Meddle...hmm, what are they meddling with, I wonder? I don't know, I don't care. At any rate, this is probably my favorite Pink Floyd album. And why is this, you ask? Probably because of the fact that this is the album that has Echoes on it. And the one that has One of These Days, and A Pillow of Winds, and Fearless, and - pretty much all the songs. (Except Seamus. I don't like Seamus.)
So anyway - it's pretty good. Pink Floyd weren't exactly "emo" yet, but they were approaching it. Except this album has the smallest bits of the emo that alienated me from them, yet enough emo to be cool. Should I stop saying emo? Yeah...it's pretty good.
One of These Days: This song makes me happy. And you know why? It has a bunch of basses in it. It always makes me happy to hear people playing my instrument predominantly. (That must be why I really love "The Fish" from Fragile.) The song seems to be about, well, I don't know...maniacs! "ONE OF THESE DAYS I'M GOING TO CUT YOU INTO LITTLE PIECES!" Those are the only lyrics. (It appears that when you're using an iPod, however, they play in only one earphone. I know this because I made my best friend listen to this with me, and she said that she didn't even know it had lyrics. Meaning I just have gotten the earphone with the lyrics.) Great song overall, gives you a sense of urgency and fear. Just don't listen to it at night.
A Pillow Of Winds: And now we have one of those mellow spacey numbers that Pink Floyd is so famous for. As far as I know, this song is about sleep. Which means it's a very good song for me to be listening to. (I have an interest in sleep and dreams. This interest is mostly a personal one.) I listen to this when I want to space out. Brilliant.
Fearless: I think the vocals on this song are surprisingly mellow. If I had been doing this song, that's not what I would have done. But then again, if Pink Floyd songs were handed over to me to do, I'm afraid I might butcher half of them. And knowing that this is indeed Pink Floyd, perhaps it's best that they did what they did. The song's riff is surprisingly epic, or at least it is to me. I like hearing this song, as it fills me with, oh, I don't know, something like "Watch me conquer the world! Or at least, I'm going to conquer my own world!" Ever noticed how if your goal is to conquer your own world, you can't fail?
San Tropez:I don't know...this song doesn't seem to fit in with the first three. It's going off of some of Fearless's cheerfulness, so I suppose this is the most logical placement of this song. But I don't know...It's an excellent song, don't get me wrong. On some other album it might have worked. Wait...I take that back...this is probably the only Pink Floyd album it would have been suitable for...
Seamus:Oh come on! Did you have to write this? Better question yet, did you even have to record this? It's a fair sight stupid, but I suppose I can live with it. It's one of those guys (I don't know who...) singing weird, stupid lyrics, and there's this stupid dog howling...Oh, fine...I ought to stop being mad at this song...there's better things out there to do.
Echoes: First time I listened to this album, it was late at night (Pink Floyd + late night listening = Bad idea). I only had a little while to stay up, and I said, "Skip the rest of this album, I want to get straight to Echoes!" So I did. And gosh was I rewarded! It's my easiest song to space to. Which is an excellent thing. It takes me into its own little world, and...amazing. I find the lyrics pretty good, too. I'm not totally sure what they are, but this adds to the spaciness. Those sounds in the middle are enough to make me shudder. They're so unnatural...like some kind of strange bird that you don't find on earth. Echoes proves that the surrealists are still out there. This is a very surreal song. The way it just fades out seems a little anti-climatic. In the sense that, "It has to end this way?" Still...maybe that's best.
Best Tracks: One of These Days, A Pillow of Winds, Fearless, and Echoes.
Send all questions and comments to: pippin_sparks@rocketmail.com