So cool to see Nick playing. And Roger going there...doing that song.

The new Later Days set seems like such a jumbled mess. My one hope for this set is that the expanded Delicate Sound of Thunder gets a separate release on cd and vinyl. Maybe now they can finally do a box set for Animals.

Division Bell is a straight up great record.

Always felt like I would love them in the future. Heard a little bit here and a little bit there and liked it. Bough a couple of albums, but they just ended up as part of a large collection, and rarely listened to.

roger has indicated he plans on touring the u.s. again next year. not the us + them show, but something different, and probably even more political in message than the last one. we'll see if that bears out, but i know i'll be going if he does simply because one day sooner than later i won't have the opportunity to see him again.

I'm surprised they even bothered because the "Early Years" set was a total disaster.

A lot of it was just taken from shitty old bootlegs, and not even the most recent, best sounding ones.

Nobody bothered to look through or even inventory the Syd-era studio tapes because they all hate that era. So there is a lot of interesting stuff from that era that was totally ignored.

The mastering is also disgusting bright and not up to Floyd's usual standards.

Also, the blu-rays in the set are all deteriorating from bad manufacturing and people are totally freaking out.

Pink Floyd tournament on guys if you have the time. It’d be nice to get at least double figures.

http://forums.theskyiscrape.com/viewtopic.php?p=1409515#p1409515

I'll definitely join in as it moves along, I just don't know jack shit about a lot of the early stuff.

there are youtube vids in each matchup. just listen and pick. maybe you'll discover something you like.

a taste of the amlor remix:

Starting 2020 with a Pink Floyd journey. I know very well the middle and most famous period and basically greatest hits, so a lot of the oldest and newest material will be new to me...

Piper at the Gates of Dawn - Going in, I’ve always thought of Pink Floyd as the masters of the album format with a very carefully curated and controlled sense of the sonic sculptures they create, so it’s a rather nice surprise in getting ready for that to start with an album that gives in to impulse, no matter the wild places it takes them. The album feels built around Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive, both fantastic soundscapes. I am not sure whether it was Syd Barrett’s influence or the absence of David Gilmour that gives this album a more spontaneous feeling, but the sense that anything can happen is all over this. The only part of this album I did not love was Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk, which seemed to just fizzle instead of build into something. Otherwise a phenomenal debut.

A Saucerful of Secrets - a little less impulsiveness, but I really enjoyed this album as well, if not more so than the first. Let There Be More Light and Remember a Day were a strong way to start the album, though the apex of genius for this early period for me is Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun and A Saucerful of Secrets- both of which give the distinct impression of my worst dreams coming to life in the form of recorded music, the latter over what seems like three district movements. The second, with that killer drum beat, is intoxicating without the need for any substances. Corporal Clegg seemed a little out of place, only because it reminded me more of a late era Beatles track. See-Saw was also quite hypnotic as well. Jugband Blues is ultimately least like the others, a could have easily fit in the first album, perhaps because of Syd Barrett. Needless to say, I am in for early Floyd after just never getting to it for so many years.

More - much of this is music scoring, but generally well done on that front with the instrumentals. The only instrumental I was into was Quicksilver, the rest was very good. As far as songs, I thought all of them were good, with Cymbaline my favorite. Ibiza Bar and The Nile Song seemed really loud and rollicking for them, but they still seemed to work well. I wouldn’t place this among my favorites and is probably my least favorite so far, but the bar is pretty high as well this far.

Nile is top notch heavy metal floyd

Ummagumma - this probably needs to be divided into the live side and the studio side. The live side is fantastic early era Pink Floyd with a set list practically curated for me if you read my prior thoughts on the preceding albums (Astronomy Domine, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, and A Saucerful of Secrets). Each well extended and jammed out well.

The second studio half, in a few words, is bat shit crazy. Sisyphus is again like nightmares coming to life in sound, though I have to admit I enjoyed it. Grantchester Meadows and Several Species of Furry Animals... seem like a precursor to the successful experiment that is Animals, only not so successful. The Narrow Way is great and the best of the bunch on this side. The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party seemed almost like random noise in parts and catchy in others and I never made much sense of it.

The band famously hates the studio half and claim that they "bullshitted their way through it" because they were super busy and obligated to do it.

I read most of that somewhere, and I certainly wouldn’t be calling this album anywhere near great, but there are still bright spots.

Atom Heart Mother - this album you can hear them transitioning a bit. There doesn’t seem to be a larger concept, other than side one being the title track, which is maybe a tad long but otherwise not so different than a classical composition. I thought it was really fantastic. The next three tracks play out more traditionally in what I would come to expect from Pink Floyd. A little off that classic sound but they have all the trappings of what’s to come even though they are all very different songs. Plus, in pieces you can really hear them letting David Gilmour out, as that staple guitar seems mostly shut away on the first records he appears on compared to this section of the album. The sound collage experiment happening in Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast happening over movements of coffee drips, tea kettles, and fried eggs is a weird but it seems to fit together. Pink Floyd members apparently didn’t like this one either, but I hear this as the first big step toward the Pink Floyd to come. I liked everything on this album.

Meddle - now this is what I am talking about! It’s an album like this that makes the Pink Floyd album journey worth it. I was pretty familiar with a good chunk of this before I listened. One of These Days, Fearless, and Echoes I had heard in other places, and all three are phenomenal. Fearless and Echoes easily top ten Floyd songs for me. A Pillow of Winds was a great discovery. San Tropez and Seamus both provide a little lighter side of Pink Floyd I was not expecting, and it adds a nice touch to an album filled with monstrously great songs. In the journey so far, this is easily my favorite.