Pink Floyd Echoes Capitol By David Chiu

Every Floyd fan who picks up the band's most comprehensive career overview (not counting the boxed Shine On) will have a gripe about a couple of tracks not on here (i.e. "Run Like Hell," "Pigs (Three Different Ones)""Have a Cigar," "Brain Damage/Eclipse," "One Slip," "Young Lust"). Such omissions aside for a band that was more album oriented than singles, Echoes paint a neat and compact portrait of a band who started out in the '60s as Britain's answer to the Summer of Love before becoming arena rock superstars. Echoes gives a fair amount of attention to the Syd Barret era in which the former eccentric lead singer had a knack for writing psychedelic singles like "See Emily Play" and "Arnold Layne." When he left, Roger Waters assumed the mantle of songwriter paving the way for Floyd's massive popularity: "Time," "Money," One of these Days, "Us and Them," "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," "Wish You Were Here," "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2," "Comfortably Numb," etc. The dour and bitter Waters left acrimoniously in the mid '80s, leaving guitarist David Gilmour to helm the Floyd, which continues to become a reliable rock and roll franchise (that later version of the band is represented by "Learning to Fly" and "Keep Talking" on Echoes). The key highlight to this package is "When The Tigers Broke Free," a 1982 single recorded around The Wall period that never appeared on a Floyd album.

One of the unique aspects of the package is how as one song fades another one seamlessly begins as if to add to one continuous experience--a song that seem opposite aesthetically like "Us and Them" segues into "Learning to Fly." Plust the artwork inside draws on the unique visuals of the band's catalog pioneered by the great Storm Thorgerson. Pink Floyd's music always epitomized the examination of the dark recesses of the mind and what divides people rather than uniting them-Echoes leads the listener on that trip-an unsettling one but also a satisfying one as well.

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