Vinyl Veins Music Reviews: Pink Floyd

Artist: Pink Floyd

Album: Meddle

I am feeling very nostalgic today, kids. So I wanted to nerd out about one of my favorite bands, but I didn’t want to choose one of the obvious albums. Instead, I chose Meddle, one of Pink Floyd’s most underrated albums in their catalogue. I’m always surprised at the reaction of most people when I mention this album, and usually people give me confused looks.

But first off, folks, can we get one thing straight? Pink Floyd is not one of my favorite bands in the stereotypical sense. I didn’t get high and expand my mind seeking philosophical truths through the power of the stoner mentality. I have been a comfort seeker with Pink Floyd since I was in utero, it seems. I grew up in a home where the sounds of Floyd filled the air with intellectual intention. I have always been fascinated by the complexities of their style and sound. For me it was like finding out there was a whole world beyond my front door. I know it’s trendy to value Pink Floyd at a very surface-level culture view. But not in my mind: their value is far to high and ethereal for anyone of us to understand completely.

Meddle, released in 1971, was one the most daring transition albums I have ever known. It was a transitional album in the sense that the band was really having an identity crisis. They knew they liked the idea of psychedelic and soundscape music, but in the absence of Syd Barrett (an original band member) they couldn’t seem to find their footing and wanted to further explore vast world of sound.

Side one of Meddle is almost a farewell to the Pink Floyd that had existed for so long, with its bipolar emotions ranging from fierce and vivid anguish to bittersweet melodies of sentimental longing. I have listened to this album countless times and am always intoxicated by the labyrinth of layers and vocals.

This album came at a time albums were created organically and for the sake of sound, and it was something new and expansive. For Pink Floyd, music and creativity were first. Merely making music with the intention of a hit song was not the sole objective. This was a time when albums were listened to as a whole and not downloaded by individual tracks.

Each track had set the groundwork for the legendary albums that followed. You can almost hear a glimmer of things that would become: For example, on the second side of the album Echoes, which is 23:34 minutes of what seems to be an introduction to what we know of Pink Floyd present day as progressive rock legend.

I have never seen Pink Floyd as a band that compromised their integrity or what music meant to them. That may be the reason for their demise as a band, because music geniuses cannot possibly grow the same direction. Like all things that are magnificent in this world they shift and change. Meddle gets an undeniable 10 out of 10, and if anyone wants to argue that then I’ll make the time. Throughout the decades it is one of the forgotten gems in the Pink Floyd catalogue. For me, at least, Meddle was meant to be the first time they truly discovered the sound that broke down barriers and changed the sound of rock music forever.

Until next time, discover something new.

Always defend the notion to be different. –Roger Waters