Audio CD review:
Pink Floyd - Works

Pink Floyd - Works

Band: Pink Floyd Title: Works Rating: Release Date: 1990-10-25 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: One of These Days 2: Arnold Layne - Pink Floyd, Barrett, Syd 3: Fearless - Pink Floyd, Gilmour, David 4: Brain Damage 5: Eclipse 6: Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun 7: See Emily Play - Pink Floyd, Barrett, Syd 8: Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave An 9: Free Four 10: Embryo

Needs A Little Re-working... :) Not a bad Pink Floyd collection. This compilation is tough to find in music stores these days, so I ordered it right here. . . The low point for me on this album was the inclusion of "Several Species. . . " It's more like sound effects than an actual song, but it is still a creative and hilarious piece to listen to, I must admit. :) It's too bad that David Gilmore's brilliant "Narrow Way, Part 3" wasn't chosen instead, to represent the "Ummagumma" album. This is the only Pink Floyd CD release I know of that contains the "attempted-stereo" mixes (As I like to call it!) of "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play," which were previously featured on the vinyl and cassette versions of "Relics. " A shame that the latter track was cross-faded into the ear-piercing noises that open up "Several Species," rather than just fading out, the way the track was meant to be heard. On a little side note, upon listening to the "stereo" attempts on these two tracks, the same procedure was used on some early Beatles recordings like "She Loves You" and "I'll Get You," from the U. S. Beatles compilation "The Beatles' Second Album," because those songs were originally featured in monophonic sound. The quad mixes of the "Dark Side of the Moon" tracks were a treat . . . The continuous laughter on "Brain Damage" is a hoot, plus the synthesizer effects are more audible during the instrumental break, as heard here! Also, both the female backup singer's voice and the spoken closing lines ("There is no Dark Side Of The Moon. . . ") are brought to the fore on "Eclipse. " "Embryo" sounds like something off of the "More" soundtrack, and would have been a nice addition to the "Atom Heart Mother" album, if there was room. The dreamy keyboards and heavily echoed acoustic guitars added a beautifully spooky atmosphere to the song, and the "strange creature" murmuring near the end of the track was just wild . . . Makes me think of "Several Species," once again! :) Seems to me like those who put this compilation together favored Roger Waters over David Gilmore and Syd Barrett, since Waters' voice is heard on half of the tracks. A shame that each of the singers didn't receive equal acknowledgment, on this occasion, since both Barrett and Gilmore sing on only 2 tracks apiece. Also, a shame that no Richard Wright compositions appear on this release. This would be an excellent compilation to have reissued and re-mastered, with bonus tracks, of course! Since some of the early Pink Floyd singles found a home on "Relics," it would have been good had some super-rare single tracks been included on "Works," such as "Candy And A Current Bun," "Apples And Oranges," "It Would Be So Nice," and "Point Me At The Sky. " I would have loved it if a possible reissue of "Works" were to feature these tracks (Much like the re-release of the "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" CD, featuring the bonus disc, which included rare and unreleased alternate versions of their early songs), as well as one of those live bootleg versions of "Embryo," which I keep reading about, but have never had the opportunity to listen to (Unfortunately), if the material is available today in some archive or vault of unreleased Pink Floyd recordings. :) That way, buyers of this CD will have more than just the studio version of "Embryo" to look forward to. As far as packaging goes, I thought that the record company did a remarkable job with all of the 1990's Pink Floyd remasters, featuring colorful CD booklets loaded with photos and lyrics . . . "Works" deserves the same kind of treatment. It's a shame that it wasn't re-mastered and reissued along with the other releases, at the time. Oh well! We can always hope and pray for that, in the meantime. :) To sum up, "Works" includes a pretty good early time-line of Pink Floyd tracks, but for me, losing "Several Species" and adding the bonus tracks I've listed above would have made this "work" way better as a Pink Floyd collection. *Before I close, take notice of the tiny bucket of pink paint on the back cover of the CD, eye candy against the dominant grays throughout the album artwork. :) Thanks for reading! God Bless. . . ~KevyGuy :) * * * * * * *. Pink Floyd Works Collection Of Songs 1967-1973 The songs that represent the Syd Barrett era are, "Arnold Layne", and "See Emily Play". Works is a Pink Floyd complimation that was realesed in 1983 and contains songs of them from 1967-1973. But beware the version of See Emily Play on here is a remix it sounds more lighter and has different drums and Arnold Layne also sounds a little different too hear the exact versions of these songs either get it off of Echoes or Relics or The Early Singles. One of these days also contains the Speak To Me beggining and Brain Damage has crowd noise at the beggining of it, But the real gem on this album is the song, "The Embryo", which only exists on this CD but really you could just download it off of iTunes and save tons of money instead of buying this CD, Buy it if you want. The Downloads are HORRABLE!! I oughta put just 1 star for lousy service!. I got all the songs on this CD except "Embryo" and when i downloaded the MP3, it skipped & mistracked, then it also counted that i downloaded 2 copies of the track and everytime i asked for help there was always an issue of payment which i already done, they said they opened it up for downloading again but that never happened and when i tried to email them back its "you cant respond to this email" all i wanted was a tech support number or something but no i dont even get that. The fourth Pink Floyd retrospective is unique to have The album was released as a cash-in on the band's success and at the time breakup. In June of 1983, Capitol Records released a Pink Floyd compilation entitled Works. Works is a collection of early Pink Floyd tracks from 1967 to 1973 and features excellent tracks like the Syd Barrett-era singles "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play" (both here in fake stereo mixes), a unique "One of These Days" (with the Speak to Me intro as a lead in into the track) and the rare quad mixes of Dark Side Of The Moon favorites "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse". There is also "Fearless" (from Meddle), "Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun" (from A Saucerful of Secrets), "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict" (from Ummagumma) and "Free Four" (from Obscured by Clouds) which appear on this collection. The main reason for the adding Works to your Floyd collection is the rare song "Embryo" which is not available anywhere else but here (unlike the Syd Barrett singles, which you can also find on the CDs The Early Singles on the Pink Floyd box set in 1992, Relics finally issued on CD in 1996 and the Echoes retrospective in 2001). Embryo is a great song, a lost Floyd classic. Strangely enough,the band have always stated that this song was not ever actually finished, a claim which seems to be proven true by the live recording of it I've heard from the BBC in 1970. On record, Embryo is a soft, tranquil number with acoustic guitars. Live in concert, it was a powerful, amped-up rocker, featuring some awesome guitar work by David Gilmour. Even so, this early studio version of Embryo remains a hauntingly beautiful song, and one that demands to be added to your Floyd collection right now. Works however stalled at #68 upon release but is still a good disc to have. Highly recommended! . A small but efficient retroscope of Pink Floyd's works Although there are many various compilations that try to garner the greatest or most influential Floyd songs through the years, Works captures mostly earlier songs that are still standing the test of time today. Works starts out with the sonic, rumbling intro called "One of these Days" and never lets up. Old favorites like "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play" are also in the track listing. The song "Fearless" is still as soothing and elegant as ever, and it is on "Brain Damage" that one gets a taste of one of Roger Water's classics as he says he will see us on the dark side of the moon. The deep, haunting atmosphere of "Set the controls for the heart of the sun" are felt with all the sad and sinister lyrics one can take, while the happy go luck "Free Four" bounces along with a nice toe tapping grace. Ten tracks in all, Works may not be the place for a new Floyd fan to start out with, but definitely a mainstay in a long time fan's collection. . You can see a complete list of all Pink Floyd discography, or go back to the Pink Floyd tabs