Pink Floyd - The Early Years 1965-1972: the ultimate collection for completists

Set the controls for the heart of the Floyd - this daunting 27-CD boxset delves into the murky pre-history of Pink Floyd, before they went supernova with Dark Side of The Moon. We start with the band's early blues-rock outings with Syd Barrett – surprisingly, they sound like Rolling Stones wannabes.

There's no shortage of instrumental wigouts but the nine different versions of a tune called John Latham, and a live concert in which the vocals are lost in the mix, are surplus to requirements. The post-Barrett years saw the sound shift to prog, and there are versions of Atom Heart Mother, Embryo and Echoes, plus material from the band's soundtrack work on Zabriskie Point .

The best stuff, though, comes from their soundtrack for Obscured by Clouds. Santa's going to need to get out the flying pig this Christmas. But if you baulk at spending the entire Christmas in a Floydian dream, there's a 2-CD stocking-filler featuring choice cuts from the boxset.

[ pinkfloyd.com ]