Good CD recordings of Floyd albums?
Posted by: MDS on 04 April 2014
I’m looking to expand my PF collection a bit by adding Pulse and Ummagumma, and getting a better quality recording of Meddle. My CD of Meddle is an EMI ’94 remaster 724382974925 which is ok but I’m sure I can get a better one (Mike1380’s original pressing vinyl version sounds much better). Trouble is when I look on Amazon etc there are a bewildering number of different CD versions of these albums and apart from price there is no means of differentiating by quality of recording. Even the customer reviews seem to be unhelpfully repeated for every disc (bit naughty in my view). So has anyone got any advice as to which versions are the best recordings of these albums?
MDS
Mark - I've always had mixed feelings about The Wall as well, and sometimes wondered what I was missed as many others regard it as a classic. No such doubts about WYWH, though. As Kevin says, that's a must have Floyd album, and I'm now wondering whether I should get a Discovery version of that. I also enjoy Division Bell but it's not quite up there with DSOTM, WYWH etc.
MDS
MDS,
Simple answer - YES, buy it. All the discovery Floyd CD's I've heard have been superb. I own the discovery WYWH and I can tell you you won't regret buying it 
.
Just given in and ordered WYWH, and while I was at it I couldn't resist ordering a Discovery version of Animals, too. My current version is OK but Animals has a special place in my heart having seen Floyd at Wembley arena when they first released it.
My first ever gig was seeing Animals at the Empire Pool (now Wembley Arena) in March 1977. I was 14 and my big cousin took me. The air was blue with dope smoke and I drank some beer. My mum would have been furious had she known...
Thanks for those starters, chaps.
I know that I 'should' like The Wall, but I've tried and failed. Perhaps it's because I first came across it in its film incarnation, where it seemed to be just the sort of overblown, self-indulgent, whining rock-operatics that I've never really got on with (and I was an overblown self-indulgent whining teenager at the time).
Hi Mark,
I really do not care for the movie, but love the album. I came around to them in the other order -- music first. I had a visual of what some of the music meant to me, and the movie had NOTHING to do with those visuals.
To me, The Wall is the last of the Roger Waters content that I get along with (save Leaving Beirut, which I heard for the first time when he did it live in the DSOTM concert). The Wall is on the 'right' side of pretentiousness, but thereafter . . . how much more do I want to hear him go on about his Daddy being in the war, and the bombings, and the innocents dying, blah blah blah. I GET IT; MAKE MUSIC ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE ALREADY.
Anyway, that's my views.
+1 Bart. The album 'The Wall' is fabulous. The film pretentious twaddle. IMHO of course 
Ebor, please give the album another chance, and forget the film.
Yes the film is a bit crap. Even both Waters and Gilmour have gone on record and have admitted as much. The best presentation of the Wall were the 1980/81 live shows, which really made the album come alive. I will never forget the sensation of sitting in Earls Court listening to an incredible 64-channel sound system with subwoofers (a fairly new idea at the time) providing the rumble and bass for the explosions.
Rog should release the films - Alan Parker filmed many of the Earls Court gigs in 16mm and 35mm. From the brief clip on the Wall Immersion set, the quality is excellent.
Mark - I've always had mixed feelings about The Wall as well, and sometimes wondered what I was missed as many others regard it as a classic. No such doubts about WYWH, though. As Kevin says, that's a must have Floyd album, and I'm now wondering whether I should get a Discovery version of that. I also enjoy Division Bell but it's not quite up there with DSOTM, WYWH etc.
MDS
MDS,
Simple answer - YES, buy it. All the discovery Floyd CD's I've heard have been superb. I own the discovery WYWH and I can tell you you won't regret buying it .
Just given in and ordered WYWH, and while I was at it I couldn't resist ordering a Discovery version of Animals, too. My current version is OK but Animals has a special place in my heart having seen Floyd at Wembley arena when they first released it.
My first ever gig was seeing Animals at the Empire Pool (now Wembley Arena) in March 1977. I was 14 and my big cousin took me. The air was blue with dope smoke and I drank some beer. My mum would have been furious had she known...
We must have been there around the same time then, Kevin. Mate and I drove up to London from Portsmouth in his MG midget. Spent the day mooching around the hi-fi stores in Tottenham Court Road then drove over to Wembley for gig in the evening. Got back to Pompey very late that night, tired but happy. It was a fabulous performance.