The Madcap Laughs (Import)

by

Syd Barrett

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There is no question that Syd cuts a fascinating figure, full of loss and mystery. But, set the personality stuff aside - something you should do with everything you listen to - and pay attention to the music.

First and foremost, intentionally or not, Syd's lyrics are high art. Not self-conscious, referential and elitist nonsense. These lyrics are poetry, and poetry can only result from experience. We don't need to know or speculate about that experience, we need only comprehend that it somehow resulted in some amazing work.

The music is the perfect match for the words. The feeling of accident, of the joy of finding the right note and the frustration of being just sharp or just flat, a split-second early or a half-second late, is all there to hear. It brings a remarkable one-to-one feel to the music, somewhere between the rehearsed and the improvised, and it never comes off as self-conscious or calculated.

What are the influences? I can't detect any -- short of the James Joyce poem made into the song "Golden Hair". Has anyone else ever given us this specific combination of intent and accident? None that I'm aware of. The Madcap Laughs and Barrett both work because the artist we're listening to is a natural at what he does. Whether the drugs heightened his ability or killed it hardly matters now. The work is still here, still with us and like all lasting art, it resists classification and interpretation. Let's just say that whatever life brought to Syd, his particular nervous system had a singular way of transforming it into the transparent and immediate experience of a music all his own.

Either that or some other Pink Floyd record I can only assume. Otherwise you are here by mistake. Turn back... Ok listen to me now, If you are here only because you've heard of Syd and have never actually heard his Pink Floyd record "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" you really need to hear that first. Stop reading this and go check that album out. I don't like to push Syd Barrett onto people, I think he's a genius, but most people tell me (and sometimes i belive...) that you need to be into*'cid* before you can be into syd. You dig that? If not, than maybe you should turn around now....

Ok you are still here. Well, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, THE MADCAP LAUGHS, Syd Barretts first solo project. This was recorded shortly after he was kicked out of Pink Floyd, the band which he founded, due to the fact that he was completley out of his mind on LSD. You have to keep this in mind before going the mile to pick up this album. LSD was the creative fuel for Syd while making PIPER, but if you know anything about LSD as a creative fuel you know it peaks somewhere and then crashes hard. Usually leaving it's victims highly confused and disoriented. Syd Barrett was more than just a classic case of this, in his case it can be considered tragic. You probably already know this story so I'll get to MADCAP LAUGHS.

I like some of this album lots and some of this album nots. You like that. Hey, I'm Syd Barrett here! No, seriously though, some of this album is complete crap and I can't give it no five stars. I give it three because three is my lucky number and somehow I feel that I need to give SYD that number due to the strange cosmic connection that I feel towards him.

That being said allow me to focus on the high points(which there are plenty of...)

The first track TERRAPIN is the best song production wise. It sounds like it could have actually come from a Pink Floyd album. It's slow and strange and that's how we like it. This is probably also the most well known Syd solo track, due to the fact that PHISH used to cover it.

After the first song the production gradually goes down hill, as if the track order was based on tracks that came together great to tracks where SYD completley forgot what he was doing and just stared plucking at random things on his Git what.

The second track NO GOOD TRYING doesn't suffer much, still solid SYD. LOVE YOU isn't bad but it's a little fruity.

NO MANS LAND is my favorite. It's a ton of chaos and a ton of beauty put together. I don't know if this was an accident or he meant it to come out this way but the track is brilliant. Worth the album just for this track. I'd even go so far to say better than PIPER stuff. NO MANS LAND is awesome.

Ok, next is HERE I GO. I enjoy this song a lot too. It's about having a crappy girlfriend who you just can't stand and then going to her house and hooking up with her sister. Very nice. Always makes me smile.

OCTOPUSS is after that and this too is a good tune. I have no idea what about but that never has been a big deal in SYDWORLD.

The next song is junk, and most of the songs fall apart from there. It's kind of sad actually to virtually listen to the mans decline. LONG GONE the last good one and we might be able to use those lyrics to describe the end. "No one understands why for so long you have been gone."