A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1981)
1. One of These Days
2. Money
3. Sheep
4. Shine on You Crazy Diamond
5. Wish You Were Here
6. Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)
I guess at some point, every major artist ends up with a "greatest hits" collection—usually more at the request of record executives than the band themselves. That seems to be the case here. Judging by the tongue-in-cheek title, you’d assume the band wasn’t overly thrilled with the idea. Pink Floyd and "dance songs"? Not exactly two things you’d normally associate.
Because Pink Floyd was never a band known for its short radio singles, this single-album release is limited to just six songs, and many of them are edited down to fit the format. To be fair, I’m not sure you could do much better while still keeping it under one LP’s worth of material. Still, when a band’s catalog thrives on length and atmosphere, this type of trimming never does it any favors.
The track selection is solid enough. You’ve got abbreviated versions of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Another Brick in the Wall (Part II), and Money, as well as Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb, and One of These Days. These tracks certainly give you a reasonable snapshot of what made the band so compelling during their peak years. But without the full versions, and lacking the thematic cohesion the band was known for, the experience feels more like a summary than a statement.
Ultimately, this release might be useful for someone who’s curious about the band but doesn’t know where to start. If you could only afford one Pink Floyd album, I suppose this would be passable. But considering how rich and layered their studio albums are, there are far better places to begin. For longtime fans, this is a completist item—nothing more.
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