My first Pink Floyd album! I wish I could
remember now exactly what it felt like, but... Sorry to say, the
CD artwork can't measure up to original cardboard cover. Nick
Mason's musical "ship" is quite intriguing, but those deathmasks -
that was art! (and if your CD is like mine, all the times are printed
at the wrong length)
Repeat after me - Pink Floyd does not do "Best of..."
albums. This is really more of a summary of the First
Age of Floyd. I think it was more of a rite of passage, so the
band could move fully on to a new incarnation. They summarized where
they'd been, so they could blaze a new trail for themselves. (It's
probably why there are no
ATOM HEART
MOTHER tracks here - it was a different sort of Floyd.)
Some of these works were making their first official appearance in the
U.S. I'm pretty sure that 4 of them had only ever been released as
singles, and of those only See Emily Play had been on the U.S. charts
(#134). Additionally, Biding My Time appears for its only
time. Many of the tunes were remixed for this version, but none of
them suffer, and some actually benefit. If you are not familiar with
the early Floyd works, and want to get your feet wet before buying all
the early albums, this is a good choice. If you like this album,
you'll likely enjoy the ones recorded in the '67-'70 era.
Arnold Layne is a pretty
stereotypical rock song of the late '60's, with the exception that it contains
the usual Floyd "twist". It's the story of a typical English guy
who likes to swipe women's clothes off the drying line and try them on.
He's not a bad guy, just a little "bent". Syd
wrote this one, but it's more melodic
and playable than most of his early tunes. It went to #20 on the
UK charts.
Interstellar Overdrive
is pretty much the same tune that appeared on the PIPER AT
THE GATES OF DAWN album, which you can read about HERE.
See Emily Play is another
typical late-60's pop song, with a little more psychedelic aspect than
Arnold
has. It was good enough to rise to #6 in England. It has many
of Syd's favorite sound, and high-guitar plucking, but it's pretty much
old-hat sort of stuff by now.
Remember a Day seems
to be the song that benefited the most by being included here. Maybe
it's just the setting, accompanied as it is by similar songs, but it seems
to take on much more energy and vibrancy than it had on SAUCERFUL
OF SECRETS, and the ambient sounds{CPFS}
seem to come through better. See the original review HERE.
Another misnamed tune, Paintbox
is a story song, with a little more of a Jazz element to it, and will,
at moments, remind you suspiciously of the Beatles' A Day in the Life.
(It's probably the piano chords banging away.) Then, there's that
dumb repetition of the last word in the lyric that sounds more like a little
kid playing around for the relatives than like a real recording artist.
{CPFS}
It is this childish aspect that invades so much of Rick's music, and makes
it less than satisfying.
Roger added Julia Dream
to this collection, which is a sweet ballad
about the girl of his dreams, but shows again that
RELICS
is basically a Floyd "song" album, rather
than the concept work they were moving
toward. It's not a bad song, it just lacks the edgy quality we usually
expect from them.
Careful With That Axe,
Eugene is an earlier, shorter version of the one on UMMAGUMMA
(which makes sense, since the other's live), but it may actually benefit
from that. I've always liked the way it builds from the easy bass
line, adding in guitar lines, keyboard doodling, and ambient & vocal
effects until it builds to the punch line. Cool! See the full
review HERE.
Cirrus Minor is exactly
the same as it was on MORE (Full
Review) as is The Nile Song (Full Review).
The two make a nice contrast here, both to each other, and to the rest
of the songs on the album. Maybe this was the Floyd's way of saying,
"Keep an eye on us, we're heading in a different direction."
This being the debut of Biding
My Time, it was hard to know what to expect. It's the only song
on the album written in '71, more than a year after anything else here.
It's a jazzy blues number that sounds a little like "Pink Floyd Live from
the Lounge of the Belle d'Amour Hotel in New Orleans". There's even
some
horns in here! Where did that come from?
The album closes, as it opened,
with a tune from Syd (coincidence? I think not.) My remastered copy
of Bike improves the general quality of the music and the sounds,
making a good tune even a little bit better. Still tickles my fancy
(Full Review).
All in all, it's a really nice collection of tunes
if you want to get an understanding of who Pink Floyd was before they became
a juggernaut. If you are already a fan of the Conceptual
Floyd, you may not like this music too much. If you only want
to think of Floyd as the group that turned out DARK
SIDE OF THE MOON,
WISH
YOU WERE HERE, and THE WALL,
just don't bother with anything before MEDDLE.
