Pink Floyd “Relics” (1971)

This is a terrific collection of early Floyd stuff, some of it before Syd Barrett was catatonic, but most of it afterward yet well before Gilmour was growing so. Anyone interested probably has Piper at the Gates of Dawn (and thus roughly a quarter of this LP's contents), and anyone getting this for "Careful With that Axe, Eugene" should be made aware of a superior version on Ummagumma. But non-LP single "See Emily Play" alone is worth springing for this set, and nearly everything else is uniformly excellent. (Check out "The Nile Song" for evidence that the group could've gone in the direction of Heavy.) While anthologies don't usually work as albums, this one works better than most albums—even better than many Pink Floyd albums, which were generally very consciously made to work as albums. Just goes to show how consciousness can get in the way –Will