Meddle is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released by Harvest Records on 5 November 1971 in the United Kingdom. The album was produced between the band's touring commitments, from January to August 1971 at a series of locations around London, including EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) and Morgan Studios.

With no material to work with and no clear idea of the album's direction, the band devised a series of novel experiments which eventually inspired the album's signature track "Echoes". Although the band's later albums would be unified by a central theme chosen by Roger Waters, and thematically consistent lyrics written entirely by Waters, Meddle was a group effort with Waters contributing primarily to the lyrics and the bass. It is considered a transitional album between the Syd Barrett-influenced group of the 1960s and the Waters-led era of the 1970s.

As with several previous albums, the cover was designed by Hipgnosis, and has been explained by its creator Storm Thorgerson – who was unhappy with the final result – to be an ear underwater. The album was well received by critics upon its release, and was commercially successful in the United Kingdom, but lacklustre publicity on the part of the band's American label Capitol Records led to poor sales in the US upon initial release.

Returning from a series of tours across America and England in support of Atom Heart Mother, at the start of 1971 Pink Floyd commenced work on new material at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London. At the time, EMI was equipped only with eight-track multitrack recording facilities, which the band found insufficient for the increasing technical demands of their project. They transferred their best efforts, including the opening of what became "Echoes", to 16-track tape at smaller studios in London (namely AIR, and Morgan in West Hampstead) and resumed work with the advantage of more flexible recording equipment. Engineers John Leckie and Peter Bown recorded the main EMI and AIR sessions, while for minor work at Morgan, Rob Black and Roger Quested handled the engineering duties.

Lacking a central theme for the project, the band used several experimental methods in an attempt to spur the creative process. One exercise involved each member playing on a separate track, with no reference to what the other members were doing. The tempo was entirely random while the band played around an agreed chord structure, and moods such as "first two minutes romantic, next two up tempo". Each recorded section was named, but the process was largely unproductive; after several weeks, no complete songs had been created.

Leckie had worked on albums such as George Harrison's All Things Must Pass and Ringo Starr's Sentimental Journey both in 1970, and was employed as a tape-operator on Meddle, partly for his proclivity for working into the early hours of the morning. He has said that Pink Floyd's sessions would often begin in the afternoon, and end early the next morning, "during which time nothing would get done. There was no record company contact whatsoever, except when their label manager would show up now and again with a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of joints." The band would apparently spend long periods of time working on simple sounds, or a particular guitar riff. They also spent several days at AIR attempting to create music using a variety of household objects, a project which would be revisited between their next albums, The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and Wish You Were Here (1975).

Following these early experiments – called Nothings – the band developed Son of Nothings, which was followed by Return of the Son of Nothings as the working title of the new album, which ultimately evolved into "Echoes".

Meddle was recorded between the band's various concert commitments, and therefore its production was spread over a considerable period of time. The band recorded in the first half of April 1971, but in the latter half played at Doncaster and Norwich before returning to record at the end of the month. In May they split their time between sessions at EMI, and rehearsals and concerts in London, Lancaster, Stirling, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Nottingham. June and July were spent mainly performing at venues across Europe. August was spent in the far east and Australia, September in Europe, and October to November in the US. In the same period, the group also produced Relics, a compilation album of some of Pink Floyd's earlier works. A mix of the album was prepared at Command Studios on 21 and 26 September. New 2016 stereo and 5.1 mixes of the album were inadvertently released as hidden tracks on the Reverber/ation Blu-ray disc in The Early Years 1965–1972 box set.