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Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs Audio CD

A fair review of the Syd Barrett "The Madcap Laughs" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Syd Barrett reviews here, or go back to the Syd Barrett tabs.

Syd Barrett Band: Syd Barrett
Title: The Madcap Laughs
Rating:
Release Date: 1990-08-07
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Terrapin 2: No Good Trying 3: Love You 4: No Man's Land 5: Dark Globe 6: Here I Go 7: Octopus 8: Golden Hair 9: Long Gone 10: She Took a Long Cold Look 11: Feel 12: If It's in You 13: Late Night

Listen before buying
Syd Barrett was THE man behind Pink Floyd, or so I thought. Being a Pink Floyd fan in the 60's (and still am today), I immediately bought this album when it first came out. On playing it, and giving it many plays, I was very disappointed. It was obviously a noble effort by his former bandmates to prop him up. There are a couple of interesting songs, but aside from some historical value, it's not worth the pain to listen to. After nearly 40 years since it's release, I thought I'd give it another shot and borrowed it from the library. My opinion hasn't changed. I still love Pink Floyd, but this Syd Barrett solo effort, even with the help of his talented friends, is just plain awful. My advice is to rent it or borrow it before buying. .


No Good Trying - remake
[. Classic album!
Artist Dimthingshineon recently did a cover of Syd Barrett songs: "No Good Trying" and "Baby Lemonade" on his latest 4 CD project called "Nostalgia" released in 2009. . . ]
.


It's raw, it's ragged, and it's real.
In comparing his work with Pink Floyd, this album is divided between elements of the space rock of "Lucifer Sam" and "Astronomy Domine" and stoner folk music with simplistic rhymes like "The Gnome" and "Bike. In hindsight, Syd Barrett's debut album, The Madcap Laughs, shows a talented artist slowly going off the deep end. " The lyrics here are very personal and speak of love and the loneliness and depression that come when love is lost. This is not the meticulously crafted music that Pink Floyd would perform in the `70s. This is the work of a songwriter struggling with his emotions. At times, you can hear Syd nearly falling off the proverbial tracks, most notably on "If It's In You" and "Dark Globe. " Most of the songs are very good although the quality peters out near the end. "Love You", "Here I Go", and "She Took a Long Cold Look" are joyous folk tunes while the desperate lyrics of "No Good Trying", "No Man's Land", and "Long Gone" are matched by the noisy vibe provided by former bandmates David Gilmour and Rick Wright. "Octopus" is probably the best song here and most closely resembles Pink Floyd. Other strong tunes here include "Terrapin", "Golden Hair", and the aforementioned "Dark Globe. " How much you like this album depends on your tastes. I'm more partial to early Pink Floyd so I listen to this quite often. However, you may not dig it if you're into Pink Floyd's more popular work. .


Fitting tribute is fittingly cracked
At best, some decent acoustic songs evoke a tragic beauty but more often at worst this plays as a pity disc a few band-mates threw for a lost brother. 2 1/2

A general sense of detachment echoes through Barrett's solo work, and you could say the songs that ended up working best exploited that very undermining. Edit-free recording reveals some warmth and humor but ends up sounding sad.


it's not pink floyd, but it's close
I guess that's to be expected from a solo album (after all, most solo albums from a certain band member related to a popular band is basically just re-creating the same kind of stuff that made them popular with his band, but with less interesting results- usually). While there's certainly some good, "far out" psychedelic songs on here, it's actually a pretty mellow style of psychedelia compared to Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn album.

Syd Barrett was trying hard to reach for some incredibly diverse styles on the Madcap Laughs, and while he succeeds (since it's easy to tell the songs apart) I'm not quite convinced he's the "master of psychedelic songwriting" that people have been trying to convince me he is. He's more like a solid musician with some exciting, though more often than not inconsistent, musical ideas. I think Pink Floyd's early stuff is easily better, as far as songwriting and atmosphere goes.

At least most of the songs are short and sweet (except for "Terrapin" which should have been a couple minutes shorter).

I can't deny this stuff was pretty incredible back in the late 60's when it first came out. There wasn't anything like it back then. It's hard to really fault this stuff- you either like your pop music to sound like this, or you think it's horribly dated and too goofy to take seriously (seriously enough to enjoy I mean, not serious as in "mind-blowingly brilliant art" or whatever). That's what made the late 60's a special time period.


You can see a complete list of all Syd Barrett discography, or go back to the Syd Barrett tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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