Echoes (The Best of Pink Floyd)

Echoes is a double-CD collection of some of Pink Floyd's best songs; it's also an interesting document of the band's history. They began life as Syd Barrett's mandrax-flavoured nursery-rhymers--gnomes, ecrows, cats and bikes a speciality--before clasping the wings of Icarus and ascending towards the sun on an epic space-rock odyssey, eventually turning left once they reached the dark side of the moon and burning up on re-entry, c-landing on every earthlings' home hi-fi with the imperious but seething embitterment of their (or more pertinently, Roger Waters') pomp rock; the sociological (Animals), totalitarianism (The Wall) and World War (The Final Cut). And it's all here--30 years of the Floyd's awesome back catalogue trimmed down to two handsome CDs. It is worth reiterating that, despite a fondness for pyrotechnics (and fittingly--and perhaps deliberately--the album was released on November 5th), Pink Floyd were never a prog-rock band. Sure, some of their songs were a bit long, and they never released singles (at least not for 11 years), but the same could be said for Led Zeppelin. Clinically devoid of the cod-classical overtures and vainglorious musicianship of that era, Pink Floyd were a pole apart; Meddle's epic maritime tone-poem "Echoes" remains The Floyds' apogee. But here, on this collection, "the albatross" which "hangs motionless upon the air" has had its wings clipped--seven full minutes are missing, but you'd never be able to tell. The sonar bleeps, the screeching seagulls, the howling winds are all retained and whoever wielded the editorial axe did so carefully, Eugene. Interestingly, the non-chronological track listing works--the summery, childhood enchantment of "See Emily Play" timetabled right next to the square-bashing school discipline of "Happiest Days Of Our Lives"--and at least this way no-one will switch off when material from "A Momentary Lapse in Reason" comes around. Despite the curious omission of "Atom Heart Mother", this really is the very best of the Floyd--from the throbbing "One Of These Days" (conceived as an attack on disc jockey Jimmy Young), to the pop operatic "Great Gig In The Sky" and the genius silvery fluidity of Dave Gilmour's guitar work. This is timeless, as many members of Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Blur, Beta Band etc will no doubt testify. --Kevin Maidment

• Music.