The Madcap Laughs (studio album) by Syd Barrett

Meh. A bit too strange for its own good

This album can feel a little messy at times but for me that just adds to the charm and it makes it such a unique record to listen to and I really feel like we will never get a record like this again. There are some fantastic songs on here that really go under appreciated in the grand scheme of music. Songs like Octopus, Terrapin and Love You are amazing and Here I Go is a thing of pure beauty in my opinion. That harsh acoustic guitar strumming we get matches the style of sound Barrett is going for perfectly and when you add the layer of his vocal which is formal yet cracked and broken at the same time you really get a disturbed feel. It is very easy to be unsettled by this album and like you have just joined someone on their descent into madness. This is what makes this record so unique and it really gives you an experience like no other. The first half is the stronger side but when you get near the close you literally feel like you have been engulfed by the madness and it does make it a tough listen. I absolutely love this environment though and putting on this record always takes me on a ride. The instrumentation is phenomenal on this record as well with the likes of David Gilmour and Robert Wyatt putting in some stellar performances on several of the tracks. For me though what makes this record so special is the song writing of Barrett. The lyrics are dark and nonsensical which makes them so much fun to explore and it is enjoyable to try to decipher them. When you pair this with his fantastic vocal delivery you really get some spine tingling moments that only adds to the suspense of the record. Overall, this record is nothing short of crazy but it will give you an experience no other record can treat you to and it is worth the ride even if it is just the once you explore it.

This album reminds me a little about Pink Moon, unfortunatele I can appreciate playing and songwriting but it's not my thing.

Cited by David Bowie as one of his favourite albums

off the cuff innovative songs influenced a blockbuster band

Some of it is utter nonsense. Not offensive nonsense, but nonsense nevertheless.
A few tracks are classics and the rest are 'good'. Nothing more, nothing less.
I've got a soft-spot for this album but it is definitely clear that Barrett wasn't exactly in a good headspace when this was recorded.

There are two ways to approach a review of this album:

1- Syd is a genius and there is a far deeper meaning to the songs in this album. It is an intelligent prophetic album which is often misunderstood.

2- Syd was a genius. It is a sad desolate album where Syd is propped up by his Pink Floyd band mates in one last bid to try and help him.

In fact, I think it is both. The album is like an LSD trip and it's phases, perhaps not in order though. Try listening to this and following up with Porcupine Tree Voyage 34!

Such a cool interesting sound. Unlike anyone else I've heard. So sweet and childish. Vocally, probably influenced Bowie as well.

From nitomano 05/07/2017 06:11

Won't you miss me?
Wouldn't you miss me at all?

The most important thing to realize going into listening to this album the first couple of times is that Syd Barrett really *was* a talented songwriter, and that even without his total mental breakdown he still would have amassed a pretty decently sized following. There are quite a few melodies and chord sequences here that would have worked just fine in a normal setting, with a lyrical combination of playfulness and self-confession that would make quite an impact on their own. The opening "Terrapin" is a great example of this, as it's a rather gentle acoustic ballad that combines playful (and only somewhat nonsensical) lyrics about being a swimming fish and simple (but still kinda clever to my ears) boy-girl lyrics like, "Well oh baby my hair's on end about you." Simple and poppy, yes, but high quality simple-and-poppy, if you ask me.
But of course, it's not the normal aspects of the album alone that ultimately draw people here, but rather the way in which they provide a context for the train wreck of Syd's mind. "Terrapin," by having such 'regular' appeal, is an extremely deceptive opener, as the evidence for this album's weirdness reputation begins in full force with track two. Witness the dark aggressive (and outright disturbing) cacophony of "No Good Trying", whose most revealing moment is the line about the person Syd is singing to spinning around in a car while lights are flashing all around. Witness the hilariously catchy up-tempo, nonsensical "Love You," where Syd and Co. conjure up a vaguely Kinksy piano number and let it linger in the astral plane just long enough to totally screw it up (meant in a good way). Witness ESPECIALLY when Syd's performance (singing, lyrics, guitar, everything) goes totally off the deep end in "Octopus," all culminating in the ecstatic chanting of, "Please leave us here! Close our eyes to the octopus riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!!!" And so on.
The easiest way, for me at least, to categorize the rest of the album is to divide it into "lucid" and "less lucid." The less lucid parts sometimes happen within the songs themselves (like the weird mumbling freak-out in the second half of "No Man's Land"), but the most frightening one comes when Roger Waters and David Gilmour (the producers) share an outtake from right before Syd's 'proper' rendition of "If It's In You," where Syd starts into the number and ends up hideously off-key in singing, "Yes I'm thiiiiiiiiiiiNNNNNNNNNNKing" and follows by mumbling only semi-coherently. Poor, poor, Syd.
What makes his collapse even more frightening and sad in my mind, though, is the ways the lucid moments show he was fully aware of it. "Dark Globe" is playful and has somewhat off-key vocals, yes, but those are serious chills down my back when he sings, "Won't you miss me? Wouldn't you miss me at aaaallllllll??" Those chills stay when I hear Syd longing for a girl in "Here I Go," in the mournful "Long Gone," and even when he's slowly singing James Joyce poetry to an elementary melody.
Beyond these, there are some songs that aren't really that super, and that kinda negate my original hopes that, even in the wake of such heavy drug abuse, his songwriting abilities would remain completely unscathed. But really, I don't think that's the point. This is an album that can be extremely enjoyable at points, yes, but it's also very sad, and more than that really has no parallel in music of which I'm aware. It's messy, it's playful, it's sad ... it's Syd. And Syd was great, despite himself. This is why I like this album terribly much, despite that I almost never bring it out. If you don't like it, I can understand, but you must also understand that those of us who do like it get a feel from it that's largely indescribable, and thus you should not condemn us or this album.
PS: Somehow, I left out mention of the album's second best song, the closing "Late Night." It's probably the best example on the album of a semi-coherent love song, one that had a great song at its core but got tweaked more than a bit by being filtered through Syd's mind. It brings a tear to my eye each time I hear it.