PINK FLOYD ~ "ANIMALS"

Original released on LP Harvest SHVL 815 (UK 1977, January 21)

PINK FLOYD: "Delicate Sound Of Thunder"

Original released on Double LP EMI 79.1481.1

(NETHERLANDS 1988, November 22)

 

 

 

 

In one respect, it's hard to fault David Gilmour for retooling Pink Floyd as a neo-oldies act with "Momentary Lapse of Reason", since Roger Waters took the band over the brink with his obsessive, nonmusical "The Final Cut". Fans were eager for an album that sounded like classic Floyd, which is what "Momentary Lapse" was. But what they really thirsted for was a live spectacle from Floyd, where they could hear the old tunes and see all the old stunts. That's what they got on the 1987/1988 Pink Floyd world tour, which is documented on this double-disc set "The Delicate Sound of Thunder". Gilmour's reunited Floyd was intent on recreating the sound and feel of classic Floyd, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the oldies feel like the classic records, only with Gilmour taking each vocal. He and Floyd deliver well, but this is a recreation that makes less sense on record than it did on-stage, where the nostalgia was justified. Here, it feels passable but never compelling. This is professional, competent, and, often, even enjoyable music, yet, like many souvenirs, it never once feels necessary. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

NOTE: The files were directly transfered from the remastered vinyl album, with some improvements in digital software, to obtain the best possible sound. Enjoy!

FEATURES 8 SONGS IN BOLD NOT INCLUDED ON THE ORIGINAL CD RELEASE

DISC 1 (PART 1) 1. SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND PARTS 1-5 2. SIGNS OF LIFE 3. LEARNING TO FLY 4. YET ANOTHER MOVIE 5. ROUND AND AROUND 6. A NEW MACHINE PART 1 7. TERMINAL FROST 8. A NEW MACHINE PART 2 9. SORROW 10. THE DOGS OF WAR 11. ON THE TURNING AWAY

DISC 2 (PART 2) 1. ONE OF THESE DAYS 2. TIME 3. ON THE RUN 4. THE GREAT GIG IN THE SKY 5. WISH YOU WERE HERE 6. WELCOME TO THE MACHINE 7. US AND THEM 8. MONEY 9. ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL PART 2  10. COMFORTABLY NUMB 11. ONE SLIP 12. RUN LIKE HELL

PINK FLOYD: "Pulse" (Live)

Original released on Double CD EMI 7243 8 32700 2 6

(EU, May 1995)  

Pink Floyd is really inspired on "Pulse", one of the best albums of the band. They prove to be just happy and strong without the weight of the past years of struggle with Roger Waters. Not only "Dark Side of the Moon" sounds better here: "Division Bell "songs also appear way better, as do the songs from "The Wall", "Wish You Were Here" and all albums. Even Syd's "Astronomy Domine" is very well played here, more "rounded" and harmonic, in a brilliant work of Gilmour. I would say more: the band shows to be a weirdly shy band in the studio in comparison to the magic mood of the live gigs, very specially in "Pulse". It's my favourite album and a very happy start for the final era of the band's history. Two things on this double live album warrant a higher rating by themselves. Of course you have the usual excellent guitar/vocal work of David Gilmour playing live with the extended guitar solos on disc one as well as the keyboard playing of Richard Wright, once again a full member of the band, and the excellent drumming skills of Nick Mason. The other musicians and backing vocalists along with the excellent mix makes for a wonderful listening experience if you are a Pink Floyd fan. But for me, what sets this set apart is disc two. On the second disc, you have the entire "Dark Side Of The Moon", played live, track by track, in it's entirety. And then the encore... "Wish You Were Here" which goes into "Comfortably Numb". This version of "Comfortably Numb", with it's extended guitar solo at the end, is arguably considered one of the great guitar solos in rock history. The album ends with a wonderful version of "Run Like Hell". If you are a true fan of Pink Floyd, this live two disc set, which went to number 1 on both sides of the Atlantic, proved once and for all, that Pink Floyd was more than just "Roger Waters", just as they were more than just "Syd Barrett" and also proved more than ever that Richard Wright deserved to be back in this band. (in AllMusic)

"MORE" - An OST By PINK FLOYD

Original released on LP EMI-Columbia SCX 6346

(UK 1969, July 27)

Commissioned as a soundtrack to the seldom-seen French hippie movie of the same name, "More" was a Pink Floyd album in its own right, reaching the Top Ten in Britain. The group's atmospheric music was a natural for movies, but when assembled for record, these pieces were unavoidably a bit patchwork, ranging from folky ballads to fierce electronic instrumentals to incidental mood music. Several of the tracks are pleasantly inconsequential, but this record does include some strong compositions, especially "Cymbaline," "Green Is the Colour," and "The Nile Song." All of these developed into stronger pieces in live performances, and better, high-quality versions are available on numerous bootlegs.

PINK FLOYD: "The Dark Side Of The Moon"

Original released on LP Capitol SMAS 11163

(US 1973, March 1)

By condensing the sonic explorations of "Meddle" to actual songs and adding a lush, immaculate production to their trippiest instrumental sections, Pink Floyd inadvertently designed their commercial breakthrough with "Dark Side of the Moon". The primary revelation of "Dark Side of the Moon" is what a little focus does for the band. Roger Waters wrote a series of songs about mundane, everyday details which aren't that impressive by themselves, but when given the sonic backdrop of Floyd's slow, atmospheric soundscapes and carefully placed sound effects, they achieve an emotional resonance. But what gives the album true power is the subtly textured music, which evolves from ponderous, neo-psychedelic art rock to jazz fusion and blues-rock before turning back to psychedelia. It's dense with detail, but leisurely paced, creating its own dark, haunting world. Pink Floyd may have better albums than "Dark Side of the Moon", but no other record defines them quite as well as this one. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

Of all rock albums this is the one I had doubts whether anyone at AllMusic would even find words to adequately describe it. But they've done a good job, succinctly mentioning a few points which account for the greatness, touching upon the basic method the band embarked upon and drawing attention to a little bit of the creative accidents which infuse such happy sorcery into this disc. Storm Thorgenson said that the iconic cover design incorporated three themes: the band's light show; the theme of 'ambition' and 'greed' (the pyramid); and Rick Wright's vote for something simple and dramatic. 'Simple' and 'dramatic' is exactly what the music on this LP is. Simple yet depthful work is what all artists strive for, and is the hardest task to accomplish in any art. Yet the Floyd did that, here. There is no other secret which accounts for its phenomenal hold on the public imagination. There is no hidden kabbalah such as playing the disc backward of pairing it up with 'The Wizard of Oz'. No. It is just the invasive, penetrating simplicity of the lyrics and familiar, everyday ideas like ticking clocks and tearing paper and ringing cashboxes. Voices arguing. Bodies running. Engines revving. Lungs breathing. Lips drinking. Tidal gravity, seismic trembling, journeys, death.

The songs address the mundane and the commonplace; the songs summarize and itemize the dull facets of the world around us and give them new meaning. We're shown anew, where we touch and strike these edges, these surfaces. All these 'things' we are surrounded by are given new voice by Floyd's music, given their own laughter and their own mockery and their own sarcasm. It is a chastening experience, and afterwards - after listening - nothing is the same. After, you begin to see just why madmen babble and gurgle so raucously; you discover that there is a true and terrifying strangeness in the world which has long gone unnoticed; you learn from DSOTM just why nothing anywhere is really very sensible. Underneath the surface things are crazy. It is remarkably freeing and soaring, this embracing of the terrible simple madness of things-as-they-are. Posters inside the LP continued the message, have you ever seen them? The magnificent shots of pyramids and mountains..more hints, more suggestions of the inexorability of everything, the surety that what we think we see, is illusion. What more can one ask from a rock album? What does DSOTM lack? Nothing. It's all there. (Manuel Etcheguaray in AllMusic)

"La Vallée" OST by PINK FLOYD

Original released on LP Harvest SHSP 4020

(UK 1972, June 2)

"Obscured by Clouds" is the soundtrack to the Barbet Schroeder film "La Vallée", and it plays that way. Of course, it's possible to make the argument that Pink Floyd's music of the early '70s usually played as mood music, similar to film music, but it had structure and a progression. Here, the instrumentals float pleasantly, filled with interesting textures, yet they never seem to have much of a purpose. Often, they seem quite tied to their time, either in their spaciness or in the pastoral folkiness, two qualities that are better brought out on the full-fledged songs interspersed throughout the record. Typified by "Burning Bridges" and "Wot's...uh the Deal," these songs explore some of the same musical ground as those on "Atom Heart Mother" and "Meddle", yet they are more concise and have a stronger structure. But the real noteworthy numbers are the surprisingly heavy blues-rocker "The Gold It's in The...," which, as good as it is, is trumped by the stately, ominous "Childhood's End" and the jaunty pop tune "Free Four," two songs whose obsessions with life, death, and the past clearly point toward "Dark Side of the Moon". ("Childhood's End" also suggests Dark Side in its tone and arrangement.) As startlingly advanced as these last two songs are, they're not enough to push the rest of "Obscured by Clouds" past seeming just like a soundtrack, yet these tunes, blended with the sensibility of "Meddle", suggest what Pink Floyd was about to develop into. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

PINK FLOYD: "Meddle"

Original released on LP Harvest SMAS 832 

(US 1971, October 30)

"Atom Heart Mother", for all its glories, was an acquired taste, and Pink Floyd wisely decided to trim back its orchestral excesses for its follow-up, "Meddle". Opening with a deliberately surging "One of These Days," "Meddle" spends most of its time with sonic textures and elongated compositions, most notably on its epic closer, "Echoes." If there aren't pop songs in the classic sense (even on the level of the group's contributions to "Ummagumma", there is a uniform tone, ranging from the pastoral "A Pillow of Winds" to "Fearless," with its insistent refrain hinting at latter-day Floyd. Pink Floyd were nothing if not masters of texture, and "Meddle" is one of their greatest excursions into little details, pointing the way to the measured brilliance of "Dark Side of the Moon" and the entire Roger Waters era. Here, David Gilmour exerts a slightly larger influence, at least based on lead vocals, but it's not all sweetness and light - even if its lilting rhythms are welcome, "San Tropez" feels out of place with the rest of "Meddle". Still, the album is one of the Floyd's most consistent explorations of mood, especially from their time at Harvest, and it stands as the strongest record they released between Syd's departure and "Dark Side". (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

ABOUT THE COVER

If "Atom Heart Mother"' cow had been an unlikely cover star, then "Meddle"'s sleeve art left prog fans of 1971 in a state of bafflement, offering a mysterious semi-submerged object, bathed in blue light, surrounded by spreading ripples. After much speculation, this was revealed to be a close-up shot of a human ear in shallow water, with the ripples representing soundwaves. "Meddle" might not be Pink Floyd's most iconic sleeve, but for band insiders, it was perhaps the most contentious. Storm Thorgerson - the late linchpin of the Hipgnosis design studio - had reportedly pitched a concept featurting a baboon's anus, but with the band away on tour in Japan, the the ear concept was decided over a conference call and photographed by Bob Dowling. The irascible graphic designer hated the result, citing it as his least-favourite Floyd sleeve. «The band always say that "Atom Heart Mother" was a better cover than it was an album», he told Mark Blake, «but I think "Meddle" is a much better album than its cover.» Hipgnosis co-founder Aubrey Powell was even more self-critical: «"Meddle" was a mess. I hated that cover. I don't think we did them justice with that at all - it's half-hearted.»

PINK FLOYD: "Atom Heart Mother"

Original released on LP Harvest SHVL 781

(UK 1970, October 2)

Appearing after the sprawling, unfocused double-album set "Ummagumma", "Atom Heart Mother" may boast more focus, even a concept, yet that doesn't mean it's more accessible. If anything, this is the most impenetrable album Pink Floyd released while on Harvest, which also makes it one of the most interesting of the era. Still, it may be an acquired taste even for fans, especially since it kicks off with a side-long, 23-minute extended orchestral piece that may not seem to head anywhere, but is often intriguing, more in what it suggests than what it achieves. Then, on the second side, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Rick Wright have a song apiece, winding up with the group composition "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" wrapping it up. Of these, Waters begins developing the voice that made him the group's lead songwriter during their classic era with "If," while Wright has an appealingly mannered, very English psychedelic fantasia on "Summer 68," and Gilmour's "Fat Old Sun" meanders quietly before ending with a guitar workout that leaves no impression. "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast," the 12-minute opus that ends the album, does the same thing, floating for several minutes before ending on a drawn-out jam that finally gets the piece moving. So, there are interesting moments scattered throughout the record, and the work that initially seems so impenetrable winds up being "Atom Heart Mother"'s strongest moment. That it lasts an entire side illustrates that Pink Floyd was getting better with the larger picture instead of the details, since the second side just winds up falling off the tracks, no matter how many good moments there are. This lack of focus means "Atom Heart Mother" will largely be for cultists, but its unevenness means there's also a lot to cherish here. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)