Meddle (1971)
Meddle is a 1971 ambient album by Pink Floyd.
Pink Floyd stretched out on their sixth album, recorded around London between tour dates in 1971. Side two belongs entirely to Echoes, a twenty-three-minute piece that drifts from a single sonar ping into tides of guitar and organ before receding again. Side one wanders from the thunder of One of These Days to the acoustic calm of Fearless and the loose sunshine of San Tropez. It is the sound of a band finding the patience and scale that Dark Side of the Moon would soon make famous the world over.
Quick answers
What is Meddle about?
Pink Floyd stretched out on their sixth album, recorded around London between tour dates in 1971. Side two belongs entirely to Echoes, a twenty-three-minute piece that drifts from a single sonar ping into tides of guitar and organ before receding again. Side one wanders from the thunder of One of These Days to the acoustic calm of Fearless and the loose sunshine of San Tropez. It is the sound of a band finding the patience and scale that Dark Side of the Moon would soon make famous the world over.
When was Meddle released?
Meddle was released in 1971.
Who made Meddle?
Meddle is by Pink Floyd.
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A few thoughts on Meddle
The sprawling calm of Echoes finds its best screen companion in Live at Pompeii, the 1972 concert film where the band performs it inside an empty Roman amphitheatre. Fans chasing more of the same patient, weather-like build should sit with Dark Side of the Moon next, where these long-form instincts fully arrived.
The rest of Pink Floyd's classic run
Meddle finds Pink Floyd stretching out, with Echoes taking up all of side two and pointing toward the patient, spacious sound the band would refine next. Atom Heart Mother shows the same instinct one album earlier, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall carry it further into concept and precision, and Pulse documents how those long pieces held up live.
Rock albums from the early 70s that pushed past the three-minute song
Meddle spends its whole second side on Echoes, a twenty-three-minute piece built from patience rather than hooks. Frank Zappa's 200 Motels turns studio experimentation into a feature film the same year, Queen's A Night at the Opera stacks song forms into a single suite, and The Beatles push studio invention on Revolver and strip it back on Let It Be, all straining against the three-minute song.