'Echoes' sounds out greatest hits

Greatest hits records are often unfulfilling, and Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd follows in that tradition. The album spans Pink Floyd's entire career, including songs written with original guitarist/vocalist Syd Barrett, as well as songs written after the 1983 departure of bassist and bandleader Roger Waters. \nThe most disheartening aspect of Echoes is its disunity. The beauty of The Wall is that it's one continuous work, albeit the plot is not nearly as good as The Who's epic Tommy. Being a collection of songs from an assortment of albums, there is not a true sense the harmony that is found on Floyd classics such as The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon. \nPossibly realizing that fact, James Guthrie, producer and engineer of Echoes, created the album as one continuous loop, only separated by the end of the first disc. As a result, there is that familiar feeling of an echoing void that marks the sign of every good Pink Floyd experience.\nWhile there are songs from The Wall on Echoes, it loses that storybook feeling and cuts up an entire piece of work to profit off the more popular sections. It's disheartening to see a piece of work like The Wall disintegrated into one or two songs included on a greatest hits CD purely to make money. That epic masterpiece is stripped away to make Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) a little more popular to the masses who are otherwise unable to comprehend Pink Floyd. \nOn the other hand, if it's straight out hits you're after, Echoes is the perfect album. Despite featuring such Pink Floyd classics as, "Time," "Wish You Were Here" and "Astronomy Domine," the album is strikingly different from 1983's Works, Pink Floyd's first attempt at a greatest hits collection. Echoes is a legitimate attempt at a true Pink Floyd hits collection, building on the new generation of Floyd fans eager for a definitive greatest hits compilation from the band.\nWith that intention in mind, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd does not fail. But with the exception of the album's continuous-track formulation, the album lacks the musical magic that has always made Pink Floyd special. It's a packaged collection, aimed at cashing in on the legend of Pink Floyd. Hopefully, new Pink Floyd fans won't stop at Echoes and will dig deeper into the music. There you can find the true magic of Pink Floyd. Sadly, it isn't present on this record.\nRating: 6