Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Pink Floyd
Label: EMI Records
Release: 1971
Rating: 5/5
Steeped in an esoteric atmosphere, “Meddle” may well be the most important album in the history of the legendary progressive rock innovators Pink Floyd, because it’s where they pinned down the final definition of their signature sound, the one that soon brought them worldwide fame and shot them into the ranks of the greatest rock bands of all time, for good. On “Meddle” the band stopped endlessly hunting for a permanent sonic identity and for big avant-garde experiments, and above all made a final break with every early psychedelic rock sonic tie and with the legacy of their founder and fallen genius Syd Barrett. “Meddle” is best known and most revered for its closing super-epic “Echoes”, which runs over 20 minutes, the centerpiece of the album and, for many, the creative peak of their entire catalog. Without a doubt it’s one of the most majestic creations in the history of progressive rock, and even decades later it still gives you goosebumps with its incredible magic and dramatic structure. But the rest of the album, mostly acoustic-leaning stuff, shouldn’t be overlooked either. Some of those tracks rank among the most beautiful and most esoteric things they ever did, and they were key in shaping the later, more popular classics. “Meddle” was the first Pink Floyd album to introduce (via “Echoes”) the idea of a central sonic theme you can keep coming back to.
At the same time, it was the moment when the different musical styles of the individual members, led by guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour, bassist/vocalist Roger Waters and keyboardist/occasional vocalist Rick Wright (drummer Nick Mason’s contribution to the songwriting was, as usual, minimal), came together in that ideal harmony that carried them into their golden creative era and let them shake off all the atonal obscurities of the early years. After “Meddle”, their sound became far more refined and clean, with plenty of hypnotic, often melancholic and esoteric waves. At the same time it was much more accessible to a wider audience than it had been in the 60s. The best tracks became steeped in Waters’ philosophical, often sarcastic and socially critical lyrics and his recognizable melodic bass lines, Gilmour’s unique, blues-leaning and often remarkably sophisticated guitar playing, and Wright’s light, easy keyboard melodies. By then Gilmour had become the band’s main singer, and his soulful vocal expression was often the key to their deepest songs. The use of special sound effects also got far more sophisticated and was pushed much further into the background behind the main instruments than before.
The greatest strength of “Meddle” is that the album is soaked in all kinds of different moods, which can easily carry the listener off on a special spiritual journey if they surrender to it enough while listening. The album opens with the dramatic-esoteric instrumental wrecking ball “One Of These Days”, which kicks off with the sound of rushing winds. Eventually a pulsing, repeating bass guitar line comes in, played together by both Waters and Gilmour. Esoteric keyboard passages keep flowing in and out the whole time. After the rising rhythmic drama, Gilmour’s distorted guitar riff crashes in, followed by plenty of tasty slide guitar passages. The instrumental is briefly cut through by the effect-processed line “One of these days I’m gonna cut you into little pieces”, spoken by Mason. The dramatic mood of this evergreen instrumental treat doesn’t let up until the very end, which makes it one of the most thrilling pieces of their career. After the opening drama, which begins directly with those rushing winds, comes the calm and melancholic acoustic folk ballad “A Pillow Of Winds”. It’s one of Gilmour’s most pleasant and relaxing folk ballads and one of the few love ballads in their history. Dave’s guitar and vocal talent shine here at full power through his sophisticated coaxing of melancholic passages out of the acoustic and slide guitars, especially in the somewhat darker middle section. The sound of Wright’s organ also gives the track a touch of mystery. “Fearless” is also built on a slow tempo and extensive use of melancholic acoustic sound. Energetic, witty acoustic guitar chords and a gentle piano melody are accompanied by Gilmour’s dreamy vocal. This simple but excellent acoustic song, which today enjoys cult status among the band’s followers, is also famous for the closing recording of the chanting fans of the famous English football club Liverpool.
“San Tropez”, another acoustic-leaning and thoroughly pleasant little number, was a very interesting and atypical experiment in combining elements of jazz and pop. The track is soaked in a jazzy rhythm and an almost tropical vibe, with acoustic guitar as the main accompaniment. Besides Waters’ romantic vocal, there’s also a tasty Gilmour slide guitar solo and an equally witty closing piano solo from Wright. With its romantic mood you can easily be transported in spirit to the sun-drenched beaches of the prestigious French resort of Saint-Tropez, which the lyrics are about. The album’s only obscure but also funny moment is “Seamus”, a short, quirky blues experiment with Gilmour’s barking dog Seamus at the microphone, who contributed the main “vocals” to this strange Gilmour whim. Besides Gilmour’s vocal, bluesy guitar and harmonica, and Wright’s piano, the song is accompanied by Seamus’s mournful yowling. Although this avant-garde blues piece is pretty far out of the album’s context thanks to its absurdity, and plenty of people don’t like it for that reason, in the right mood it sounds fun and witty. At the same time it completely calms the album down and gets the listener ready for the closing magnum opus, which is “to blame” for “Meddle” ranking among the best releases in the band’s history.
For the grand finale comes the fairy tale mentioned earlier, the 20-plus-minute super-epic “Echoes”, one of the top candidates for the band’s best work and the moment of the album’s great esoteric triumph, when the talents of the individual members, and above all the harmony between them, reach their fullest expression. “Echoes” is packed with an incredible esoteric (you could also call it space rock) atmosphere that shifts from moment to moment through numerous alternations of long instrumental sections and dramatic ambient effects. The combination of all this leads the epic toward a dreamlike ending, mostly thanks to Gilmour’s incredible guitar work, which makes room for that majestic triumph that rightfully put Pink Floyd among the greatest bands in the story of rock. This stormy, multilayered ambient fairy tale opens in a ridiculously simple way, with the steady pinging of a single-note effect on Wright’s piano, which sounds like a lost probe echoing short, broken signals across the sea. The overall mood of the composition pulls the listener somewhere deep into the ocean depths, where the various colors and beauties of marine life drift past their eyes (the lyrics and the album cover fit this perfectly). Wright continues gradually building the atmosphere with lots of piano improvisations. Then Gilmour’s exceptionally refined guitar solo comes crashing in. Gradually the pulsing rhythm line and the sound of organs join in. After the juicy guitar riffs, the opening vocal melody is sung together by Gilmour and Wright. That’s followed by Gilmour’s distinctive “spacey” guitar solo, which sets the stage for the composition’s first transition, where an energetic rhythm line kicks in. At this point the song gets an almost funky groove and ushers in a longer instrumental section where witty organ and guitar passages trade off. Suddenly a dramatic section bursts in with plenty of echoing “wind” effects. Some of them even sound like the call of a whale. Eventually these sounds fade in favor of an effect that resembles the calls of ravens. After that the opening sonar effect comes back, and here Wright, on organ, starts weaving the dramatic mood again bit by bit, building like a volcano coming back to life. This is followed by the setup for the best moment of the composition, where Gilmour’s distorted riffing joins the spacey organ sound and the sonar effect, relentlessly driving the piece to its boiling point and a dramatic turn. Then comes the dreamlike, triumphant passage, with melodic guitar fragments alternating with pulsing riffing. When the vocal section returns with Gilmour’s melancholic vocal, there’s that magic moment when the goosebumps start crawling over the listener’s body. Unlike the opening vocal section, mighty guitar riffs trade off here. After the last transition comes the fairy-tale, deeply melancholic closing section, where the composition winds down to its end with echoing “weeping” passages on guitar and organ. The piece ends just the way the album opened, with the sound of rushing sea winds, and the circle of ambient echoes is closed. “Echoes” is one of those great musical creations you can never praise enough, and it will forever remain one of the greatest achievements of the golden age of progressive rock.
“Meddle” was the key moment of sonic turnaround and of the future direction for this splendid band, and also the first masterpiece from their classic lineup. It was the pivotal album that laid the foundations for their later, hugely successful concept masterpieces, and its status as one of their best albums remains undisputed, even though it lacks a bit of consistency to make it into the very top tier. “Echoes” alone, which sits among the three best things of their career, is reason enough for this album to belong in every household, while “One Of These Days”, “A Pillow Of Winds” and “Fearless” remain lesser-known classics that guarantee the album its timelessness in the story of music. The chemistry between the members was in perfect balance back then, the relationships were equal, and the individual egos, with their urge to dominate certain musical ideas, were still dormant. The road to the top was inevitable, and their golden era, which began with the space voyage to the “dark side of the moon”, could begin.
Lineup
David Gilmour – guitar, vocals
Roger Waters – bass guitar, vocals (4)
Richard Wright – keyboards, backing vocals (6)
Nick Mason – drums, percussion
GUEST “MUSICIAN”:
Seamus (dog) – barking (5)
Production
Pink Floyd
Track list
1. One of these days (5:56)
2. A pillow of winds (5:13)
3. Fearless (6:08)
4. San Tropez (3:43)
5. Seamus (2:15)
6. Echoes (23:27)
Album length: 46:42
