PINK FLOYD

Floyd’s vinyl procession nears the end.

Originally released via CD only in 2011 as part of the Why Pink Floyd? retail campaign that saw the arrival of the hefty Immersion box sets of Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall, A Foot In The Door – The Best Of Pink Floyd has largely been viewed as a poor relation to 2001’s more expansive and inclusive double set Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd (which probably explains why sales of the latter overshadow those of the former). And admittedly, you certainly won’t hear any argument against that school of thought from this writer. However, this package still serves as a fine introduction to the band for any newbie fan whose interest has been piqued by the current wave of enthusiasm for vinyl, or indeed anyone revisiting the format after decades of dealing with shiny discs.

Spread across four sides of lush heavyweight vinyl are ‘the hits’. Only See Emily Play predates Dark Side Of The Moon, and there’s just The Fletcher Memorial Home (from The Final Cut), Learning To Fly (from A Momentary Lapse Of Reason) and High Hopes (from The Division Bell) post-The Wall, which does a disservice to the pre-Dark Side… material now being revived with vigour by Nick Mason and his Saucerful Of Secrets.

So what does the Floyd completist need to know? Well, everything’s been newly remastered by James Guthrie and Joel Plante. Longtime Floyd associate Aubrey

Powell and keeper of the Storm Thorgerson flame, Peter Curzon, have tweaked what was Thorgerson’s final artwork prior to his death, adding alternate versions of the original photos that were used in the packaging. And the chiming clocks that were curiously omitted from the start of Time on the CD version have finally been reinstated. And of course, it all sounds amazing. However this writer, and one suspects many other Floyd fans, would much have preferred to see Echoes reappear on vinyl. 2010’s An Introduction To Syd Barrett would be a most welcome addition too.