Syd Barrett - Madcap Laughs
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Free Music Notes for Madcap Laughs
Free Music Review: Drink Me
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is like discovering an attic door to the '60s you didn't know was there. Barrett hits all the pet themes of your favorite English heads--twee kiddy humor, Lewis Carrollesque surrealism, searing folk-blues, Eastern drones--but from a bizarre & uncompromising angle all his own. You have to make some allowance for the spare production--it's what sets the record apart from every corny Sgt. Pepper imitation you've ever heard, but it also leaves these tracks more skeletons of the Hits that Might Have Been than real competition for better artists like the Kinks, the Beatles, the Stones or the Who. Still, Barrett had a direct line to some brilliant & original Muse that went sadly silent due to illness and drugs. "The Madcap Laughs" is an overlooked gem of the era that gets better with every listen.Free Music Review: quirky erratic tinglings
Hit: 5 Stars
Very strange songwriting, to be sure. It has that kind of elusiveness, where you like it, and then again, not really, but then you know there's something there, and by the time you're on your 3rd listen, you're hooked. Same thing with the Smiths and Robyn Hitchcock, but this album is, I feel, a little better than all of that. ha! Wonderfully arranged song structures that have the perfected craftsmanship I-know-what-goes-where of the Beach Boys and the Beatles without being overly casual as Guided by Voices are. Kind of like the perfect balance between the perfectionistic virtues of a classical Chinese poet and the prolific brilliance of Shakespeare. But this isn't exactly a pop album of those sorts, it's just.. something of its own, just as Pipers..Dawn was. Incredible.Free Music Review: a quirky and eratic set of gems
Hit: 5 Stars
It can be difficult to understand the genius of Syd. Granted, I'll take anything he ever touched over anything the floyd made after he left. He has a great sense of humor... and no, you don't have to be on drugs to like it. I've never done any myself and I really really like these songs. You can hear the influence of this on Robyn Hitchcock. Every song here is memorible and cracked with great pop melodies and weirdness. Forget overblown guitar solos run through digital procesors.... this is a guy with a guitar playing for his sanity and life. The sound of a man comming apart. Dark Globe has to be one of the greatest songs I know. Give it a shot, it may grow on you. Maybe listen to a friends copy first... being that this is a very aquired taste.Free Music Review: A rare gem in rock music...
Hit: 5 Stars
If you like Van Gogh's picture, Krubrick's film, Allen Poe's novels, hey, Syd Barrett's music will be for you. Most of the memories of him are his lone masterpiece in Pink Floyd "the piper at the gates of dawn", yes, it's a masterpiece. But if you want something more thrilling, more droning into your heart and soul, try this one. At the first listening, it's very unpleasant, yes, it's not "enjoyable", it's about a man's reaction to total mental collapse. It's a sad record, yet, it has a fragile sad beautiness. The bleak accompliment is suitable to express what Syd was feeling then... listening to "Long Gone", "no Man's land", "late night"... the desprate mood can't be more intense.Free Music Review: Barrett=Apples Floyd=Oranges
Hit: 5 Stars
I have just one simple point to make so I'll make it.This is not Pink Floyd! If you are expecting this to sound like "Dark Side" then there is a good chance you will be disappointed (example: Theron Kousek's review December 21, 2001). If you're the type of person who doesn't stray away from FM radio classic rock then you might want to spend your money on something else. Please understand that I am not putting down Post-Piper Floyd fans or anyone else, I just think a lot of people criticize Barrett's music for not sounding like popular Floyd (it's like getting mad at an apple tree for not growing oranges).
If however you are a collector of a broad range of 60's 70's music then Barrett's work is a must have. It's simply great!