Originally published by L.S. Media. November 16th 2011.
L.S. Media Rating *
Best of albums are subjective, sometimes boringly so. What one person says is the definitive list of a band’s finest moments of recording history, another will contest that songs A and B cannot be compared with tracks Y and Z and so the great musical merry ground goes round and it allows record companies to get the public to open their wallets once more in the name of having the one definitive list. This can be even more disturbing when the band already have a well presented and in some cases finer version available.
Such is the case with the album The Best of Pink Floyd: A Foot in the Door. Yes, there are some classic and tremendous tracks on the album but it doesn’t cover the multitude of songs that are available to the purists and casual onlookers of Pink Floyd. It is after all only ten years since a more comprehensive album was released in the form of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd. This album also has the benefit of charm in its homage to the late Syd Barrett, with more tracks available to the first time listener than on this new rehash which only has the classic See Emily Play within its heart.
The other problem with so called Best Of’s are the taking out of context that the songs were originally recorded in. In some cases this can be overcome as their albums may have the same sense of delivery woven throughout but in bands such Pink Floyd, whose history is built on the dramatic and subject matter of the mind it can be disconcerting to go from Learning To Fly from A Momentary Lapse of Reason to The Fletcher Memorial Home from The Final Cut.
There is no doubt that the songs on this album are deserving to be included in an album that frankly only scratches the surface of one of the finest bands to ever to make music. Whimsical and divine are two of the best words to describe tracks as the awesome Wish You Were Here, the dynamic and poignant Time and the often considered finest moment of the band’s history, the soaring and beautiful Comfortably Numb. Where though is the lengthy and absorbing Echoes? The atmospheric Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun and the childlike innocence of Bike.
Pink Floyd will always be remembered for being one of the ultimate Progressive Rocks bands to have come out of Great Britain but surely even these expert musicians don’t need the money that their fans will have worked hard to earn in these austere times.
Ian D. Hall