Echoes - The Best Of Pink Floyd

The main risk with producing a Pink Floyd compilation CD is that the band produced so many really long tracks. How could these favourites be included on a CD without being murdered by editors or left out altogether? Yes, some tracks have indeed been edited ("Shine On You Crazy Diamond", "Echoes", "Marooned"; but not obviously (though the crucial Part 9 of "Shine On" and much of "Marooned" have been cut out). Yes, some wonderful lengthy tracks have been omitted ("Atom Heart Mother", "Dogs"), but you can't have everything. Not without buying the original albums, anyway.

Notwithstanding the above, the wonderful feature about this album, which far outweighs the edits, is the way in which the tracks have been sequenced. Each track is carefully segued into the next, and the result is incredibly good - it sounds like a true Pink Floyd album. For example, the link from "Marooned" into "The Great Gig In The Sky" into "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" is seamless - the former two are merged by a B minor chord that effectively makes them the same track! The trademark Floyd wind sound effect links many of the tracks of Disc 2, as it did on the albums "Meddle" and "Wish You Were Here".

The sleeve artwork is, as you would expect, impressive. Every feature of every Pink Floyd album cover of the past has been incorporated into a new selection of intricate photographs, reminiscent of the "Umma Gumma" concept.

The album is a musical delight, and has a variety of music wide enough to satisfy Barrett, Waters and Gilmour-era fans. Of course, the old adage that Floyd songs should be listened to in the context of the rest of the album (particularly from "Dark Side Of The Moon" through to "The Final Cut") holds true.

Still, it's a good entry-level album, and even if you own all the Floyd albums, this compilation is a fascinating album to listen to, and a must to buy.

This album contains almost all of 'Echoes', together with almost all of almost every other Floyd that one would expect to hear on a 'Best of' collection. I say almost all, because the tracks have been judiciously segued into each other, in most cases just before the fade-out on the original. To some, it may seem sacrilege to interleave DSotM tracks such as 'The Great Gig in the Sky', 'Money', 'Time' and 'Us and Them' with other Floyd classics, but believe me, it works. The only classic which I'm disappointed not to see here is the opening track from OBSCURED BY CLOUDS.

There can be few Floyds fans who don't have the classic sequence of four albums from the 70s -- MEDDLE, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, WISH YOU WERE HERE and ANIMALS. But there may be many who, like me, have never bought a Pink Floyd album on which Syd Barrett played. The early stuff -- for instance, 'See Emily Play', 'Arnold Layne' and the glorious 'Bike' -- has been ingeniously blended into the meld, despite the production standards of the period appearing primaeval compared to Alan Parsons' work on DSotM.

It's a wonderful, wonderful collection. I re-purchased my Floyd albums on CD too early -- i.e. before they were re-mastered. I assume that the tracks chosen here are from the re-mastered CDs, and it's frankly a relief that I cannot tell the difference in sound quality between them and my memory of my CDs. That's a small fortune saved!

The CD inlay booklet is up to the usual Floyd standard, with a cover reminiscent of UMMAGUMMA. We get the lyrics and we get the info on who-played-what. This is the early Xmas present you need to give yourself.