Pink Floyd - Meddle

[Andreysonj]

It's my favorite album to hear in an afternoon while I drink beer and think about life.

[redspecialist]

I regret the silliness of San Tropez and Seamus, but the other four tracks are perfect, even if One Of These Days was even better live. Pillow Of Winds in particular is massively underrated - a triumph of recording and composition, a thing of beauty.

[Massed Gadgets]

I don't know why when I rated this album, that I gave it a 4. It is a 5 all the way. Brilliant album. It bounces back and forth between such radically different styles of music, and yet it all seems to blend together and work perfectly. I love every song on this album (yes, even Seamus). So I've adjusted my score to the top rating.

[rememberaday]

This album is fantastic to listen to late at night for some reason. An excellent addition would have been Biding My Time. It seems to complement San Tropez.

[Morty]

This has Echoes, and therefore it is a five for me. I just adore that track. I also enjoy other songs on this album, even if some might be a little flimsy.

[Fingals Cave]

So many people have commented on it being a perfect summer's day album and I agree totally. I bought this album on such a day and it'll always have that flavour.
I didn't hear it for many years until one time I stayed at a coastal village in the south of India, name of Mahabalipuram. There was a young Scottish guy in the same guesthouse who had a tape of it and we had a session while listening to it.
You know how it is when you hear an album you like for the first time in years. It stays in the head for the next two days, especially as it was the soundtrack to the village itself. It's by the sea, so there are plenty of deep rolling waves smashing in. Fearless has just that same swell and flow through the song. The bit about the football singing a the end of that - anyone who saw the Liverpool Kop in the 70s will remember how the fans used to surge and sway and roll forward, really like watching a sea full of waves. Most of side 1 has so many lovely lazy guitar slides and jazzy piano and laidback melodies hanging there in the heat.
One thing you can't fail to notice in Indian villages at night is the dogs. Everyone there went to bed as soon as it got dark and then all the dogs came out. It was a full moon and I went out for a walk I was the only person outdoors in the whole village. Oh yeah, the place is full of massive boulders and loads of them have been sculpted into incredible shapes, freaky enough throwing shadows in the dark without the sound of the howling. Every fuckin' dog in the village at one point. Hours of it, building up, dropping back down, from all directions.
If there's one animal you see in India even more than dogs it's crows. Huge steely shiny black ones that rasp and cackle away all day, just like in the breakdown to the whale/seagull part of Echoes.
It all fit so well.

[Flathead]

Their best album.

[Follix]

^ Really?

I would give One of These Days 8.5/10 and Echoes 9.5/10 but the rest isn't really amazing imo. Decent but nothing to compare with the 3 album after which are all pretty flawless.

[jtull]

^ Really?

I would give One of These Days 8.5/10 and Echoes 9.5/10 but the rest isn't really amazing imo. Decent but nothing to compare with the 3 album after which are all pretty flawless.

Agree with Follix


One of These Days 8
A pillow of winds 4
Fearless 5
San Tropez 1
Seamus 2
Echoes 10
-----------------------
30:10=3

[jmoog]

Pillow Of Winds in particular is massively underrated - a triumph of recording and composition, a thing of beauty.

Truth

[space triangle]

A frustrating album. On the one hand we probably have the greatest single achievement in the Pink Floyd history here - mighty "Echoes"! On the other hand there is a lot of filers here as well, "San Tropez", "Seamus", "A Pillow of Winds"...

I totally agree with Roger Waters who once said that the side A on the Meddle was mess.

[ZiggyZipgun]

It is crazy to know that while "Echoes" was being recorded in February '71 (less than a year before the live premiere of Dark Side of the Moon), Barrett and Gilmour recorded two sessions for BBC radio, with Dave playing guitar and singing backup, then overdubbing bass and organ. The band's history is always told as a series of "before-and-after" events, but it's not accurate. I've always liked to compare Barrett's solo albums to what the rest of the Floyd were doing at the time, but this hurts my brain.

https://youtu.be/F-BiOyHQWqM

[K2+]

It gets a 4 just for Echoes alone. One Of These Days is cool, the rest of the tracks are throw-aways IMO.
But Echoes!!!

[battra]

I've been filling up my vinyl collection lately by acquiring Japanese pressings of Floyd records.

My copy of Meddle from Tokyo arrived last week. It's really amazing how great this pressing is.

The Japanese vinyl experience has really helped me appreciate this record far more than I used to.