This is the unfortunate successor of Piper -- unfortunate in that Syd is a half-entity and it seems the madness could only be harnessed by him. Like all early Floyd albums, though, A Saucerful Of Secrets is yet another stepping stone the band would eventually use to reach greater musical heights. It starts off promising enough with "Let There Be More Light," a back and forth interplay of loud and soft mingling psychedelia on an epic scale. Then, omigawd, "Remember A Day" happens. And can you remember a day when Pink Floyd didn't sound original -- which is to say, like Pink Floyd? This sounds like a bloody Moody Blues song, and while I still like it, I think I like it only because I also sometimes like the Moody Blues. "Corporal Clegg?" Fucking brilliant. I love the dissonant contrasts and and especially the triumphant kazoo passages. "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun," like the live version on Ummagumma, is just awful. Ditto for "Saucerful Of Secrets," also known as "Drugged Drumming 101" -- awful as well. "See-saw" is just pure up and down, which may be fitting, but I still don't like it. "Jugband Blues," our official farewell to Syd's time in Floyd, is pure bonkers. I love it. It's awfully considerate. Especially that brief descent into horn chaos. C+
4 comments:
I love "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun." It's sparse and simple and yet has as much madness as a bigger song like "One of These Days."
It was nice that Syd had one last stand on this work but in the end I'm more than happy about his departure. I can only deal with so much of that quirky psychadelic stuff. A Saucerful of Secrets usually doesn't get much play from me, every now and then when I'm feeling like some Floyd that I typically pass over I'll go to this but it's pretty rare. Plus once again our Floyd differences are showing because I love "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", it's such a hauntingly awesome song.
Jeff, we can't expect too much common ground with Hatter. He actually thinks The Wall is a great album after all.
Bah! Bob, you're just unhappy The Wall doesn't sound like the other Floyd albums. I really, truly, sincerely don't understand the hatred of it, because yes -- I do think it's a great album. Better than Dark Side? Better than Wish You Were Here? Not even fucking close. What can I say, other than this was my first Floyd album, so in that sense, perhaps, I am guilty of holding some perverse counterintuitive fondness for the album much like everyone else has for the Beatles. But I still like it. I even imitate the voices during The Trial. It's great. Ahem, but the film version -- Bob Geldof is a fucking twat. Ok, no more, the post is on its way.
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