Pink Floyd- A Saucerful of Secrets

A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)- Pink Floyd #2
Rating: 9
Best Song: Set The Controls for The Heart of The Sun
Worst Song: A Saucerful of Secrets      Here we have what is one of the most overrated Floyd albums in the world. While you may think, "Not many people know this album!", what I mean is that among Floyd Fans (Myself included), the majority hold this as one of the best Floyd album, but everytime I hear it, it sounds ok, some good, but not amazing. The best song is the awesome, "Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun," as it shows Mr. Roger Waters at his early best.
     The opener, "Let There Be More Light" sounds kind of generic, even though I swear I've never heard anything like it. It confuses me to this day. On some days it reminds me of The Doors. Then "Remember A Day," I cannot stand, as I've never been a fan of Richard Wright's vocals, and this is no exception. "Corporal Clegg" comes after "Set", and gets my vote as the second best song, even though it's a bit silly. Then we have the Ambient/Noise/Rock/Space Rock/Exploding/Noodling/SFGERTTHG title track which I don't like AT ALL. It's not one of their better long songs. The next Rick Wright song, "See-Saw" is a break from the Ambient/Noise/Rock/Space Rock/Exploding/Noodling/SFGERTTHG of the last one, so I actually quite like it when listening to the album in its entirety.
     And then we come to the infamous ending track; Yes, it's Syd Barrett's final song with Pink Floyd before he was kicked out of Floyd for drug issues and insanity, "Jugband Blues". Unfortunately, I do not like it as much as other people like it, but there's nothing wrong with it. It almost becomes Ambient/Noise/Rock/Space Rock/Exploding/Noodling/SFGERTTHG, but Barrett had enough sense not to end it the same freaky way they ended Piper
     In the end, this isn't a bad Pink Floyd album, it just isn't a really good one. half the album is good, but the rest is okay to one terrible Ambient/Noise/Rock/Space Rock/Exploding/Noodling/SFGERTTHG.

Pink Floyd- The Piper At The Gates of Dawn

The Piper At The Gates of Dawn (1967)- Pink Floyd #1
Rating: 12
Best Song: Interstellar Overdrive
Worst Song: Scarecrow

     ...And so begins the saga of my favorite band of all time: Pink Floyd. I used to be a Dark-Side through Wall fan, so most of Pink Floyd's albums were ones I didn't like. I loved the "Prog" sound of the most famous albums, so when I picked this up on my birthday 6 months ago, I hated it. I also love The Beatles, and yes, Sgt. Pepper was an album during the psychedelia period, but not many songs on it were really "Psychadelic." This one, however is psychadelic at it's max potential. However, it really grew on me.
     The lyrical content of this album is different from the rest of the discography because of one man: Syd Barrett. Syd was the lead of Pink Floyd from the time they formed in 1965, until the time when he went insane in 1968 and was replaced by the then session guitarist David Gilmour. He was kicked because of drug problems and mental issues.
     You can almost feel him falling apart in these songs. The lyrics are kiddish, but have a Barrett twist to them. The guitar playing is very good, but very loose. The standout songs are: "Astronomy Domine", known as one of the first space rock songs, "Interstellar Overdrive" one if the first prog instrumentals of all time, and "Bike", a demented almost nursery rhyme.
     Some of the songs however, like "The Gnome" and "Scarecrow", are not very good, and seem to be thrown together by Syd. Roger Waters, the future lead of Floyd wrote a song, "Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk". It's so dumb, but I kind of like it. Overall, it's one of the most solid debut albums I have heard. Sadly, Syd Barrett was kicked out right after this album, and only had one more song to contribute to Floyd, which appeared on the next album, which already showed a stylistic change...