More opinions about Floyd if anyone is interested:- http://www.musicbanter.com/prog-psyc...oyd-album.html

I'm sure I've said this elsewhere, but I see Atom Heart Mother as the big turning point with PF. Everything up to and including AHM was exploratory and innovative, everything afterwards was about Floyd backpeddling or consolidating their sound/reputation. For example, Saucerful and Ummagumma had chunks of improvised psychedelic jam material, but my impression is that once they started filling stadiums with their fans, they got scared of music that wasn't choreographed down to the last note. In that sense they became victims of their own success, although Waters did try to break out of Floyd's ponderous polished style with Final Cut .

Here's my rundown of some of their other albums:

Piper: some nice songs, but some of the experiments in whimsical pop sound like little more than advertising jingles today. I prefer Barratt's more mature solo albums.
Meddle: Gilmour probably has toilet-training issues. After the bold inspiration of Atom Heart Mother, this album is an exercise in cleaning, polishing and tidying up.
DSOTM: Money has a really clever start, but the rest of the album is too careful to be interesting.
Wish You Were Here: Although they hated reporters banging on about crazy Barratt, they decided to make an album about him. Very misguided imo.
The Wall: At last some consistently good lyrics from Big Bad Roge, this album has some great songs and I like the whole postwar-guilt thing too, partly because I saw it happening; a whole generation in the UK was brought up with the idea that they weren't worthy of the sacrifice their dead dad's had made.

I rather overplayed Floyd in younger days, so I never really listen to them now. At a pinch, I can still enjoy:

1. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast
2. One of These Days
3. Remember a Day
4. The Gunner's Dream
5. Nobody Home

^ Get listening if you like, Batlord, but you may well hate them all. ;)

In the studio I think that approach worked great. I would have loved to have seen them live too BUT one time I was watching a video of them live and I forget what song but there was a very methodical flow keyboard solo just like the record and I was definitely thinking that would have been a great chance to branch out and do something.

Zeppelin wasn’t afraid to push it on stage.

Yes, their albums were famous for that flawless precision of sound, which is nice when you're in the mood for it.

I saw Floyd at a festival one time, and although I was a long way away, the sun was setting behind the stage as they were playing, so it was a very Floydy kind of moment. Rather tellingly, I have absolutely no memory of what they played !

They're meticulously strung out.

That’s cool!

Was listening to Saucerful of Secrets last night and it was actually my best impression of Floyd to date, so I'm a bit more open atm.

Was never a fan of how Gilmour "composed" his solos. He'd improvise say a dozen different solos and then cut and paste the best bits of each and then "learn" the results.

To me, that honestly sounds like a pretty good idea. Could be a great way to hit the sweet spot between something improvised and directly expressive and something more memorable.

That’s pretty cool, actually.

Where did you read that?

I'm certain that he did it on Animals, but I don't remember seeing if that was his overall style.