And call to you across the sky

Pink Floyd - Meddle - 1971

For all of us who only knew Pink Floyd well after their fame and reputation had been established post Dark Side of the Moon, our perception of the band was altered in several ways.
On the one hand, everything they did before was seen with the respect they had already earned, and it's sometimes a bit difficult to be really critical of their earlier work.
On the other, it's always all too easy to see Moon as if it marked as much of a "before and after" point musically, as it did with respect to the band's reputation, and it's all too easy to forget that, most of the times, changes are more gradual than we had previously thought.
And this brilliant album is a good example of that. Listening to it again, I am slightly surprised to see how much of Pink Floyd as we know it is already here.
The opening track, "One of these Days", with its preeminent echoing bass, foretells not only some of the sonic experimentation of Moon, but also makes me think of Animals. The mostly acoustic "Fearless" would serve as a template to the more melodic and acoustic songs we would here for the next 10 years, and it is a very different type of song from their softer songs so far.
Of course, there are still some remains from the old days, and pretty much the rest of what was the first side of the album is pretty much in that vein, but the change is clear and, as it turned out, irreversible.
And then there's "Echoes", an amazing piece that takes up the whole B side of the album. Now, Pink Floyd always had a penchant for longer songs, and Atom Heart Mother had a suite that was very similar in length. But that's where the similarities end, I think. Now, they cut the experimental sound sections to a minimum and came up with an astonishingly beautiful piece that is closer to "Shine on you Crazy Diamond" than anything they had done so far. The similarities in structure are striking, even to the point that "Echoes" is pretty much divided into two clear halves by the only part in the song that is clearly "sonic experimentation". This is a different song, though, and while it doesn't reach the insane level of perfection "Shine..." does (because I don't think anything can), it's still a beautiful 23 minutes piece, and a clear sign of things to come.

• Among the songs that were more in the "old style", we have "San Tropez", another one of Waters's flirtations with jazzy sounds. I don't like it as much as "Biding my Time", but it's still an ok tune.
• "Fearless" ends with fans of Liverpool FC singing Rodgers & Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone".
• As far as strange vocals go, though, nothing surpasses "Seamus", which features, well, Seamus himself, a Collie dog that belonged to one of Humble Pie's members. 
• And to complete the sequence of unusual vocals, the opening track, "One of These Days" is pretty much instrumental, except for the first incursion of Nick Mason in vocals. He can be heard saying "One of these days, I'm gonna cut you into little pieces". 
• Of course I'm putting the whole of "Echoes" here. If you've heard it before, I'm sure you want to hear it again. If you haven't, you need to. Seriously. 

Play me my song, here it comes again

Genesis - Nursery Cryme - 1971

This is considered by many the first "true" Genesis album, because it was the first one released after Phil Collins and Steve Hackett were added to the band, so it's basically the first one by their classic progressive lineup. 

While not completely devoid of brilliant moments, it suffers from yet another one of the progressive defects: overindulgence and a sense that brilliant musicianship alone can make a song. The brilliance is pretty brilliant for most of the time, but many tracks here feels as if the whole song was purely built on showcasing musicians, and the songs suffer from going nowhere for a long time. 

Still, when they focus a bit, as is the case of the opening track, "Musical Box", they really focus and can deliver some awesome music. "Fountain of Salmacis" is another great example of them finding focus, even if it meanders a bit at times.

All in all, I've enjoyed listening to this one quite a bit, but unless I'm sorely mistaken, I'm going to enjoy some of the next ones much more.

• I always loved the narrative style to their lyrics, how they tell stories through them. The only other artist that would do it so much, and so well, especially in the early days, was David Bowie.
• I had never noticed how heavy "Musical Box" gets in its midsection. Just listen around the 4 minute mark, and stay there for other 4 minutes, and you can easily imagine a lot of prog metal bands in years to come learning from this song. 
• It's just hit me that they were about 21 years old when this album was recorded. It does sound like a much more mature album. 

Been around but are versed in the truth

King Crimson - Islands - 1971

From the early days of King Crimson, this one is perhaps their least liked album. 

And comparing it to the couple of previous albums I talked about here, I can understand it in a way. It feels much more restrained, less experimental, with next to nothing in the way of "crazy" songs. As I said before, I always prefer my KC a bit crazier, and I don't like it that much when they go into the more melodic territories, and this one is pretty melodic. It feels as if they had fallen into the typical trap that many prog bands fell back then, which is to try to sound "classical". 

Now, the more melodious songs actually have quite beautiful melodies, they're just too long and a bit boring. There's a very interesting attempt to achieve the jazzy, crazier vibe in "Sailor's Tale", but the effort is a bit marred by letting it dissolve into nothingness for too long. "The Letter", which is a cool song in all its melodramatic, almost "telenovela" vibe, also feels like it drags at times. 

Don't get me wrong, this is an album I actually listen to from time to time, and enjoy quite a bit when I'm in the right mood. It's just not as good as the previous ones, and far from the good moments that would come in the future.

• My favourite track here is "Ladies of the Road". It also takes it like one full minute or more to get to the point, but once it does it's fun and crazy, if a bit "retro". It actually feels to me as if The Beatles' "Come Together" and "Penny Lane" had some very raunchy offspring. 
• As usual, there's no finding a decent version of KC's songs on YouTube. This one is not horrible, but it doesn't do the song any honours. 

Random thoughts

• I hadn't had this much trouble deciding what order to put this albums in a good while. Definitely the Pink Floyd is a huge favourite of mine, but the other two are really good, even not the best the bands could do.