Audio Cassette review:
Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs

Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs

Band: Syd Barrett Title: The Madcap Laughs Rating: Release Date: 01 February, 1991 Media: Audio Cassette 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

Editoral Review The Madcap Laughs is a brilliant but brittle album, with every strum of the electric guitar seeming to take its toll on Barrett's increasingly frayed nerve strings. Having left Pink Floyd in 1968 after a daily LSD habit had taken its toll, Syd Barrett's first solo album finally appeared two years later with ex-Floyd sidekicks David Gilmour and Richard Wright riding shotgun with him in the studio. On songs such as "Love You," his state of mind is well concealed beneath the sort of jolly jangle-pop Blur would later indulge in. On "Dark Globe," however, the strain is palpable: "Please lend a hand . . . won't you miss me? Wouldn't you miss me at all?" he pleads, ominously. The best tracks are "Octopus," which possesses all the controlled mania of early Floyd, and "Golden Hair," a still moment of musical rapture whose lyric is taken from a James Joyce poem. --David Stubbs .. You can see a complete list of all Syd Barrett discography, or go back to the Syd Barrett tabs