Pink Floyd
Echoes The Best Of

LA RECENSIONE

Here's an excerpt from an amusing essay titled "The Musical World is Crap" by Piero Filoni:

"If until not too long ago, I clung to the hope that 1% of the musical world was untainted, it is now truly the end.

Betrayal

When even Pink Floyd releases a Greatest Hits, it's already sad, but when they approve the release of an album where the songs are cut, it means music is truly dead.
The next step will surely be a Best of Beethoven where they include the first four notes of the Ninth (LA LA LA FA) and move on to Moonlight Sonata since it's clear what piece it was, the rest doesn't matter."

You may not agree with Piero that before the Floyd released this album, 1% of the musical world was untainted, but these few sentences summarize the extent of the desecration perpetrated here.
Already a Greatest Hits is often a sad commercial operation, even more so if it's a group like Pink Floyd organizing it. But here they try to pass off a mishmash of songs almost at random mixed together as a Best Of. It's a shame that the tracks are often poorly and shoddily shortened, and not even the "gem" of "When the Tigers Broke Free" can appease the soul of the betrayed fan.
I myself listened to it when I wasn't yet following the Floyd well, and I didn't understand a damn thing after listening to the original albums.
It wouldn't have taken much to do better. Maybe the lawyers of Gilmour and Waters didn't understand each other well over the phone, perhaps there were interferences, because if there's "Marooned" and not "Mother", if there's "Learning to Fly" and not "Dogs," there must be a reason.
To me, it's madness, and the only one not afflicted by it is Syd Barrett. And here, finally, his four dear old friends pay tribute to him by including no less than four of his tracks ("Jugband Blues", "Bike", "Astronomy Domine", and "Arnold Layne"). These songs are the best thing on the album, maybe they can encourage someone to go listen to Syd, and perhaps they can make many understand how it's decidedly better to stop when you can no longer make music worth listening to.
Together we stand, divided we fall.