Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001) 


 

Disc One
  1. Astronomy Domine
  2. See Emily Play
  3. The Happiest Days of Our Lives
  4. Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)
  5. Echoes
  6. Hey You
  7. Marooned
  8. The Great Gig in the Sky
  9. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
  10.Money
  11.Keep Talking
  12.Sheep
  13.Sorrow
  
Disc Two
  1. Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-VII)
  2. Time
  3. The Fletcher Memorial Home
  4. Comfortably Numb
  5. When the Tigers Broke Free
  6. One of These Days
  7. Us and Them
  8. Learning to Fly
  9. Arnold Layne
  10.Wish You Were Here
  11.Jugband Blues
  12.High Hopes
  13.Bike

 

Let’s just say it upfront: Pink Floyd was never the kind of band that needed—or even should have—a greatest hits collection. By the time Echoes came out in 2001, the band was long past their prime years, and this compilation felt less like a celebration and more like a marketing move. Sure, some of the songs here are fantastic. Of course they are—it’s Pink Floyd. But the idea behind this release? Not so fantastic.

The biggest issue is one of cohesion. Pink Floyd evolved so dramatically over the decades—from the whimsical psychedelia of Syd Barrett to the sprawling concept pieces of Roger Waters to the polished, guitar-driven sound of David Gilmour—that stitching them all together into a single listen makes for a jarring ride. Hearing See Emily Play from 1967 right before High Hopes from 1994 doesn’t exactly flow. It’s not just a matter of time; it’s a matter of identity. And here, it’s all mushed together in a way that does nobody any favors.

It might have helped had the tracks been sequenced chronologically. That way, at least, you’d get a sense of progression. But even then, you’d still run into another problem: space. To cram everything onto two discs, they trimmed down some of the longer, more atmospheric pieces. It’s done tastefully enough that a casual listener might not even notice—but the purists will, and they’ll wince.

As a sweetener—or perhaps as bait—they tossed in When the Tigers Broke Free, a track originally featured in the film version of The Wall but not the album itself. The song would later be folded into later pressings of The Final Cut, where it actually belonged. Here, it feels more like a dangling incentive: something new for people who already owned everything else.

In the end, Echoes doesn’t do justice to a band whose albums were always meant to be heard in full, not cherry-picked. Pink Floyd wasn’t about singles. They were about immersion. About mood. About building entire worlds. And no matter how good the songs are individually, putting them all in one box doesn’t recreate the magic—it just reminds you that it’s missing.

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