ALBUM REVIEW: Pink Floyd - Meddle

    Transitional periods in music are some of my favorite things to dive into - it's a hell of a lot of fun to see how a musician or group move from one style to another across an album or two (if they're unlucky, maybe a few more than that). Floyd has one of the lengthier transitional periods, mainly because of a bit of lacking direction after original guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Syd Barrett lost his head - the original shattered genius of Floyd spent the rest of his life in mental turmoil in what is one of the most emotional stories out of psychedelia. Resulting works like Ummagumma and the incredibly good Atom Heart Mother showcased a real "team effort" from the group, as everyone threw a little bit of everything at the wall to see what would stick - sometimes the results were excellent and glorious, and sometimes the results were "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict." Meddle continues this theme of experimentation for the most part, albeit with a bit of a stronger focus on the emerging progressive rock genre. Unfortunately, I don't think it's nearly as consistent as Atom Heart Mother, and there's quite a few dud moments on the album. That being said, when Meddle's meddling about with ideas works, it's the first real glimpses of the progressive Pink Floyd in all its glory.

    Similar to Atom Heart Mother, Meddle is a mashup of various ideas throughout its 46 minutes, including but not limited to acoustic folk rock ballads ("A Pillow of Winds"), pounding psyche rockers ("One of These Days"), an acoustic blues numbers ("Seamus"), even a jazzy pop number ("San Tropez"). In spite of all the conflicting ideas, they somehow find a way to all come together throughout, and I think part of it is mostly due to the clean production credited to the group throughout. Despite diving to genres that are almost certainly unfloydian, it still definitively sounds like their own work. Even still, some of these moments are flat duds in the running, with "Fearless" being the biggest one that comes to mind. It's a pretty lifeless feeling durge, and it's no help that I find the instrumentation pretty uncompelling - I'm honestly a little surprised that this song is the most listened to on the album. Similar case is "Seamus," which is a fun little blues song, but I do wish that the dog barking was kept to a minimum - I will say that Seamus' barking is on key and syncopates brilliantly with the music, however. Clearly the dog knows his shit.

    Of course, some of the experiments do succeed here, and with flying colors at that. Opening number "One of These Days" is a pounding rock instrumental, complete with doubled bass parts and a soaring guitar number that makes it a great way to kick off the album - for my money, it's every bit as powerful and kick-ass as "Interstellar Overdrive." "One of These Days" then brilliantly flows into the contrasting, gentle acoustic number of "A Pillow of Winds," which is a beautiful love song courtesy of David Gilmour and Roger Waters, and one that contains some excellent slide guitar might I add. The previously mentioned "San Tropez" is distinctly out of box for Pink Floyd with its jazz pop sound, but God is it charming coming from Roger - it helps that the group pulls off the act damn well. Of course, I'd be completely remissed if I didn't mention "Echoes," a sprawling 23-and-a-half minute progressive rock opus that all but births the Floyd that we know. It's obviously the standout moment, not just of the album, but of their catalog up to this point, and the song flows and trickles through many different movements and styles through the underwater landscape. It's nothing short of a brilliant work.

    In its strongest moments, Meddle outshines every Floyd album before it, but lacks a bit of consistency throughout for me to confidently call it their best up to this point. It brings forth many new ideas, and the various masks that Pink Floyd puts on throughout the performance all find a way to suit the group in one way or another - it's just a nice little bonus that one of those masks would become their sound for years to come. At it's best, it is quintessential Pink Floyd - space-y, rocking, musically compelling, and just with a dash of British humor and wit. Certainly one of the better albums in their catalog up to this point, and it's one to be commended.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Meddle.