Don't need to say much if like me you love Pink Floyd this is there greatest Greatest Hits Album spanning from the beginnings - the end, not just the best selling songs and as a 2 - Disc CD great value for money as well

Pink Floyd's 2-CD retrospective entitled Echoes was released in November of 2001.
When I first got wind of Echoes at first, I thought it was going to be worthless but then after hearing that the then rare track When the Tigers Broke Free was finally being issued on an album (it then appeared albeit in a remixed form on the 2004 re-issue of The Final Cut), I said what the hey and took the plunge into buying Echoes.
Echoes is not like many best ofs that go year to year which is what Roger Waters wanted, the songs go from one to the next like your average Pink Floyd album which is how David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright and longtime co-producer/engineer James Guthrie saw it. Many fans and Floyd bashers either stop whining and crying or go to listen to the regular albums (to the Floyd fans) or your Britney Spears and Beyonce records (some one star reviewers who bash this record for no reason)!
It was impossible to put a collection of Pink Floyd songs together that would please everyone. I think the non-chronological placing of these songs adds something new to the mix and the transitions between some of these songs create a mosaic of music just as these songs did on their original albums. My favorite segue is between Us and Them and Learning to Fly. The classics are here such as Astronomy Domine, See Emily Play, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, Another Brick in the Wall (pt.2), Hey You, The Great Gig in the Sky, Money, Keep Talking, Time, Comfortably Numb (with outro to Bring the Boys Back Home at the start), One of These Days, Us and Them, Learning to Fly, Arnold Layne and Wish You Were Here appear as does lost classics like Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, The Fletcher Memorial Home, Jugband Blues (one of the late Syd Barrett's best pieces), Sheep (from the overlooked Animals), Sorrow (one of PF 1987's best epics) and Bike.
Some of the songs were edited. For instance, Echoes is reduced to 16 and a half minutes like it was on the band's 1987 tour when they played it for three weeks and it works fine. Shine on You Crazy Diamond is edited into one long suite with a bit of the guitar solo from Part 3 missing and some of Part 6's lap steel solo shaved off and the intro to Welcome to the Machine missing and of course parts 8 and 9 are cut but a great edit. Marooned is reduced to two minutes to serve as a bridge between Hey You and The Great Gig in the Sky. Also, High Hopes has some of the intro effects, the ending lap steel guitar solo and the final bell tolls edited but most of this epic is left intact. The reason many hardcore fans bought this, including myself was the inclusion of When the Tigers Broke Free which was not on an album until this collection's release in 2001(now it is on the reissued Final Cut album but in a remixed form with part of The Wall film version for the first verse and the single mix for the second and third verses but the Echoes version was the melding of the film version).
Echoes did very well when it was released debuting at #2 in the US and selling over four million copies in the US alone (it was held off #1 by Britney Spears' Britney here in the States whilst in the UK Floyd outcharted Britney (a/k/a the skankaroo)) reaffirming Pink Floyd's place in history as the most successful progressive rock band ever.
In 2006, the album was repackaged with a biodegradable wrap which reminds me of the shrink wrap that they used with Wish You Were Here on the 1975 vinyl record.
Highly recommended!

I have to give this 5 stars because there is no such thing as Floyd music that isn't 5 stars in one way or another.

While it is certain almost every Floyd fan will have some nit to pick with the choices in this selection, it is far better than most compilation albums.

Lonnie made a very astute observation:

"I think it is a nearly bizarre truth that there is almost no such thing as bad Pink Floyd music. There is weak Pink Floyd music, and Pink Floyd music that is difficult to appreciate. However, Pink Floyd at their worst is still musically a force."

I agree 100%.

One thing this CD will do is create more Floyd Fans. If you buy anyone their first Floyd Album, it should be this one. It will almost certainly press them to buy other works.

Some would argue that DSOTM would be a better choice. Maybe Wish You Were Here.

Maybe... But I don't think so. This CD set gives a well rounded representation of what Pink Floyd is, and given that Pink Floyd is a complex group musically, this is a good thing IMHO.

I just realized this is for a "Special Edition". I have the original 2000 release. What are the differences?

Pink Floyd is arguably the definitive album band. Therefore, a compilation, even a two-disc one, won't really do them much justice. The new listener must exerpience The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and such in full if they want to really hear Pink Floyd. That alone is enough to defeat the purpose of Echoes. Another is the track selection. Seven tracks were picked from the 1981-1993 period that's by far the group's weakest. Out of those seven, I can justify none of their inclusions. If you must package Floyd, how can you do so without Interstellar Overdrive, Brain Damage/Eclipse, Run Like Hell or Mother? These are just a few of the bare essentials I'm talking about here, people. And in their place? Learning to Fly? High Hopes? Marooned? Keep Talking? The Fletcher Memorial Home? When the Tigers Broke Free? Sorrow? What was the thought process behind any of this? Okay, giving a complete overview of their career I get. But I'd rather hear all (or at least mostly) good songs. And most people who know Floyd just from the radio would be more familiar with, say, Run Like Hell or Brain Damage than Learning to Fly or Marooned. Another track I don't get is The Happiest Days of Our Lives, an interlude from The Wall. Again, who wants to hear that? Wouldn't you rather listen to Young Lust? I would.
I also feel that Animals is underrepresented. Sure, Animals isn't a compilation-friendly album. Which again justifies taking off some of the more recent songs. Let's face it, Dogs is a much better song than High Hopes. And an edit of the title track? Ha!
Mostly, though, they made the right selections. I really don't think I can justify all my complaining about Dark Side of the Moon, because that's an essential - but Money, Time, Us & Them and Great Gig were all good calls. Same with Wish You Were Here - the FULL Shine On must be heard - but that album's title track is my favorite Floyd song ever, and it's here, so cool. I've already whined about Animals and the Wall (though in truth I'm not a huge fan of that one). Good picks from Meddle, other than the shortened Echoes... PATGOD represented nicely, but no Interstellar Overdrive? A Saucerful of Secrets was nailed, Ummagumma (the only PF album I haven't heard) and Atom Heart Mother weren't represented at all (the latter's If would've been welcome, but whatever), I've already discussed Meddle through the Division Bell.
So that about wraps things up, I guess. This is an okay overview, but wouldn't you rather the real album?

The first couple of songs dint need to be there but the rest were cool.