Meddle
	Produced by Pink Floyd
	Released on November 13, 1971
	UK CHART POSITION #3 . . . US CHART POSITION #70
	Find it at GEMM
SMAS-832 cover

Your head’ll appreciate Meddle. It’s here that Pink Floyd nearly perfects their soporific soundscapes, aptly described in “A Pillow of Winds.” What makes Meddle different from its predecessors is the distilling of a signature sound. “One of These Days” could pass for “Dogs,” “A Pillow of Winds” for “Pigs On The Wing,” “Fearless” would be revisited on “One of These Turns.” However, by the time Animals and The Wall were released, the band had hermetically sealed themselves off from everything but an idiosyncratic sound. Meddle by contrast is still experimental, finding time for a delightfully Kinksian turn through “San Tropez,” an ill-conceived throwaway like “Seamus” or the side-long electronic voyage of “Echoes.” It’s this last track that often captures the most attention on Meddle, though it had more of an influence on Tangerine Dream than Pink Floyd, who never wrote another song like it. Unfortunately, Meddle doesn’t feature a lot of technical flash; Richard Wright’s keyboards and David Gilmour’s guitars are relatively understated (in fact, Gilmour and Wright seem to challenge one another on “San Tropez” to see who can come up with the most restrained solo). It would be tempting to call Meddle a transitional album between their more experimental past and the sonically rich future, but it’s not that simple. Better to think of this as the band’s first epic recording. As much as I enjoy some of the band’s early psychedelic triumphs, it’s the occasionally lean and muscular attack of Meddle that allows Waters’ cynical wisdom and Gimour’s biting guitar to shine. If you’re looking to get into the pre-Dark days, definitely buy this album before meddling with Umma Gumma or Atom Heart Mother.

SMAS-832 gatefold	SMAS-832 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. ONE OF THESE DAYS    (Roger Waters/Rick Wright/Nick Mason/David Gilmour)    5:50
2. A PILLOW OF WINDS    (Roger Waters/David Gilmour)    5:10
3. FEARLESS (*Interpolating "You'll Never Walk Alone")    (Roger Waters/David Gilmour, *Rodgers/Hammerstein)    6:03
4. SAN TROPEZ    (Roger Waters)    3:42
5. SEAMUS    (Roger Waters/Rick Wright/Nick Mason/David Gilmour)    2:09
6. ECHOES    (Roger Waters/Rick Wright/Nick Mason/David Gilmour)    23:31

CREDITS

DAVID GILMOUR --
NICK MASON --
ROGER WATERS --
RICK WRIGHT --
Peter Bown -- engineer
John Lackie -- engineer
Rob Black -- engineer
Roger Quested -- engineer
Pink Floyd -- sleeve design
Bob Dowling -- outer sleeve photos
Hipgnosis -- inside photo

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