmour on some acoustic blues.

And then there's Echoes. 31 years later, this epic sound journey stands as one of the band's greatest achievements. Every element that would become synonymous with Pink Floyd was crystallized in this one phenomenal song. Swirling, bubbling keyboards and liquid guitar lines mix with floating vocal harmonies and a dynamic rhythm section to move the music through several dramatic and powerful moods. Truly the band's musicianship had taken a monstrous quantum leap forward from Atom Heart Mother. Of exceptional note is David Gilmour who, after years of struggling, managed to firmly define his role in Pink Floyd with complete confidence. That he asserts his unmatched talents on this track is an understatement. Fluid guitar lines; silky bends; gorgeous vibrato; subtle slide; tremolo bar antics; funky rhythms; and soaring leads abound. A significant part of his style - playing sounds and textures as well as notes - is also well represented. In the intro, he carresses the strings with a steel slide (much like an E-bow) to produce a shimmering string section-like feel. During the middle section, when darkness falls, his echo-laden feedback cries can be heard over ominous keyboards, swirling wind, and the distant screech of crows. Then, as daybreak comes in the form of a musical buildup to the final verses, the track ends with a multi-layered guitar part that sounds almost like a ghostly choir rising higher and higher. All this over the single echoing piano note that started the piece off. Fantastic.

Meddle is often dismissed as a "transitional" album due to the massive success of it's follow-up, Dark Side Of The Moon. Though it's not quite as perfectly structured as Dark Side, it can easily stand shoulder-to-shoulder with it (and any of the golden era Floyd albums). I would say that if you've digested Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall, move on to Meddle next. This is an incredible album and should not at all be overlooked.


Soundtrack to Surrealism   July 27, 2000
Ben Klenke (Las Vegas, NV USA)
104 out of 115 found this review helpful

Meddle, from the openening pounding of One Of These Days to the Falsetto choir of Echoes, it provides the perfect soundtrack to surrealism. Have you ever been in that state where your almost asleep but still a bit awake. That's the best description of this album. The music is so layered that at times the Four man Floyd sound like a 100 piece orchestra, souring up and down musical peaks and troughs.

David Gilmour said that Meddle was when it all started to come together. In a sense he was right. It started to bring them out of avante garde compositions. Meddle, is and essential piece in the Floyd cannon, surpassed only by Dark Side oF The Moon.

One of These Days opens a pulse pounding rythmic barrage of bass, organ, guitar, and drums. Mason's pounding drums particulary stand out proving his underrated talent. It is also his only vocal on a Pink Floyd record.

Pillow Of Winds is a gentle dreamlike song mixing great accoustic guitar from Gilmour, along with good lyrics from Waters.

Fearless, is the albums rocker, with a catchy opening riff and great vocals from Wright/Gilmour.

San Tropez is one of Floyd's most versital songs. The Hawaiian guitar by Gilmour is superb and Waters vocals are light and Dreamy. Also present is Wright's jazzy piano.

Seamus is a standard accoustic blues number with delicate vocals by Gilmour and then blues by Wright.

Echoes is the albums finale. At 23 minutes, it is one of Floyds greatest achievements. The music is dense, almost orchestral, and the lyrics are both depressing and surreal. Gilmour and Wright share lyric duty while the band themselves show each of their talents respectivly. The climax of the song is truly awesome and Gilmours guitar solo is second to none. Possibly Floyds greatest song.

Once again another superb entry for the band that defines emotion, lyrically, and musically. After listening to Meddle, all stress will be relieved, and you will feel cleansed.


A Nearly Symphonic Magnum Opus   August 24, 2003
FloydWaters
31 out of 31 found this review helpful

Before The Wall, before Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd created a very different kind of masterpiece. While their later albums were a triumph of concept, it is on Meddle where one can hear the *musical* peak of Pink Floyd's career. This is not a concept album--it is a musical journey showing off a variety of musical styles. The lyrics do not demand--they suggest, and allow the music to do the rest of the talking. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about Meddle is the fact that the band was truly functioning as a *band* here. Everyone's talents can be clearly heard, and no one shouts anybody else down.

There is no such thing as filler, on Meddle. Bookended by the mindblowing tracks "One of These Days" and "Echoes", the four "interior" tracks are severely underrated. "A Pillow of Winds" and "Fearless" are both pleasant, leisurely guitar-driven songs, and seem fairly well appreciated by fans. However, I believe that the much-maligned "San Tropez" and "Seamus" are also deserving of appreciation. "San Tropez" is particularly notable for some very unique Roger Waters vocals--rather optimistic and even a touch bluesy...a style he unfortunately never pursued after that point. "Seamus" gives a rare glimpse of the fun side of Pink Floyd, as well as a flashback to the band's origins as a blues cover band. This was never a song meant to be taken so seriously as some do. "One of These Days" is an explosive, energetic instrumental that perhaps foreshadows the angry, driven rock of Animals, but with only one lyric--a rare appearance by Nick Mason, whose processed vocals growl menacingly, "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces!"

The album's final piece, "Echoes", may be Pink Floyd's greatest work ever. From first to last "ping", this brilliant near-symphony is fantastic. Each bandsman's talents are clearly audible, even the simple-yet-effective contributions of Nick Mason and Roger Waters. The vocal harmony of David Gilmour and Richard Wright is mesmerising. Without question, this song contains the best verse Mr. Waters ever wrote: "Strangers passing in the street, by chance two separate glances meet, and I am you and what I see is me. And do I take you by the hand, and lead you through the land, and help me understand the best I can?"

Unfortunately, this reminder to walk a mile in the other man's shoes was a lesson Mr. Waters forgot in later years, at the price of devastating consequences to the band's output and to the members themselves. This moment in Pink Floyd's history is therefore one-of-a-kind, completely irreplaceable. The entire album can be summed up by the "jam" sequence in "Echoes". Never before, never again do the pieces fit together so seamlessly, each a joy on its own and in combination.


Pre-Dark Side Floyd; Most Refined of These   July 21, 2003
Samhot (Star Land)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

I may be in a minority when I say: as good as "Dark Side of The Moon" and the other albums that followed were, it was the material that Floyd made before that major juggernaut of an album which rings the more special to me. I really think that when "Dark Side of The Moon" was made and released, Floyd gained something spectacular with it, particularly in their intelligent, profound lyrical concepts, and they obviously had won a larger following than they ever would have anticipated. However, I also believe that they lost something just as big, if not even bigger in the process. They seemed to lose their whimsical edge, as well as their uncompromising and superfluous ethereality. They just seemed to lose a bit of their natural 'flow' and intensity in their creativity, mostly found in their psychedelic and minimalist experiments, and as a result, I mostly view their creativity & progression on a musical (excluding lyrical) level as something which slipped down into drier areas. There are pros and cons with everything, and anytime you gain something in progress, more than likely something will be lost as a result of that - for better or for worse. But, other than that, I say all of this because I'm a bit worn out of DSOTM and it's other popular successors, and feel that everything from their '67-'72 period deserves a bit more recognition, especially when people (mostly of this generation) say they're Floyd fans, and the sum total of their knowledge of Floyd is no more than DSOTM, "Wish You Were Here" and/or "The Wall."

Which brings us to 1971's _Meddle_, the second to last album before the "big one" was released. This is the pre-DSOTM album which possibly shows Floyd at their most polished and refined in execution and production, and when hearing this album, and coming to that conclusion, you would think this was the very last album released before DSOTM. But, that isn't the case. Also, the refinement, the trimming of minimalist experiments, added with the fact that many of the tracks on here are not extended helps to make this arguably the most accessible album in the pre-DSOTM period. But, this isn't to say that _Meddle_ lacks any kind of surreal, psychedelic atmospheres, as those can clearly be found here as well, but in controlled proportions. "One of These Days" is a definite rocker: sort of the antithesis of the lengthy, drawn-out Floyd we all know. Roger Waters' driving basslines and Rick Wright's calling synth lines are the standouts, which are somewhat overshadowed later on by David Gilmour's screechy guitar lines, while Nick Mason keeps a steady, but no less menacing drum beat. "A Pillow of Winds" is definitely my personal favorite track on the album. An ethereal, wispy, breezy, mellow track, David Gilmour's calm, soothing voice, the gentle acoustic arpeggios, and other such subtleties help to create a dreamy, tranquil atmosphere of the mind and soul, which can be comparable to experiencing a gentle breeze on a summer morning, while calmly reflecting on pleasant memories or wishes.

Elsewhere, "Fearless" is a mid-tempo track featuring David Gilmour playing an ascending diatonic lick based in G major, which gives a slight symphonic atmosphere to an otherwise summery track, and "San Tropez" is a short, playful, elegant jazz-tinged track, with Roger Waters on lead vocals. It's quite interesting hearing Roger in a more playful mood, as opposed to the morbid tendencies found in the majority of his later writings. "Seamus" features dogs barking in the background to an otherwise bluesy track, and "Echoes" is the 23-minute head-trip of the album. Ethereal, melodic and airy in the beginning, until that long, creepy "echo" section comes in. Can't really explain it all - needs to be heard. The vocal rhythmics and rhythms in general call to mind "Breathe" and the ending of "Time" from the following album after the following album, DSOTM.

If you're reading this, and are a Pink Floyd fan, and you haven't heard anything before _Dark Side of The Moon_, please do yourself a favor and start exploring that era of the band. You'd really be doing yourself an injustice if you don't. _Meddle_ would be a great place to start.


I'm astonished how underrated this one is   July 22, 2003
J. Sneaker (Nowhere you've been)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Sure, most people would prefer Dark Side or The Wall over this. Others would rather cite Animals, Wish You Were Here or even Piper as their best. But as far as I'm concerned, this is as perfect as they were ever gonna get. You see, this is the one & only album they ever did that encompasses every side of the musical phases they went through. There's a mammoth, heavy MONSTER truck of a hard-rocking instrumental in "One Of These Days", probably their greatest album opener ever. Ambient, acoustic folk stuff follows with "A Pillow Of Winds", which features some of the best, most beautiful acoustic picking(and slide playing) David Gilmour ever did, especially in the middle "when night comes down you lock the door" section. Next we get the country-tinged "Fearless", which has a wonderful ascending guitar line that sounds just like a bunch of stoned English hippies climbing up a hill, smiling. Trust me, you'd have no idea they were capable of pulling off such an amazingly uplifting & soul-soothing song if all you know by them is their two hit albums. I used to hate the Liverpool football team's chants at the end, but now I think they fit in just right; and they set the stage for the next song quite well.
And I really, really hated "San Tropez" when I first sat through it, but it's just so goofy, I can't help but love it now! Seriously, you must not have a sense of humor, musically, if you don't start cracking up by the time the first line "As I reach for a peach" comes in. Delightful song. Well-placed. GREAT simple guitar and piano solos. Next song gets even sillier, a standard blues improv with a howling dog holding down the fort on vocals. I'll tell you something; most people tend to rave about the wailing female vocalist in "Great Gig In The Sky": I just say to them "She sure weren't no Seamus, though. That dawg's got ROCKNROLL in the SOUL!" Now sure, on any other Pink Floyd album, or placed anywhere else on this album this dumb joke surely would've failed miserably. But because of it's placement on the album(end of side 1), you get a clear, cohesive picture of the thorough listening experience; a band starting off with the most serious, foreboding song imaginable, and gradually getting lighter, less gloomy, and much more FUN with each subsequent song. With NO unifying concept and hardly any depressing lyrics that this band is known so well for! Just a concise overview of their entire musical journey: their "acid-folk" period, the darker hypnotic repetition stuff, dabblings in Barrett-esque naive humor, and avant-gardeist sonic experimentation(which shows up, to great effect in the next song).
Then how to finish off the rest of the album(side 2)?? Only one way....ECHOES!!!!! The magnum opus of the band's entire career. You can have your "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", your "Dogs", your "Interstellar Overdrive" and your "Atom Heart Mother Suite" any time of the day... this will always be my very favorite of all of their extended epics for years & eons to come. I won't waste my time describing it to you, since words could never do justice to how I feel about it, but it's such an immensely satisfying song for me...every time I listen to it it's like I'm being transcended into another world...where everything is beautiful and magnificent to behold. Needless to say, I love every second of it, and all 46 minutes and 46 seconds of this album. The most perfect album closer to the most perfect Pink Floyd release ever. I'm astonished. Pick this up now, and listen to it a good 25 or 26 times, and you just might be too. And if you do love it anywhere near as much as I do, pick up the "Live At Pompeii" video right away...it's the perfect document of the post-Syd, pre-superstardom Floyd.