Pink Floyd
ECHOES: THE BEST OF PINK FLOYD
(CAPITOL)

Perhaps more than any other band from album rock’s ’70s heyday, Pink Floyd were never about hit singles. That explains the belated appearance — 35 years into the group’s storied career — of this first-ever greatest-hits collection. Using long-time producer James Guthrie as an intermediary, estranged bandleaders David Gilmour and Roger Waters have assembled a continuous mix of 26 tracks from each of the band’s three distinct eras that clocks in at a very Floydian two and a half hours.

The two-disc set kicks off with a couple of original frontman Syd Barrett’s warped psych-rock classics, which represent that brief moment in the group’s history when they actually were about hit singles (well, concise pop songs, at least). Before long, though, sprawling ’70s art rock takes over via the spacious 17-minute title track. The second disc gets going with the haunting "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," their timeless tribute to the legendarily troubled Barrett. Classic-rock staples from Dark Side and The Wall are framed by ambient, lesser-known pieces, and that makes them sound about as fresh as they can at this point. The more commercial music the band made after Waters left holds up surprisingly well too, cementing the time-tested legacy of this most enigmatic of rock icons.

Issue Date: December 20 - 27, 2001

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