Reviews

There is precious little live material from the early years of Pink Floyd available, so for that reason the 'Live At Pompeii' film, originally released back in 1972, has been repackaged and reissued in varying levels of quality for decades. Finally in 2025 it has received the attention it deserved in a full 4K make over, but more importantly it has finally been given an official stand-alone soundtrack release to accompany. The core tracks were officially released previously in The Early Years boxed set (2016), but here they have been given the sonic treatment they deserve - by being remixed by the amazing Steven Wilson. The album opens with a short introduction of feedback and drums before launching into the epic 'Echoes'. Only half the song plays through, ending early to move into the moody 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene'. Both songs are played with precision, although the live vocals are a little flat compared to the studio version. The guitars cut through louder and heavier than expected, and bass drives the tracks with that wholly Pink Floyd groove. 'One Of These Days' is punchy, and really leaps out with an energy that wasn't on early releases of the material. 'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun' is a long, brooding affair that is a more experimental in nature than the album version. In fact, anyone that has seen the film will know that some of the longer songs do tend to 'meander' a bit from time to time, but this was very representative of their live shows of the period. The penultimate track of the soundtrack, 'Mademoiselle Nobs', is an odd little ditty played to the singing of a howling dog. In the film it was short interlude to the band in the studio, whereas here it does feel very out of place, and almost breaks the momentum of the tracks. The second part of 'Echoes' closes the performance, and it builds to a great climax. The only production decision that could be deemed questionable is breaking 'Echoes' into two separate parts, but this is serving as a soundtrack to the film after all, and that is how the song was presented on screen. That aside, the sound quality and mixing of the album is wonderful, beautifully transforming something captured over 50 years ago onto portable 8-track into a piece of art still relevant today. In particular, Nick Mason's drums have a thunderous rumble driving the whole album. As a whole, the performances here are quite flawless - but although recorded in October 1971, it would be incorrect to say the band was in their prime here. That was still to come with their breakthrough album The Dark Side Of The Moon close to two years away. Instead what this shows is band that is so rehearsed they are locked together as one. They are finding their way through early growing pains and discovering the sound that would eventually define them. It took Pink Floyd longer than most bands to do that, but the great part is we get to hear that journey as they travelled it - and this great concert is part of that. It will never be an album marked as essential in the bands discography, but it is certainly still worthy of attention.