The Madcap Laughs

There was some of this that I enjoyed for it's odd qualities and wasn't sure how to handle this. After reading a bit, it's like he had the access and means to make the album , but probably shouldn't have been enabled. It's interesting, but doesn't make it a good album, or one that requires listening.

...meh. In it's purest form.

Syd Barrett “The Madcap Laughs” Ugh. I’m a diehard, lifelong Pink Floyd fan but this was a slog. I always preferred post-Syd Floyd. I listened to all of Syd’s solo work when I was younger. Wasn’t a fan then and that hasn’t changed.

Syd Barrett needed Roger Waters.

It fit the sound of the time and thats about it.

Fucking woeful, not a single redeeming song 1 star

What a boring pretentious album Jesus this is horrible

Barrett’s is a very sad story. Gives context to this rough, inconsistent, and unfinished collection of solo tracks. He was a great writer, but that wasn’t enough to overcome the struggles that seemed to rob him of his awareness and potential for success. I hope his later years away from the spotlight and music industry served him better. But, at the end of the day this album is of the lowest quality and unfortunately, feels quite pathetic.

Sad. Really sad. Not sure why an album recorded in these circumstances and so obviously the product of someone deeply unwell (and therefore not very good at all) made it onto this list.

Syd Barrett inspired a lot of great music, but I've never been able to really enjoy his stuff.

This was such a cool album to listen to and read the history about. Syd Barrett was originally in Pink Floyd but left the bad before this album was released. It sounds like Barrett kinda went bananas (too much acid, maybe?) and crashed and burned in Pink Floyd. I used that for context on some of the songs and it made the album richer. Also I learned that the falling out of Pink Floyd and Barrett is one of the inspirations for work on Dark Side of the Moon which adds a new layer to that phenomenal album (one of my top albums of all time). As for the music itself, it was an interesting style blend of Beatles + Kinks + psychedelic with a bit of humor and whimsy sprinkled in liberally. I don't see myself listening to this one much, but I appreciate that it was part of the project.

Not on my taste, quite mixed feelings 2/5

10/10

Misunderstood guy. mad genius? Not sure about that…

A nice and easy psychedelic album from a legend

Hard to rate - Pink Floyd was/is an awesome band - and when Syd was involved they really put Psych Rock on the map... almost 60 years ago. However, as we know, he went off kilter. Hard to disagree that post-Barrett Floyd IS awesome, but there really are creative nuggets here, For true Floyd lovers

Kivaa! Tosi beatlesmäistä vibaa. Letkeetä ja leppoisaa, aika helppoa kuunneltavaa.

Pretty interesting and slightly experimental songwriting here. I think it's interesting how the album sounds psychedelic, even though some songs are just Barrett singing with a guitar. Liked Songs Added: Love You

It’s a shame we medicalize and institutionalize things that should be organic and magical. People should buy weed from a weird guy in a sketchy apartment who you have to listen to talk about the unibomber’s manifesto for 45 minutes, not from a store with price tags and credit card readers. Women should give birth in a field surrounded by flowers and woodland creatures, not in a sterile hospital with doctors in white coats and metallic stethoscopes. And crazy people should be recognized as seers and mystics and their ravings studied for the way they provide glimpses into the world that we straights can’t see, not treated as if they are suffering from a treatable illness. Oh wait, no, the opposite of all of that. This sounded like lazy half thought out demos by someone who doesn’t give a shit about what he’s doing. This guy’s story may be very compelling but this album sucks. Psychedelic folk this.

Bit boring to me

#Ass

I don’t even know how to rate this. This sucked. Singer is awful and no music to back up the terrible vocals.

A jumbled mess of an album, this at best felt like a worse version of Magical Mystery Tour, and at worst just utter garbled rambling nonsense. Weird and incoherent, I find this one unpalatable.

This album represents more of a lesson in the history of Barrett and Pink Floyd than a collection of music one would enjoy on its merits. After hearing the discord of the first couple tracks, I educated myself on the biography of Barrett and began to understand the history behind the random instruments and rambling lyrics. It comes as no surprise that this album was born out of necessity on the part of the recording company to produce an album from Barrett, whom they had recently acquired following his departure from Pink Floyd. Thus, the album was not made from the passion and creativity of Barrett, and the struggles of those involved with the album to generate music representative of Barrett's former talents is woven through each song. There isn't much to enjoy of this album from a musical perspective, and listening provides more of a sad history lesson; but, at least some context is provided behind some of Pink Floyd's great hits like "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and other homages to Barrett.

Irritating, that's what I remember most from the album. I understand that the premise of the album to be quite chaotic and unsettling, but it became moany and whiny, also disharmonic. Difficult listen, not really palatable for myself.

2.5

Honestly this starts off not to bad. It seems the Malcom Jones produced we was at least somewhat coherent and the two Soft Machine backed tracks, "No Good Trying" and "Love You" I really liked. "Terrapin" is a bit sloppy, but no more than say "Jugband Blues" (or many Greatful Dead songs for that matter) the other two session backed tracks, "No Man's Land" and "Here I Go" were decently good up beat tempo grooves (especially the too most of the material on the album). Then we get to the Gilmour and Waters produce tracks. By the time they got to the project, Syd had checked out and it shows. The Gilmour/Barrett tracks, "Octopus" and "Golden Hair", were the better of those sessions that starts off side two are tolerable at best. The rest of side two, honestly sounds like he couldn't or didn't want to play I don't know which. I was on the struggle bus big time getting through the last half of side two. As far as for the songwriting of this album. I want to say honestly that some of the songs wouldn't be so bad if it got a proper production. But I don't think anyone could have gotten a proper production out of Sid Barrett at this point of his career. (4.8) ★★

Sloppy, but I like some of the musical ideas. 3.5 stars

I like the more fleshed out tracks here like "Octopus" and "No Good Trying", but a lot of it comes across as half-assed demos. 3 stars.

Haphazard yet also crazy cool album from the painter, piper, prisoner, raver and seer of visions. There are a few shining solo cuts like Terrapin, Dark Globe and the shimmery beautiful Golden Hair. A bit of madcrapness on the first side where Soft Machine want to join in and play. A bit of hell-in-a-hand basket cringe where the producers leave in hideous studio outtakes from Syd to show how painful and protracted the recording sessions were. Quite a lot of tortured genius here whereas his other solo album Barrett made with Gilmour and Wright is more of a case of smoother, relaxed madcap genius. “An effervescing elephant With tiny eyes, and great big trunk Once whispered to the tiny ears The ears of one inferior That by next June he'd die, oh yeah! Because the tiger would roam And the little one said oh my goodness I must stay at home And every time I hear a growl I'll know the tiger's on the prowl but I'll be really safe you know The elephant he told me so And everyone was nervy, oh yeah! And the message was spread To zebra, mongoose, and the dirty hippopotamus Who wallowed in the mud and chewed His spicy hippo plankton food And tended to ignore the word Preferring to survey a herd Of stupid water bison, oh yeah! And all the jungle took fright And ran around for all the day and the night But all in vain because you see The tiger came and said who me, You know I wouldn't hurt not one of you I much prefer something to chew and You're all too scant, oh yeah! He ate the elephant” Is the tiger in that song called Tony because that stuff is Grrrrreat! An album with the calibre of that deserves to be in the book even above this one which gets a respectable 3.5.

An album from a drug-addcted man. Disturbing, with some pearls.

Solid stuff.

Denne var seig å komme igjennom, må jeg dessverre si. Nære 1er'n.

Good to nap on a plane to Florida

all over the place, trying too hard to be casual, and so left to be uninteresting. Passss

no

Syd Barrett was the north star for all those great Pink Floyd records but his own music is barely tolerable. Not much going on here sorry! A lot of it feels unfinished and even decent tracks like "Octopus" sound at best like Beatles solo outtakes. No reason for this to be on here.

No, to je pa fakin hilarious! Torej bi mi moglo bit mal bolj všeč tole, glede na to da sem včer trdila, da mi je prvi PF album kul (čeprav sta Waters & Gilmour ful prisotna na tem albumu). Hm, not very impressed so far. Pri "Here I Go" sm dojela, da so njegovi vokali neverjetno dolgočasni, oziroma poje, ko da je zdolgočasen. "Octopus" je čist fletn. "Long Gone" mi je kul. Ne štekam zakaj so vključil, kle prot koncu albuma, te dele, ko se sliši, kako se Barrett in majster za snemanje zgovarjata? Ker nič ne doda, razen minutaže za album. Ne uživam v shitty petju.

I think this was only on the list because he was in Pink Floyd. Unremarkable album.

An interesting record, feeling almost Daniel Johnston-esque with how much of Syd's inner workings is going on here in the music, combined with his interesting singing style. Sadly, this record is a bit too inconsistent for me overall. There are some pretty good, and even catchy songs here. "Octopus" and "No Good Trying" are genuinely some decent psych rock tracks, and "Dark Globe" actually wowed me a bit with it's haunting lyrics. Unfortunately the second half of the album drops off pretty steeply with some forgettable songs and one or two just unbearable tracks one of which being "If It's In You". Yeah, I can confidently say that I am not too eager to hear this in full again, but it is a pretty interesting listen, if not for all the right reasons at the end of the day.

This album was interesting to listen to again.

Easy to listen to but didn’t feel special.

A very strange and disjointed album to say the least. It got me to do some research into Syd which was very interesting and sad. 2.5

Love Pink Floyd, but this just ain't it. No idea how this could make this list.

Sad one here. It feels very exploitative. Syd was clearly on the downward spiral here.

This was a tough one to get through. This was definitely the sound of early Pink Floyd, the PF of the 60's. It was interesting but not something I would want to listen to again.

Many respect Syd Barrett as the founder of Pink Floyd and one of the pioneers of psychedelic music in general. Even more are grateful that he left Pink Floyd soon afterward; this is understandable. Barrett spent almost two years making his first solo album, and not because it was technically complex — far from it. On the contrary, almost the entire album is built on the most sloppy acoustic guitar strumming and singing (if you can call it that) over it. Sometimes session musicians, completely clueless about how and what was supposed to be played, would overdub these parts. In the end, Syd's wildness scared off two producers, and Gilmour and Waters, who had worked with him in his previous band, had to be called in to finish the recording. All in all, it's certainly listenable, but it sounds like the ravings of a madman, which, by all appearances, is precisely what it is.

This was fine

I liked "Octopus." That being said, I don't think I vibe at all with Syd Barrett music.

Its a good album

This was not good. Not finished, poor vocals, just sketches from a genre i dont enjoy anyway. Its only here due to his story and mythology. If he'd not made his previous albums, released this and then gone on to live a happy life as an accountant no one would have ever heard this.

So what did Syd do after Pink Floyd? Oh. Well, it’s still more accessible than anything he did with Pink Floyd.

Genuinely horrific songwriting AND his voice is awful. If you put all that aside, everything else is also bad.

Interesting. This kind of feels like listening to a Nick Drake practice session. Very raw and vulnerable vocals. Just ok. 2.4 outta 5

Im a huge fan of the first Pink Floyd record so I like this as well. It’s not as good as The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn but still very nice

More twee than I would've thought coming from the Pink Floyd extended universe. But I enjoyed! Great melodies, simple but effective arrangements. More late Beatles and TVU than anything I was expecting. Listened twice.

Very interesting listen. It’s such a mess but that messiness lends itself well to the psychedelic qualities that this album goes for. Not counting the other takes included in the track list, it’s a super solid record that I’ll want to revisit.

Cuando nos dio por escuchar a Pink Floyd en los 80 y descubrimos que habías dos Pink Floyd los de Syd Barret y los de después de Syd. Descubrir que había sacado discos en solitario, pero no tener forma de encontrarlos fue frustrante. Al final el streaming ha permitido que casi nada sea imposible de oír. A mí me ha gustado, me guardo: Love you, Here I go, Octopus y Feel. Le voy a dar 4 estrellas por cariño.

I've really never delved into Syd-era Floyd, so this was new to me. It was interesting. Favorite song: Octopus

Shine on you crazy diamond. Oh, and your solo career sucks.

Not a fun album to listen to. Pink Floyd was my first favorite band and introduced me to SO much. Syd have is that band, but not really. His era is not the Floyd we know. But, he still have both to it. This is his final hurrah. Dave and Roger producing as a favor. He can't recreate rhythms. A literal madman recording an album. But there's still so many bangers. Rocks most tragic figure.

I have a really deep fascination with music like this. Stuff like An Evening with Wild Man Fischer by Wild Man Fischer or Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven by Kid Cudi. Music that's written and performed by someone who's clearly incredibly unwell and still tries to make relatively normal-sounding music despite that. Sometimes it brings out some pretty interesting music that I feel wouldn't have been made if it weren't for those circumstances. For all I know, Syd Barrett would've written this album if he was 100% stable, but there really is a feeling that he's barely being held together and I feel like that adds a lot to this otherwise pretty inoffensive album.

So, in my recent review of The Beatles' White Album, I called it fragmented, but Madcap Laughs is fragmented times a hundred. Just look at the Wikipedia page for it: five producers, three sessions, a year and a half of on-and-off recording, PLUS Syd's progressively fragmenting mind. That's more than the Beatles could ever dream of being fragmented. Anyway, where does that leave the music? Despite being on the verge of ego death, Syd Barrett was still madly talented at creating music. The songs sound fractured and weary, but still very beautiful. The basis of most songs is that '60s sunshine, psychedelic twang, but with a twist of being hollow and as late to the party as it can be. Here I Go is a great song that highlights what I mean. It has that "love" theme, but sadder, like those simple Nick Drake songs he made. But he was also very aware of how alone he was, and he showed us that through a myriad of metaphors on "Golden Hair" and the direct "Long Gone" "Feel" and "Late Night". They have that sombre energy that I'm very fond of. But the album is not without its flaws, however. They're minute, but "If It's in You" annoys me, and those interlude-ish talks in the studio could be cut. I'm sure I could find outtakes that remove these, though. It's good, but I'm still on the fence about it. If this album found me a while back, I'm sure I'd like it more, and even put it in my library (which is still a possibility), but as it stands now, I'll say that it's good, but it's still missing something to bring it over the hump.

this album felt like if the guy who brings a guitar to parties ended up tying me by my hands and hanging me up in a warehouse in the dead of night, singing to me with a tinny audio filter on his microphone until my brain self destructs (also, he’s in a clown costume)

The guy sounded like he didn't want to sing any of these songs.

I don’t consider myself a music buff. But I really got the sense that you could listen to the Beatles or David Byrne and you’d miss none of the experience that this is going for. Also Syd Barrett’s voice is not that great. If It’s In You was kind of hard to listen to at a couple of points.

this would be a really fun album to listen to if i hadn't ever heard any other music before

As a late Pink Floyd enjoyer, early Pink Floyd rube, I was conflicted about going into this one. I've listened to the Barrett era Floyd enough to know that it wasn't exactly the kinda stuff I latch onto, but it was "fine." This ended up surpassing my tepid expectations absolutely. Many of these songs sound to me like George Harrison if he got into different drugs. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit (not because of the drug part). It's cool to know David and Roger were involved, but it's also sad to hear just how much of a mess this production process was. Drugs are one hell of a drug.

Any mid psych-rock that exists without being on this list exists without God’s consent.

Sounds like if John Oliver thought he was the fifth Beatle.

Trashhhh

Answers the age old question: "what if instead of making the best pop music in history while suffering a mental collapse, Brian Wilson had instead caterwauled tunelessly until my teeth hurt?"

It's alright

Didn't listen to all of this. Psychedelic rock is not my thing.

Personal enjoyment fluctuates for various reasons.

2.5

You’d have to be crazy to write songs like this

weird and strange and very stream-of-consciousness but i really did like it tbh

fun! maybe longer than it needs to be? thanks mr pink floyd

Ehh. En pidä. Oli siellä yks hauska biisi missä tyttökaveri ei tykänny tän musasta.

Vaikeeta kuunneltavaa. Ilmeisesti tällä levyllä joku diipimpi tarina, kun tutustui wikin kautta enemmän. Tarina ei vaikuttanut siihen, että olihan tää aika raskasta kuunneltavaa. 2/5 ei maistu salami

I am a pretty big Pink Floyd fan, but never really enjoyed the Syd era. I think this album is more consistent then Piper, but that is mostly due to every song here practically sounding exactly the same. I am kinda surprised it took him this long to record when it is just him and an acoustic guitar. Nothing here comes close to Astronomy Domine though, that is his magnum opus as far as I am concerned. Mid 3.

Whilst its true that Pink Floyd were a better band with Syd Barrett as a member, on his own the songs lack a bit of the structure that the rest of the band brought. Nothing offensive here, I once heard that he used to dab LSD on light switches in his house when he had visitors, and having listened to this album I can believe thats true.......

Madcap definitely. Can tell he was a founding member of Pink Floyd

The back story here is more interesting than the end result but there still ends up being some moments on here. Feels abit proto libertines in its ramshackle-ness

A direct sequel to Piper at the Gates of Dawn, giving a skewed bend on reality

La verdad me gusta mucho la fase más psicodélica de Pink Floyd, cuando Syd Barret era miembro. Este disco capta su espíritu y es muy entretenido.

If listened to early Floyd, and I thought maybe some solo Syd Barrett, I had some assumptions going in here. I was way off. This was much more approachable and much less strange than I expected. It was really listenable and good! Very noticeable Beatles influence. Lyrics are cryptic in spots but in a an intriguing way, not in an an off-putting way at all. I love Dark Globe. Had forgotten about this gem and didn’t know it was on this album. You can hear Barrett’s musical genius, but you can also hear a little of the madness. It’s a great record that I’m glad I got promoted to listen to in its entirety.

Ridiculous. Low effort low production but not in a way that’s impressive or fun to listen to, just in the way where it reminds me how little male artists can do/ how mediocre they can be to be deemed amazing. This sucked.

Evidence abounds of the deterioration of this fragile genius, the acid casualty troubadour that is Syd Barrett offers up a few more bits of psychedelic whimsy before he fled from the public eye. This alone makes it a compelling listen

Less of an album to hear before you die, more of a curiosity what kind of music someone who’s struggling with mental health can make. If this wasn’t made by a founding member of Pink Floyd I doubt anyone would care.

I'm a big Pink Floyd fan, though not as familiar with Barrett's era (I have heard the early albums just not as much). I like Floyd's psychedelic stuff, but this album was a disappointment. I guess I don't really know what I expected as I've never heard Syd's solo work before, but I just found this hard to listen to. Felt like rambling and almost not trying in a way. I understand he had serious mental issues, so who knows what the intention was or what he was thinking. Perhaps you either get it or you don't - and sadly I don't.

Syd Barrett has an interesting sound. It’s like if Paul McCartney wrote songs that Ringo Starr sang.

This ok, nothing too crazy but kinda cool to hear his music after pink floyd

Enjoyed learning more about Syd's life, but wasn't loving this album. The end trailed off hard and a lot of things that should have stayed a demo. 2/5

For a guy who was in Pink Floyd, he sure makes it sound like he wasn't the one making the music. Which might be true, especially since PFs best stuff was well after he left.

The Madcap Laughs is the debut solo album by the English singer-songwriter Syd Barrett. It was recorded after Barrett had left Pink Floyd in April 1968.

Album 46 Top 3 favorites off the album: Golden Hair, She Took a Long Cold Look at Me (Take 4), It's No Good Trying (Take 5) Lukewarm on this one. I actually liked the extra takes at the end of the album more than I liked some of their fully fleshed out equivalents. Golden Hair felt different than the rest, kind of dreamy in a way just slightly off, like a liminal space of a song. I dig it. Again with the wishing I could give it half stars. I don't hate it. I don't love it. I can't remember which one I didn't like, so I'll leave it be.

Some of the songs are very childlike. It didn't feel like a full album, but more of a musical sketchbook of what was going on in his head at the time. I could hear hints of "The Wall" in here, but there wasn't enough similarity to pull me in. It all felt a bit chaotic. My Rating: 3/5

Another album that used to be bought up a lot that I never got round to. I think I wanted to like this a lot more than I ended up doing. Quite easy to hear the way it inspired a later generation of musicians (A couple of tracks are really reminiscent of early Blur's slower songs, for example), but as a whole it didn't really gel for me.

This was a much easier listen than I thought when I saw it was Syd Barrett; it also has a much lower rating here than I thought. It was decent folk-adelic type rock with Syd’s whimsical lyrics. Nothing really mind blowing, just ok, and it’s always interesting to get a look in the mind and music someone so on the edge.

this was fine? nothing crazy but it did send me into a deep on pink floyds wikipedia page so i loved that

started strong and tailed off. a lot of these songs sound pretty similar

I had high expectations for this record. I mean, it’s Syd Barrett! I did enjoy some of his work with early Pink Floyd. He was always a weird and interesting person. Lyrically, and stylistically. But this record just wasn’t good. It feels like live recordings from a small room. The acoustic guitar isn’t played that nice and his vocal delivery is boring and uninspiring. Not a single song on here was good. Which is a shame given the legendary status of Syd Barrett. Perhaps when I was getting into Pink Floyd, and I listened to this record in that time frame, I’d appreciate it a bit more? But that ship has definitely sailed.

This is weird. Not even good weird. just weird. Its a kind of freedom in a way- to go so hard against expected norms. But I just hated listening to this Lyrics are actually decent tho smh How does an album get progessively worse? Idk but this did. 0.5/5

My rating 2.0.

So Jeff Mangum really just listened to this and decided "This is what I want to base my entire musical career on".

Variable and sounds very dated

Think I’d have preferred to listen to an album by Syd James rather than Syd Barrett. Cor, blimey!

I thought I would like this more but ultimately apart from the odd Floydesque songs, it was a disappointment. It felt disjointed.

Is what it is really; a bloke with some talent, struggling with himself and to get that talent out. Terrapin and Octopus are great and feel kind of fully formed. The there’s some where you can feel there’s a good song in there, but they’re not developed and it’s lost in the overly vocal focussed mix. Then there’s just some bang average/bad songs. But I’m a sucker for some eccentric British psyche whimsy, and I this is a decent exponent, albeit fairly extreme version thereof.

Según la Wikipedia, este disco no solo aparece en esta lista sino también en otras listas de “mejores discos” en Rolling Stones o Guardian. Lo siento pero es una paja de crítico gafa pasta. No hay por dónde cogerlo. Si no fuera “Syd Barrett”, este disco no habría siquiera salido adelante. En definitiva, faltando en esta lista tantas mujeres o música del mundo, es un insulto que esto esté aquí.

Nope!

Not bad, and can definitely feel the pink floyd influence going back and forth

Alguna melodía se salva, pero se nota que falta un grupo que dé forma a las ideas de Barrett.

There are a few fucked up haunted well-made songs, but so much of this is not 'good' in the sense one usually might use the term. Only reason I think it has the pull it does is the super sad story of Syd.

I had great hopes for this one. Unfortunately, it came as titled. A little mad, and little wondering, and little inconsistent, not many laughs.

Warmed over Beatles, or a parody of itself. Generator, you can do better.

not mad! i like syd’s voice. it gives a little indie rock almost?

This one is in the running for most boring album on the list. Syd Barrett was extremely talented, but I suspect he was one of those whose talent shone most while surrounded by other very talented individuals. Favorite track: probably "Octopus"

Ok 2/5

The sad story of Syd Barrett and his descent into madness following his firing from Pink Floyd is the stuff of rock folklore. The short answer is he took too many hallucinogenic drugs and never left his state of psychosis, but there were clearly a series of undiagnosed mental health issues that greatly hampered Barrett. Some say schizophrenia, some say Asperger's, but it doesn't really matter. What does matter is Barrett struggled with these demons at a time when mental health wasn't really taken seriously, and it cost him his role as the creative leader behind one of Britain's most promising psychedelic rock band. With that out of the way, Barrett's solo debut 'The Madcap Laughs' sees him 'madly' trying a out a bunch of different ideas in the studio, stripped clean of the safe set of hands that was Pink Floyd supporting his creative vision, although David Gilmour (who essentially replaced Barrett in Pink Floyd) does play a few instruments on this record, including drums on 'Octopus', probably the most conventional songs on this record. Speaking of Gilmour, he and Roger Waters have production credits on roughly half the songs record, but even they don't seem to really know how to focus Barrett's whimsical, 'ping-ponging' ideas. It's almost like they were involved out of guilt for essentially letting him go from Pink Floyd. There are signs of Barrett's genius on 'The Madcap Laughs', such as the brilliant 'Octopus' and the unique 'Terrapin', but the album sounds very unfocused and unsure whether to stick to psychedelic rock or go full-blown folk. However, knowing Barrett was truly unravelling by this point does explain its unevenness. If the Barrett-era of Pink Floyd interests you, definitely check this record out (and let's face it, you probably have already). But honestly, if you need proof that Pink Floyd made the right decision to replace Barrett with Gilmour, 'The Madcap Laughs' is it. Best songs: Octopus, Terrapin

A couple good songs. A couple bad songs. Pretty much what I expected from Mr Barrett

Very 60’s and British-ey. Slightly tinges of early Pink Floyd

I've never been a Pink Floyd fan, so I didn't have that as a jumping off point for this album. I also wasn't aware of the mental health stuff surrounding the creation of the album until after I was done listening, and maybe the context makes these songs more interesting in a way, but I could not wait for it to be over. This just came off as a bunch of tossed off screwing around to me and I kind of hated most of it.

9/10

Känns mycket tveksamt om detta album hade getts ut om det inte vore för att det är Syd Barrett vid den tidpunkten. Till stora delar som att höra demo- och tidiga tagningar-spår på deluxeutgåvor av historiska album, något jag kan uppskatta mycket när det är musik som ligger mig nära men här tycker jag det lyfter väldigt sällan. Några ändå mysiga slackerrockiga och psychiga stunder som känns pigga och lite före sin tid. Ett album som är jag tycker är mer intressant än bra. Hade varit mer intresserad av att se en dokumentär om det än att faktiskt lyssna på det igen.

Näe det här borde aldrig givits ut, och än mindre tagit en plats på den här listan. Elakt mot alla inblandade även om det är lite intressant med en inblick i en stackars sates hjärna.

Intressant att höra den här plågade människan. Men så jävla bra är det ju inte tyvärr, sånär som på några låtskisser och idéer som hade kunnat bli nåt tillsammans med hans gamla polare. Påminner om john frusciantes soloalbum på 90-talet.

Jobbig lyssning med tanke på Syds historia. Gillar det mesta dock.

Den här nissen verkar ju ha varit helt vild! Fullständigt galen. Men ah rätt nice ändå va? Låter ju exakt som när han va med i Pink Floyd och det gillar man.

kändes lite som att ha någon sittandes i ens vardagsrum

Obligatorisk kurslitteratur för varje aspirerande psykadeliker. Som min gamle vän Greven! Tycker det här är så sjukt bjäring.

Monotone, loud guitar pick scraping, layered vocals. I found more annoying out of this than stuff I enjoyed. Its better relegated to background music.

Don’t do drugs kids

nichts, was man nicht schon von anderen 60er-acts gehört hat. nichts was bleibt.

Ok, ich verstehe die Rolle von Syd in der Musikgeschichte aber wegen dem gefällt mir seine Musik trotzdem nicht

I feel uncomfortable listening to this. It feels like staring at someone in the street because they are behaving oddly. This does sound like someone who is struggling with their mental health strumming a guitar and making weird lyrics up as they go along. It does not - to me - sound like the work of a genius. I love the first Pink Floyd album, and not really anything else they did. So maybe Syd being there was the spark they needed, but this shows none of that. Rambling, incoherent and no more engaging than a busker on the street (admittedly one that is slightly off-kilter) with the added twist that I don't recognise any of the songs here. My overall feeling was that I was peering too deeply into someone's torment, and the fact it was recorded, lauded and shared so widely made this quite discomfiting.

Sydney is not feeling too well today. But Syd is best when he's a little bonkers. I've always loved Terrapin. The Marc and the Mambas cover is worth a listen. There's obvious comparisons here with Bowie of the same period. Syd pours his heart out. It's almost a Pink Floyd Unplugged - which sounds like a very bad trip, but somehow The Madcap pulls it off.

The Madcap Laughs ist das erste Soloalbum des britischen Musikers Syd Barrett. Die Aufnahmen entstanden 1969 in den Abbey Road Studios sowie den EMI Studios in London, betreut unter anderem von David Gilmour und Roger Waters. Musikalisch bewegt sich das Album zwischen Psychedelic Folk, frühem Singer-Songwriter-Pop und fragmentarischem Psychedelic Rock. Bekannte und stilprägende Stücke sind „Octopus“, „Terrapin“, „Dark Globe“ und „Here I Go“. Die Songs wirken oft skizzenhaft, teils bewusst ungeschliffen, getragen von akustischer Gitarre, einfachen Arrangements und Barretts eigenwilligem Gesang. Gerade diese Brüchigkeit prägt den Charakter des Albums und hebt es von zeitgenössischen Produktionen ab. The Madcap Laughs ist kein leicht zugängliches Werk, entfaltet aber über seine direkte, intime Atmosphäre eine nachhaltige Wirkung und dokumentiert Syd Barretts eigenständige künstlerische Handschrift jenseits von Pink Floyd.

it's not my fav, i didn't finish the whole thing tbh but after learning the history to the artist and album it was hard to want to listen to.

If I thought I was sick of regular Pink Floyd....

Syd was always the worst songwriter in Pink Floyd by my money, and I don't really understand people who pine for his era of the band. His solo stuff is even worse.

Yeah, sorry, I disliked this a lot. There were like 2 songs that I somewhat enjoyed, but the rest of the album made me want to turn it off. I appreciate trying shit out, but most of this was kinda grating on my ears.

some cute songs, but syd needs the band i fear

Este álbum no va más allá de la curiosidad por comprobar qué era capaz de hacer el bueno de Syd Barret en solitario después de haber puesto el alma y los problemas en el primer disco de Pink Floyd. Tenemos una sucesión de temas, en su mayoría acústicos, con un profundo carácter introspectivo, que distan mucho de conseguir enganchar al oyente. La figura de Syd es más reconocida por la huella que dejó en su ex-banda y lo que no hizo que por su aportación real más allá de la misma banda. Hoy en día, casi olvidado, solo se le cita para reforzar la lucha a favor de la salud mental.

Drugs are bad.

Sounds very modern oddly enough

vou ter que escutar de novo. me distraí.

COOL ALBUM. wasnt amazing. 6.5/10

wow! please never make music again. 2/5

Very similar to Piper at the Gates of Dawn - if you like that record, this will scratch that same itch. It features contributions from fellow Pink Floyd members and they try their hardest to steer the songs into something engaging. Barrett gamely sings his typical stream-of-consciousness off-kilter lyrics over psychedelic rock and folk meanderings. The final few tracks are just Barrett and his guitar almost like a deranged Bob Dylan. It's a fun and fluffy listen, just be prepared for some wackiness.

Ohhhhhhhh Syd... Mellow yellow psychedelia and Kinks-esque jaunty pop. I like the cut of your jib, but not enough to rate higher than a 3. I'm sorry x

Stream of consciousness lyrics and a first person POV of schizophrenia (Dark Globe). The album feels like random thoughts put to tape, and therefore as intimate as it is confusing.

Singer/ songwriter. Not the best songs.

Hate this! Hate the sound, hate the lyrics

Godt, minder meget om Beatles/ringo starr sange

Lidt kopi af Beatles, og svær at lytte til ://

Interesting album. Not quite enough to push it to a 4

Not particularly interesting to me but overall not an unpleasant listening experience.

Somewhat hard to listen to. I can appreciate the raw nature of the recording and songwriting, but there are so many other albums with the same quality that are just nicer to listen to.

Amazing tribute to the blues roots that influenced Pink Floyd and and entire generation!

Oh, what could have been! If his mental health had not overtaken him, he could have gone on to become a legendary figure, rather than a musician about whom legends are told about! Not to take away from what he's done with this album or his prior work with Pink Floyd. The album has a timeless feel to it, its the type of album solo artists try to go for now, that are not as good, but get over hyped for. The album is a sad reflection of what could have been.

not my fave

Definitely not for me.

this was insanely hard to listen to, i only got to the fourth song and gave up. it was whiny and just coulodnt listen anymore howerver i do wanna give pink floyd a try in the future

some sentimental fondness for Syd Barrett - I thought Pink Floyd was boring, but a friend tipped me on to this, and I liked that it sounded genuinely pretty out there. the whining left speaker sound in No Good Trying is a cool way to put a pop song off kilter. it doesn't hold up as well when it gets busier. lots of good moments. doesn't hold up quite enough for me to listen much anymore. music: appreciated. (⌐■_■)

Bit of a rough listen at times but I do really like the idea of performing catchy poppy songs in a low energy way, and those ones are really good. The important thing is: I think this is more compelling than any Pink Floyd album and that’s the truth.

An interesting album even if just for the insight into a man deteriorating into severe mental illness. As for whether I enjoyed listening to it, not particularly. But I do get why it's in the book given his prominence as the founding frontman of Pink Floyd

3/10… psychedelic / folk / *1970

Moody, artsy, the rockier and more-diverse tracks produced by Malcolm Jones balance out the looser, softer folky tracks produced by Gilmour and Waters, providing a more varied experience overall and it's decently engaging

Pink Floyd is one of my favorite bands of all time, but I had no idea Syd Barrett yad a solo career; I wish I still hadn't. Favorite Track: "Love You".

psychedelic rock yok yaaa

1/5. Seems like an earnest attempt at making something unique, and I can see it being a decent listen for some people who like this era of music. There are some fun and interesting pieces on here. There are a lot more really rough and unlistenable tracks though. The latter really outweigh the former, and make this an album I wouldn't recommend to anyone, even fans of Pink Floyd.

I’d been wondering when a Pink Floyd album would show up (Dark Side of the Moon?), but for now this is as close as I get. Syd Barrett brought a somewhat familiar style and sound to this album which made it an enjoyable enough listen, but the brief dialogue between tracks was probably the most notable part of this album for me… otherwise no real standout songs or lyrics prompting me to dig further.

Enjoyable

Great record, feels very close to later indie folk stuff on some tracks even if not a huge fan of all of them on first listen I have to commend it and I may be back

This album reminded me a lot of John Frusciante's Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt, particularly in how unconventional it is, but there are nuggets of melodic ideas. That said, this isn't an album to revisit continously every day, but once in a long while, it would be ok.

#54 The vocals are 😴😴😴

I'm not actually sure what to make of this album. I was never a huge pink floyd fan (and the stuff I know is the usual - dark side & the wall - all post Syd). I don't know anything about the story other than what's on wikipedia. Listenable but not a love ... some definite "beatles" vibe but the outtakes at the end are ... odd? putting it in the middle and moving on.

Not super listenable for me.

- I don’t know how to review this. It’s a sad story that he was dealing with the onset of schizophrenia without getting the help that he needed. If the album was supposed to be about someone who was trying to express their feelings about going through that, that would be one thing, but this just felt like experiencing someone lose their grip on reality who didn’t know they were unravelling. - Sadly, while there are good musical ideas in there, it is all very unfinished, chaotic, and ends up feeling like a chore. - I don’t know how to phrase this, so this is with utmost respect for Syd, the human being, but I felt like I shouldn’t be listening to this and that it’s exploitative to have released it. It just made me sad that he didn’t have people advocating for/helping him; instead, people who let this album get made and released it while he was in that state. It felt voyeuristic in a very non-consensual way - like a snuff film. I usually listen to the albums at least twice, but this time, even once felt like too much.

Good

So so

The songs just don't come together to make a cohesive album.

The album was ok, I never heard of Syd Barrett before, a couple songs sounded familiar though

Do we have to include every person from a famous band who went solo on this list? Some redeemable qualities but overall this was -a pretty painful listen.

Madcap? Maybe. Boring and pointless? Most likely.

Artiste connu de nom. Je suis un grand fan de Pink Floyd, mais là j’ai été particulièrement déçu par cet album qui m’a rapidement barbé … Pas désagréable (+1), mais vraiment rien ne m’a attiré dans cet album. => 2/5 Et je crains beaucoup l'écoute prochaine de ´The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ si il est dans ce style.

I wanted to like this but it’s just too loose and the songs feel unfinished.

You can hear his thumbprint on Pink Floyd thoroughly.

Wow, this one really feels like a stretch, a kind of "lifetime achievement" nod to a guy who undoubtedly influenced the direction of Pink Floyd, which undoubtedly influenced the direction of rock music in the past 50 years. But the album itself is a pretty complete nothing burger, with only slight hints of the directions Barrett played with during his Floyd days that Roger Waters and David Gilmour honed into the signature Pink Floyd sound AFTER Barrett left the group. Knowing his influence, it's pretty much impossible NOT to overrate an album like this, I know (one of the two points I find myself tending toward in my own rating is pretty much simply a gift to the man I know influenced later music I have loved for decades), but if anyone BESIDES Barrett was named as the performer on this album, there's no way it makes a list of 10,000 albums we need to hear, let alone 1,001.

Critics may hail this as a fragile masterpiece and a poignant document of an unraveling artistic genius, but it should really just be called complete crap. There isn’t a single redeeming quality to be found here. The playing is simply out-of-tune garbage, and the lyrics are incredibly stupid and amateurish.

This was a difficult listen. This is clearly someone who is talented but suffering from mental illness, it feels cruel giving him an album that just seems thrown together at the last minute in the hope something sticks but never does.

Upon release, Gilmour said: "Perhaps we were trying to show what Syd was really like. But perhaps we were trying to punish him ..." That very much sums up the listening experience.

Started out strong and then just slowly devolved.

2/5

I thought there were some good songs at the beginning of the album but towards the end they got a bit too weird and unenjoyable for my taste

Ass

I quite like Piper at the Gates of Dawn so was looking forward to the most acclaimed Syd Barrett album. I like it for what it is, though I can see how it would be difficult to rate particularly highly and if someone doesn't like his voice then playing 'If It's In You' to them will certainly not convert. Nothing leaps out as much as 'Gnome' or 'Bike' from the first Floyd album and it's much more stripped down for the main. A lot of the lyrics are raging nonsense (he goes on about tigers eating cheese at one point) but other parts are quite charmingly Kinksy in its 1960s London whimsy and it's the simpler songs on the album such as 'Here I Go' that I prefer. The influence on Bowie is unmissable (particularly in 'Dark Globe'). I also have suspicions that there would have been an element of LSD consumed during the making of this album (see the aforementioned turophilic tigers), though I've been wrong before. You know what, this is quite gentle and relaxing to listen to in a dark room (I'll skip the LSD) and I feel this would get better with more listens, so have talked myself into a 4 out of 5.

Big Pink Floyd fan, so it goes without saying I love Barrett’s solo work. You can really see what the Barrett-lead Floyd would have become on his own records, and also hear how specific elements remained a core part of the Pink Floyd sound for years after (the vocal inflections in particular, there are parts of this album where you’d swear it was Roger Waters singing (complimentary)). I think I prefer his self-titled album, but songs like Octopus are among some of my favourites so it was a pleasure to relisten to this album.

Syd's music sounds less space-y here and more improvised and raw while having those early Pink-Floyd psychedelic lyrics. The music becomes more stripped down and the words free-flowing, as if we're observing his declining mental state in real time. Whimsical, nonsensical lyrics aren't really my thing however so not much stood out for me.

So much garbage music in this low-effort album that just dragged forever. Not a monday morning kind of album. A lot of albums here get added based on the artist's resume and not an individual album's merit, which leads to a lot of crap.

Decent but forgettable

Not for me. 1/5

I love syd and the influence he had on PF, but this shouldn't be on here. It's raw, unfinished, and not particularly well done.

Piper at the gates of yawn. Like Bob Dylan singing Elliot Smith

at least the songs are short

A curio of the psychedelic folk scene, legendary in its way and a testament to the unfortunately wise choice by Pink Floyd to go in a new direction, this record doesn’t hold much water for me. Mostly just kind of sad to hear a bright mind unraveling almost in real time. There are some flashes of whimsy and imagination but they can’t lift the material above the spotty production and lack of focus.

Love You sounds like a proto-gummy bear song Honey love you, honey little Honey funny sunny morning Love you more funny love in the skyline baby Ice-cream 'scuse me vs Oh, I'm a yummy, tummy, funny, lucky gummy bear I'm a jelly bear, 'cause I'm a gummy bear Oh, I'm a movin', groovin', jammin', singin' gummy bear Much of the album has nursery-rhyme adjacent lyrics, very silly and twee (derogatory). "If it's in you" is the dictionary definition of caterwauling. Just horrific. No Man's Land is the okayest song. 1.5/5

god that was just miserable to listen to. the music was far from anything special, and his vocals are absolute dross. generous 2

Pretty decent but so overbloated

There's little difference from his Floyd contributions and it's very influenced by his decline. The songs are a bit too similar. Yeah for students of Floyd examining Floyd lore but we don't all have to go there

I've never listened to this album (74). Overrated. All the worst aspects of early Pink Floyd (which is the worst era of PF anyways).

At the centre of the centre of the western musical universe sits Syd. Unfortunately though, his mind is elsewhere. It’s sort of pointless to point out what was contemporary to Syd or what about him was to become part of that almighty legacy; you could mention almost any other artist in the same breath, so why mention any? A song like “No Man’s Land” is the sort of fuzzy psychedelia that beams in from another time and space entirely, every play through more surprising than the last. The hyperactivity of “Love You” feels like a jolly walk down the promenade and then off it and into the sea. “Feel” is a joyously off-kilter inversion of the usual sing songwriter tropes that couldn’t work under anyone else’s stewardship but Barrett’s. “Late Night” – a song that picks up on a theme that appears throughout the record in tracks like “Dark Globe” and “She Took a Long Cold Look”; starting what sounds like halfway through and finishing long before they should … and yet still feeling like complete and wonderful songs precisely as they are – seals the record as a work of serious creative genius. The whole thing sounds like a master standing back from his creation and trying to find a way to enjoy watching it go through the motions. And it might be that Syd’s idiosyncrasies were even greater than his influence. Impossible to know, I suppose – but like any particularly special work of art, there’s an invitation in here. To what might be private to each of us; but it sounds like Syd was quite a private person anyway.

60’s blues rock. I’m not going to add it to my list of albums. In general, it’s quite dreary and unfinished, especially towards the end. Terrapin and Octopus are, in my opinion, the only tracks that’s fine. If it wasn’t Syd Barrett, it’d have been forgotten in my view. The tragedy of what happened to him is why this ranks in the 1001 albums you must listen to before you die. Maybe if you were more focused on the contextual side, viewing that the album shows a deterioration of his mental state, you could appreciate it more.

That's not my taste in music - But ok

151/1089 if the first track is anything to go by… this will be a struggle for me i fear. This was a hard listen, just really not a fan of this style of production, vocal or lyricism Golden Hair *almost* made it not a complete bust for me but it still was missing something. Love You and If It’s In You are particularly bad standouts imo 15/100

What a very strange album. Syd Barrett has an interesting story, slowly losing his mind from mental health issues. Musically it was hit or miss. Near the middle it nearly made me fall asleep, but the beginning and ends of the album were interesting enough to mostly enjoy this record.

This wasn’t for me

Annoying

just feels like poetry reading. very bland and uninspiring especially the last songs

Strange. Almost like your weird friend who plays guitar at house parties. It’s an okay album. 2.5/5 Might listen again

Just a bunch of hot trash.

mid

This was a tough listen. Especially knowing Syd's history. Favorites: None Would I listen to it again: No

Meh, it was alright. Nothing too memorable here. Kinda chill 60 feel

not my jam

Woof. This was a rough one to make it through.

VERY psychedelic. Syd Barrett is talented in making psychedelic + prog rock. I like the instrumental arrangements, though I'm not sure about Syd's vocal and melody. The album has that quirky and quaint characteristic, which is fun, but I have to say the music is a bit too ordinary and simple compared to what I am expecting. It's a nice album, I would probably give it a 2.5/5.

My neurospicy brain doesn’t love the way he strums the guitar. It was giving some folk/indie Beatles vibes though

- i do like it more for what it is. still have really no inclination to return to it again really. i suspect this is more for the fans who are already into Syd Barrett with all the multiple takes included. Had a nice rock edge but his voice was just so annoying in some parts. prob would give 2.5 if i could because i did find some it charming but since don't have desire to relisten will give it a 2 stars.

3/10 to slow, production and vocals lack.

There's something entrancing about the flat, almost disinterested way that Syd Barrett sings on this album. His style makes you lean in a bit. It makes you wonder, "Who is this guy?" As the former frontman of Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett is definitely worthy of recognition in rock history. I think the first Pink Floyd album, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" is the one to check out if you're curious about Barrett's songwriting. I'm happy to have listened to this solo album too, but I'd file it as a curiosity of music history rather than an essential album. I thought it was interesting though that his vocals reminded me of Roger Waters on a few tracks. His influence on Pink Floyd must have been huge even after his departure, and looks like Waters and David Gilmour produced a few tracks here too.

There's something about this sound and period of time that tends to not always gel with my personal tastes. I don't know what it is; I actually like the looseness, the edgy rough-around-the-edges performances, and his voice is pretty nice too. But at the same time on some tracks it sometimes feels like a group of musicians are surrounding him who are hearing these songs for the first time and playing along, and then that's what makes it on the album. His lyrics feel like that too, and reading more I get that he's going for a "stream of consciousness" thing but the final result isn't a great listen for me. By the time I'm at the third track, "Love You", I feel kind of annoyed to be honest? It's sort of draining in a way? The scene of: a former member of a much more famous band freestyling lines into a mic while a band behind him just kind of "figures it out along the way" isn't a great recipe for something I'd be interested in. It's not so bad to be a 1 for me, it's in between a 1 and a 2 and enough for me to give it a 2. Not really for me.

Tedious

Quite boring. I struggled a bit to get through this but wasn't so offensive to get a 1.

A mixed bag, but overall not really worth a relisten.

Almost got through it, it was like nails on a chalkboard.

Super hard listen especially knowing he troubled Syd Barret was. Felt like distilled psychosis.

Die meisten songs waren doch ganz okay zum hören

Unterhaltsam doch anstrengend

This was fine, surprised it’s the first time I’ve heard it.

2.38

hard to rate this one - its mostly just a bang average album to me? I really liked Long Gone, you can hear the early pink floyd in that.

This one ain’t it

Enjoyed large parts of this but threatened to get going and never did. Album of B sides

The moments of mediocrity were the highlights

Unlistenable garbage. I couldn't make it all the way through a single song. ⭐

It's an interesting view into the mind of a very unwell person. But there are a lot more albums like that out in the world, and those are actually good to listen to. This one could have been among those, but ultimately feels to amateuristic for me to actually get something out of it and just leaves me feeling annoyed.

On s’ennuie, non ? J’ai pas fini

Boring, j'ai pas kiffé 2/5

Not on spotify. Also like dude has some interesting lyrics but not interesting music. Pink Floyd is Pink Floyd cause he wasn’t there and the band was allowed to rock.

Favorite Track: Octopus

Very strange stuff and I knew a few of these songs like Love You and Terrapin because of Phish covering them lol.

Feels like more of an essential listen for Pink Floyd fans than a general audience. Some of the songs here feel more like sketches of an idea that an actual finished recording. Not entirely unlistenable (which is why it gets a 2) but I won't be revisiting this any time soon.

I just can't.

Meh

Incoherent rambling

in this house, we love Syd Barrett

Not a big fan, 2, sorry Syd

Decent 3,5

A wonderfully weird pop record. Octopus is a classic

Pretty good. Relatively silly like some of the early Eno stuff but it was relatively catchy and fun to listen to. I probably enjoyed it more than Piper at the Gates of Dawn or Saucerful of Secrets from what I remember of those, which is impressive.

Not sure I am a fan of psychedelic rock. None of it caught my ear, everything felt unsecured to anything and sounded a ton like the Beatles. Not a fan.

Syd was already on his way out of his mind here.

It's good yeah - not in the top 1k in my book

Beige Floyd.

This is definitely an interesting album as a Pink Floyd fan but it isn’t fantastic. Some good moments for sure but it feels like a mess and very unpolished. This is both a good and bad thing but I am glad it exists.

Very strange Sad story for the creation of the album

If Syd can make two albums, so can i.

Had overtones of British music at the time. Not sure I would have listened to this without the Pink Floyd connection.

Mega chujnia, pierwszy kawalek tylko ujdzie ale tak to dramat xdd

Shit Fluyd related? 0/10

Man that was terrible

Tails off very hard and was just waiting for it to end.

I'm sorry Syd, but what the hell was that shit. slowly losing his marbles diddling around on a guitar with no direction. Any moment a reasonable track starts to turn up it's way too self aware ("I remembered this song/kinda catchy"). Sorry many, I'm gonna stuck with mid era Floyd. 1.4/5 - 1/5

Best thing that happened to Pink Floyd was Syd leaving. 2/5

Big meh.

There are elements of Syd Barfett’s 2 records i really like (the whimsy, the almost freeform chaotic nature that is still holding some structure - the timing in Dark Globe) but elements i dislike (i find them a bit self indulgent and difficult to listen all the way through, almost like listening to someone who is just learning guitar fucking about with a four track - Dark Globe again), and finally there is something written in song and quite evident that is sad and a little uncomfortable in the way this and the next album shows a guy with incredible talent descending into mental health problems. The album reminds me of a better backed outsider artists like Wesley Willis. In the same way, is it fun, funny, sad, genius, rubbish - likely it is all these things.

this is really not for me. if i had to pick my top 2 songs it'd have to be terrapin and feel.

Meh

Me pone feliz que esté este disco. No sé si debería estar en los 1001 discos, pero después de ver otras elecciones no me voy a quejar. Sé que no es un disco para muchos. Syd Barrett fue una persona rara, con inquietudes que iban para todos lados. Una impactante carrera musical que terminó demasiado pronto. Duele saber que su producción fue de apenas 6 años, con grabaciones que van desde Arnold Layne (1966) hasta 1970 (algunas de las grabaciones de Barrett). Y este disco es lo más inaccesible y raro que hizo. Solo o acompañado por miembros de la genial Soft Machine, es un disco que líricamente va por todas partes y nos muestra un reflejo de lo que pasaba por la psiquis de Barrett. Y es difícil de escuchar por eso: más allá de la música, que es RARA, es una ventana a la locura de este gran hombre. Con muchas canciones que son, de una forma u otra, sobre amor (amor perdido que no va a volver, amor roto, amor nostálgico). Por momentos duele. Por otros conmueve: Terrapin es una canción que líricamente va por todas partes pero es muy tierna. Hay imágenes muy lindas y la voz en que canta Barrett llega hondo. No es la única canción así. Hay otras como "Love You" que también transmiten una sensación parecida. Otras de las canciones demuestran que Barrett conservaba su talento para melodías y letras raras ubicadas en mundos de fantasía: Here I Go, No Good Trying, No Man's Land, Late Night, son canciones que me podría haber imaginado ser interpretadas por Pink Floyd si Barrett hubiera mantenido su sanidad mental, si bien No Good Trying parece retratar justamente su expulsión de la banda. Pero después hay otras canciones, que son la mayoría, como Dark Globe (mi favorita del disco y una canción bastante querida, creo, por la gente que escucha a Barrett), que me hacen pelota. La letra no tiene tanto sentido, son versos relativamente independientes pero hay mucho dolor en ellos "When I was alone You promised the stone from your heart" o "Won't you miss me? Wouldn't you miss me at all?", y el tipo los canta con una desesperación brutal. Acá Soft Machine no acompaña, es Syd solo con su guitarra y acentúa el sentimiento de locura. Mucho más acompañado por la música (que también nos protege a nosotros y nos hace sentir menos mal cuando escuchamos esto) está Octopus, otro claro highlight del disco. En la página songmeanings leí alguna vez una interpretación que planteaba que este tema era sobre una discusión esquizofrénica dentro de la cabeza de Barrett y me quedé con eso. Se puede coincidir o no, pero creo que esa imagen refleja bien las sensaciones que evoca este tema. Otro tema así de trágico es "Long Gone", acompañado por un teclado (¿Mike Ratledge? y Barrett regrabándose con coros), Syd nos habla sobre alguien que hace mucho se fue. Puede ser una ex-novia, puede ser su sanidad. En cualquier caso, la canción duele. Las otras canciones que no nombré entran, en mi opinión, en esta categoría: Feel, She Took a Long Cold Look Es un disco muy muy bueno, qué nos deja una sensación de desgarro por dentro, y por eso es medio difícil de escuchar pero, cuando se lo hace, vale mucho la pena. Casi todas las canciones son buenas. Solo "Golden Hair" y "If It's in You" no me gustan tanto (la primera es rara, no se parece mucho al resto de temas del disco; la segunda es de esas que podría haber sido hecha por Pink Floyd, pero al mismo tiempo parece ser improvisada. Me da la impresión de que Waters y Gilmour pensaron que había algo acá pero Barrett no tenía ganas de concentrarse). Lo siento un poco corto para ponerle 5 estrellas, asi que le tocarán CUATRO. Un cuatro fuerte.

This one is really hard to rate. It's honestly not very good. It's very ramshackle and mostly sounds like he's making it up as he goes along. His history of mental illness obviously comes into play here and there are some good moments where his talent is able to shine through.

Proper madlad

Musical Genius spiraling into madness and kicked out of one of the biggest bands ever makes a solo album called "The Madcap Laughs", super awesome concept. but pretty rough product.

Shine on, you crazy diamond.

As far as this slow folk-rock stuff goes, one of the better albums I've heard on this list so far. The few Dylan records I've been able to dissect haven't provided me the emotion this effort has, and it's still not something I want more of. Sometimes silly, sometimes sad, not really my thing. I do appreciate the expression on his vocals, and how his voice feels naturally suited for the genre. Easy to appreciate, easy to forget. 2.9/5

Beautiful and haunting album. For a guy that basically went insane, the openness and vulnerability is uncanny.

Interesting reading around this album and what troubles Syd Barrett was going through at the time. Not surprising therefore that the album is a bit of mess of different ideas and half finished songs.

The Madcap Laughs This is one of those albums and artists where it's tricky to separate the music from the myth and legacy, but on a pure musical level I struggled to get into this beyond a few songs. Terrapin is great, the funereal tempo and slide are lovely, and I quite liked the off kilterness of Dark Globe, No Good Trying is a nice bit of droning psych and the organ on Long Gone is excellent. But outside that it all kind of merged into a pot of similarly tempoed, similarly strummed songs, with similar melodies. A bit of a shame as I was quite looking forward to hearing it, but ultimately I didn’t really connect with it, and I can’t think I’ll revisit, so I’ll go with a 2. 🧢🧢 Playlist submission: Terrapin

The woozy guitar and melody of 'Terrapin' is a dead ringer for Blur's 'Miss America', and it struck me that maybe this album has a breadth of influence more than its own value. The influence/crossover with Bowie's early stuff is startling, and oftentimes equally as jarring. A cheeky music hall cadence and unintentionally humorous lyrics ("Close our eyes to the Octopus ride, isn't it good to be lost in the wood") is often like a Bowie pastiche. The false start of 'It's in You' is pure Nigel Tuffnell. By this point the nonsensical lyrics are extremely grating. "Puddletown Tom was the underground yummy yum yum" my hairy arse. 'Love You' is my favourite for this - "ice cream scuse me, whoops don't abuse me, blimey how's your father, going down the lido, ticklea-a-tickle-a-dildo". Or something like that. The lyrics are all from a childlike perspective, and not as in childlike wonder - as in a 30 year old who's been kept back in Year 4 for 25 years. On Piper at the Gates of Dawn the band bring this madness to life, such as on the atmospheric 'Pow R. Toc. H' an atmospheric build complete with zany mutterings from Syd. 'Bike' on that album is classic Syd, but transformed into a classic piece of psychedelic rock. Without these band embellishments, I fear the material to be extremely trying. There's potentially an odd genius buried in here somewhere. But you really have to be very generous indeed to ascribe such an interpretation. It feels influential on lo-fi folk rock and others For most bands this would the anthology, posthumously released as a curio.

Ironically, this is the first Pink Floyd adjacent album I’ve rolled so far on my journey through every album on the list, and man do I wish I was actually just listening to Pink Floyd instead. There are so many Pink Floyd albums they could have picked from that didn’t make the final cut, Animals being my favorite of the lot that didn’t make it, but instead they went with this. Listen, I get it. Syd was an integral part of the band and its history. Wish You Were Here is my favorite Pink Floyd album, and one of my favorite albums of all time, but putting this here as well next to that is just sad man. It honestly kind of hurts. Again, I get why they included this, but knowing the story behind Syd Barrett just makes it all the more painful. The way virtually half of the album on Spotify is outtakes is a weird decision. It feels like they’re making fun of him almost. In a way, it’s a rather brilliant way of looking into the mind of a man who is in the ongoing stages of literally losing his mind. And you know what? This album isn’t actually that terrible, outtakes included. And in a way, knowing how talented he was just adds to the sadness. This is a sad album man… Favorite song? I actually thought “No Man’s Land” rocked sufficiently hard. For the unique background this album has, as well as the fact that it still surprised me a few times and was never actively terrible, I’m actually going to give this one a very low 3 stars.

No Good Trying has the highest degree of overlap with my taste and if this album had been filled with more tracks like this and a couple others then there'd be a different ratings outcome. Alas, a bit too many Terrapin-styled tracks on Madcap Laughs. As Syd announces with the album cover's symbolism this is a record of the light and the dark. Here the light slightly wins, but it's too infused with hippie melodies a la Love You, etc. that to me are sickly sweet and folkified even if of a fried mind. I find it's hard to enjoy the circus music in its entirety but can acknowledge some of these tracks will last another 55 years.

I liked this so much more than I expected to! Cute in places, psychedelic in others. A really good listen.

Yeah, no. Syd is referenced in so many Pink Floyd songs and whole albums. I don't have much use for this album except it inspired me to check the first PF album when Syd was in charge, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - way more interesting!

No real standouts on this album for me, though I didn't mind it. Apparently Syd Barrett was a member of Pink Floyd in their early days, and I can definitely hear that influence in the mix. The album sounds relatively unpolished and the songs are a bit odd/wonky. I honestly don't know how to feel about it, but it's kinda cool. 6.5/10.

Started this album not knowing much about Syd Barrett. I thought it had a lot of sounds similar to the Beatles or Pink Floyd. Later learning, that Syd was formerly part of Pink Floyd and he was kicked out of the band due to mental health challenges, erratic behaviour, and heavy psychedelic drug use. Apparently inspiring the popular song in tribute to him “Shine on you Crazy Diamond”. I’m sure he was a big part of the band and it was a difficult but necessary decision to move on without him. The remaining members of Pink Floyd clearly showed their support and respect for Syd as they would collaborate with him on his solo endeavours. Though I’m sure the writing was on the wall and the members of Pink Floyd knew they were not going far with Syd remaining a key figure of the band. So as expected Syd’s music career faded away and apparently he faded away from the public. He is said to have picked up a life of gardening and painting. Which sounds quite nice if you ask me. I’m sure with royalties from his early career with pink Floyd supporting his lifestyle he is in a much better place to manage his mental health. Overall I’m sure his musical talent and crazy ideas helped kickoff what we know of Pink Floyd today. He was probably super fun to party with until he wasn’t. I’m sure we all know someone like that in our lives that we have either distanced ourselves from or rebuilt our relationships so that we can stay connected but in a way that doesn’t drag everyone else down. I hope a life of gardening and painting brings calm and peace to Syd’s life.

I thought the instrumentation on the album was cool. But i really did not like the singing on most of the songs. 5/10

I was going to write a mean funny review here, but I think I should change my perspective knowing the backstory to this album. Syd Barrett was the front man for Pink Floyd for 3 years before ending up with health issues due to overuse of LSD. Look up the backstory, pretty wild and also very sad as he slowly lost his marbles. This was the album he released after getting the boot from the other members. The album I feel slowly falls apart the further you get into it, although there are moments that actually sound alright. Its an interesting album to listen to knowing the context of what happened, a very sad album to listen to as well, especially knowing how good Pink Floyd went on to be. However it was not very enjoyable to listen to unfortunately. 4/10 sorry Syd.