A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS

A Secretful Of Saucers

After the departure of Barrett, first helped out by The Nice's David O'List, then by David Gilmour, most everyone would not bet on the group's survival, including the group's management who dropped them (in favour of Barrett, what a mistake!!), and conscious that their record label would follow, Floyd issued their second album Saucerful, less than one year after Piper and definitely kept the short Barrett song format as a majority of the album. This album came with one of the first and superbly psychedelic artwork of Hypgnosis.

Wright and Waters picked up the songwriting task, with Wright penning two, the ambitious mellotron-filled See-Saw and Remember A Day (a holdover from Piper), while Waters writes the rest of the album, except for the collegial title track. Then, of course, there is the awful but anti-militarist Corporal Clegg, (sung by Mason (!) and Gilmour), the horrible Jugband Blues, both quite sub-par and least but not last, the album-opening Be More Light, with its promising intro?

Among the major highlights of this album (and setting the group's future musical direction) is Controls To The Heart Of The Sun (dating from pre-Piper days), one that continues in the line of Interstellar Overdrive, but despite its title, Waters' slow and soft recitation (his only vocal intervention in the present album) of some Asian poetry, it is not space/sci-fi related. This track is an invitation to a psych travel or trip with its Indian modal inprovs, this track will remain in the live sets until DSOTM days. The other highlight is the 12-mins four-part title track, the first really ambitious Floyd oeuvre. The smooth opening movement soon transforms into an oppressive atmosphere, leading to the more-difficult second movement where Mason's repeated drums rolls are the centre of the other three colleagues' gradually more cacophonous crescendoing improvisations. The return to calm is gloomy with Wright's sombre organ taking over, alone at first, but soon joined by mellotrons and heavenly choirs, leading to a grandiose celestial finale.

Aside a minimal Barrett input (Jugband Blues) into this second album, Saucerful is definitely a transitional album, where Floyd measured their talents at writing pop songs ala Barrett and decided to fly on their own uncertain wings for an uncertain voyage and an undetermined destination. While Saucerful is really uneven, prefer it to Piper, mainly because it is a decisive step to their future endeavours

i dont know what it is about this album but its probably my favourite of the floyd and a real wonder. 1968 arrived. and pink floyd had to figure out how to make an album that can be as good as piper at the gates of dawn even though they lost key member syd barrett. the answer... david gilmour.

This album experiments with mellower tracks like see saw and remember a day, solo written pieces by each band member, a syd barrett track jugband blues which is amazing, and progressive songs with experiments in guitar, drum and keyboard sounds. the title track is a trippy and scary extensive piece that literally sounds like an alien and futuristic noise. the changes between guitar effects, drum pieces and gong bashing are extraordinary.

The opener "let there be more light" is an absolute gem that kicks you in the teeth with the fast paced opening riff and spacey feel to the song. the classic "set the controls to the heart of the sun" shows rogers great songwriting skills and it is musically flawless. One other trippy song which is reminiscent of piper is "corporal clegg" this is a prelude to the wall as the lyrics are clearly about the death of rogers father dying in the war but this is not revisited until the wall. extremely underrated.

PINK FLOYD fans are not going to like what I have to say about this album, which sounds to me like THE BEATLES meets HAWKWIND meet BONZO DOG DOO-DAH BAND. In my teens this album sounded wierd and hip, now it sounds dated, simplistic and almost thrown together.

The bass riff at the beginning of 'Let There Be More Light' sounds very promising but the remainder of the song does not deliver, although there are clear indications in this track of better things to come in later albums. The dated "Lucy in the sky" reference at one point and the music itself reinforce an image of someone getting stoned in a Marrakech kasbah.

'Remember A Day' also sounds very 1960s-ish. I quite like it, probably for nostalgic reasons rather than the music itself, which is a pleasant enough, somewhat dreary tune and nothing special.

'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun' is another pot smoker's hymn, with its hypnotic, Tantric-sounding chant. Very hippie-ish and dated, but quite pleasant and relaxing. Nothing special though.

'Corporal Clegg' is another very 1960s-ish song. It seems like a poor imitation of THE BEATLES' "Sgt. Pepper's" style. It reminds me a bit (especially the part with the kazoo, or whatever it is) of the BONZO DOG DOO-DAH BAND. I don't know whether the track is supposed to be cynical, but nevertheless it does nothing for me.

The album's title track is psychedelic space music full of random sounds made with the instruments, slightly reminiscent of HAWKWIND's live interludes. Think tinkling wind charms, noises like night birds - that sort of thing. It sounds like the soundtrack of a thriller or horror movie - the part where the psychopath is stalking the victim in a dark warehouse. The organ at the end is quite nice, though - almost church-like.

'See-Saw' sounds like some 3rd rate imitation of a BEATLES song from "Sgt. Pepper's". It has facile lyrics, is boring and again sounds very dated.

'Jugband Blues' again sounds like a 3rd rate rip-off of THE BEATLES' "Sgt. Pepper's". It's not anything special.

Overall, this is one of the least interesting of PINK FLOYD's albums in my opinion. Perhaps of interest to collectors in order to follow the history and evolution of the band, but musically less interesting than much of their other work.

Undoubtedly, if I could've lived through that belle époque of the early 70's, instead of been born in the late ones; to witness not only the birth of prog rock but the rise of determinant albums like this altogether, I certainly will sustain a whole different point of view concerning this almost completely written piece by youngster Roger WATERS. Far from giving a complete explanation of why psychedelic rock is retaking a considerable spot among the prog community these days, I rather talk about how come I consider this album and its predecessor, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", as the implosions that gave birth to prog rock.

Firstly, back then in 1967, the band's first production was catalogued of incorrigibly strident and senseless, which truth be told, was the watermark of prog rock. In the same year, the band composed and arranged three of the seven pieces contained in "A Saucerful of Secrets", which weren't included in "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" due the inconveniences and financial impossibilities the record labels where suffering those days. Due those dry patches the record companies where going through, PINK FLOYD recorded their singles partly and unevenly with different musical seals, in that order they recorded "Remember a Day", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "Jugband Blues" with Westminster Music Ltd. and the rest of the record with Lupus Music Ltd. in 1968. Eventually, the band gave the music industry "A Saucerful of Secrets", occupying the empty seat of the "see-saw" to lift "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" off the ground. The record companies gave the band fair recognition and fought over which would be the first one to get the quartet to sign a new record deal.

Secondly, and beyond the interminable discussions regarding "which was the first prog band ever?", I'm just gonna limit myself to setting the basis of why I consider them the fathers of prog rock. Maybe in 1966, some bands appealed to prog rock released a single before PINK FLOYD did, but that didn't mean those bands were assumed to be blanketed underneath the progressive rock trend wing and contemplate them as precursors. PINK FLOYD set the basis and the parameters from where rock was going to be considered as progressive or not, and they still do, no matter if it's been over ten years from their last studio release. The band commanded in the very beginning by Syd BARRET, then by Roger WATERS during the providential stage of the band and by David GILMOUR afterwards the inevitable split up, started to stand up somewhere in between the prominent musicians of that time like Bob DYLAN, Frank ZAPPA or THE BEATLES, by proposing and establishing new musical trends. The PINK FLOYD albums proceeding "A Saucerful of Secrets" contain the pure essence of the band and the key parts for the creation of masterpieces such as "Meddle", "The Dark Side of the Moon", "Wish You Were Here", "Animals". all crafted under the initial psychedelic rock alignments the English band was founded on.

"A Saucerful of Secrets" is a very underestimated album. Pieces like "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" still have reminiscences not only in our minds when relating PINK FLOYD to a specific stage of their successful career, but in the compilation, live, remastered albums, proving they have prevailed no matter how many years they carry on they shoulders. Excellent album that certainly was way to many steps ahead the nowadays musical achievements and an incomparable piece of work. Masterfully interpreted, irremediably a point of departure to many incoming bands, a must definitely. PINK FLOYD at its best.

At this point, Barrett's inceasingly unpredictable and bizarre behavior could no longer be denied; David Gilmour, an old friend to both Barret and Waters, was brought on to replace him on stage- it was briefly thought that Syd could be a non-performing member, like Brian Wilson of the BEACH BOYS. As a result, we have the first of many transitional PINK FLOYD albums which are characterized by an inconsistent style- the result of four songwriters in an already wildly popular band simultaneously learning their craft. The Lewis Carroll whimsy of "Piper" is mostly absent, with the more extended, improvisational 'space rock' elements filling in. And there is quite a bit of filler; this album could have been even shorter had all the extraneous solos and weird sounds been trimmed (but then it wouldn't have been a PINK FLOYD album!).

"Let There Be More Light" begins with an uninspired bass riff and some organ noodling; eventually we get to the song itself, where Waters' limp lyrics contributing plodding verses and over-dramatic choruses padded out with more noodling and plenty of cymbal crashes. "Remember a Day" is better, with a melancholy but unsettling Wright-penned lyric and otherworldly backing. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" is a classic, eerie and droning but with a great sense of buildup. Waters' lyrics benefit from their ambiguity here. "Corporal Clegg" is Waters' attempt at a Barrett writing style, a portrait of british eccentricity rather than a precursor to later criticisms of warfare (the military motif giving conspiracy-minded lyric-spotters a red herring). The chorus is interestingly compressed and distorted, but the song is rather unremarkable- too much like those on "Piper" but less fun. "See Saw" is Wright's version of Barrett, again capturing the weirdness but not the buoyant dark whimsy. To the song's credit, it establishes a dreamy ambience and sense of loss in the lyrics. Going by this album alone, one could have thought that Wright would emerge as the dominant songwriter in the band...

The title track is the first long piece the band recorded for an album. Conceived and arranged by the band with a series of visual patterns (a compositional process more often used by avant-garde musicians like John Cage), it forms the blueprint for later works. Like "Heart of the Sun", a better live version can be found on "Ummagumma", but it is still interesting to hear how the band is experimenting with sound manipulation in the studio (and not just any studio...right down the hall from the Beatles). The final organ-based movement is pretty powerful, reflecting the more dramatic classical influence that eventually replaces the orginal whimsical acid-pop sound altogether.

The only Barrett contribution to this collection is "Jugband Blues", a perfect bridge between the psychedelic "Piper" and his later solo works. Especially poignant in retrospect, the song is an intermittent lysergic sound-poem bookended by lyrics worth all the other words on the album put together.

This album is not as unique or enjoyable as "Piper", but more similar to the albums that would follow and full of great moments for FLOYD fans and space rock connoisseurs. Barrett's regrettable departure nevertheless allowed the band to become the one we know and love today, and these sometimes unsure first steps are definitely worth a listen.

After the ingenuity of the first album this a disapointment and a very disjointed affair showing that at this point without Barretts leadership they seemed...well, leader less!

Still, it's got "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" but its a tame enough version and over all a sterile enough sounding album. "Corporal Clegg" at best sounds unfinished to me and that kazoo is just annoying! Stable effort.

OK IMO not up there with Piper at the gates of Dawn but still a good album. I do think Barrett's deterioration was beginning to show which for me makes saucerful of secrets somewhat disjointed. It is still a very good album as I say and the highlights include ' Jugband Blues' ' Remember a day' and the eerie ' Set your controls....'. This last piece is excellently reproduced at the pompeii gig for those interested.

Moving away from the manic absurdity of 'Piper' into a more space rock sound on this one, featuring a powerful start in 'Let There be more Light', PF explores their own compositional skills within psychedelic and avant-garde soundscapes. The eerily atmospheric and rhythmic 'Set the Control' is one of the bands signature pieces from this time, with the classic psych sensibilities, followed by a most wacky and sardonic 'Corporal Clegg' featuring some really barbed wire guitar sounds and haunting vocals. The title track is the most remarkable, an avant-garde depiction of a war in four movements, building tension and dissonance before breaking into clash of noises and effects, maddening but intriguing stuff. 'Jugband Blues' is a disturbed last track from Syd Barrett, complete with a jugband going crazy in the middle of the track before of fades out in darkness.. the lyrics in particular are extra effective here. Overall a very good early Floyd album, highly recommended to fans of this era of the band.

Pink Floyd's second album is basically the same line of its predecessor. Comparatively, we have psychedelic arrangements as well but a little more diluted in favour of melody. Spacey motives have been almost reduced to the creepy title track which, by the way, is the album's finest: it has 3 parts; the first starts with a scaring crescendo noise (sounding like a ship coming our way), followed by twinkling objects by wind giving a sensation of loneliness and fear, psycho strong piano, strange sounds exploring stereo. sudden they vanished and the second part brings a crescendo drumming leading to more terrifying sounds. The ending part is quite different, with melancholic slow church organ playing followed by mellow chorus.

Other highlights include the tracks until the title track, the main riffs and melodies of Let There be More Light and Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, this last with some spacey ideas as well; and the sad nostalgia of Remember a Day. These and the title track song have constituted very influential songs over the next decades. The other tracks are basically pleasant songs, which show more again (like in the debut album) strong BEATLES influence, particularly from one of their most experimental (and best) works "St. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club".

Resuming: more diluted psychedelic ideas but also more catchy melodies and one incredible ambience 3 part suite. We can even smell a start of the transition that would transfigure the next albums.

My rate: 8/10

Nobody believed they could do it--not even their original management, who abandoned them in favor of Syd BARRETT, who now found it impossible to function within the band due to problems that included drugs. "Jugband Blues" definitely captures the state he was in, as well as (I think) awareness of his being phased out. Although I personally don't like this song, it certainly sets the stage for the rest of the album, which aside from one amazing and unique feature, forecasts PINK FLOYD's later directions with great accuracy.

I feel that PINK FLOYD's survival after this blow is owed not to one person, but TWO, who could hardly be more opposite: Richard WRIGHT and Roger WATERS. One might even (if you allow me a bit of poetic license with my usage of the terms) call them "yin" and "yang" respectively. With new guitarist David GILMOUR still trying to find his place in the band, having not yet developed an independent style, quiet-natured Richard WRIGHT brought his already-established Eastern-tinged and innovative musical talents to the table. Even Roger WATERS' "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" owes a heavy debt to his keyboarding. WRIGHT also makes extensive songwriting contributions, including the gorgeous, haunting "Remember a Day" and the relaxing "See-Saw", both of which he wrote on his own. Also remarkable is his vocal contribution. The remaining half of the excellent Barrett-Wright vocal duo very nearly made his soft, melodic, and unique voice THE voice of PINK FLOYD here. In fact, to my ear, he made it onto every track except "Jugband Blues", although the title track is arguable (duet, GILMOUR, or WRIGHT?) and "Set the Controls" is hard to tell. All I can say on the latter is, compare the faint "aaaahh" bit to the same place on Live at Pompeii where GILMOUR is clearly doing it, or Ummagumma (Live), where WATERS does it, to the "aaaahh" at the beginning of "Far from the Harbour Wall" on Rick WRIGHT's Broken China, and tell me which the studio version sounds more like.

PINK FLOYD's "yang" force, the outspoken Roger WATERS, brought his lyrical skills to the table with lyrics to "Corporal Clegg" (shades of The Wall?), "Set the Controls" ("Will he remember the lesson of giving?"), and I think also "Let There Be More Light". However, WATERS seems, oddly enough, the more tentative of the opposite RW's on this album, perhaps because he was still working on finding his voice. On A Saucerful of Secrets he relies heavily on outside influences such as Syd BARRETT and Chinese poetry. That said, however, his is a worthy contribution.

Nick MASON fans get a rare chance to hear him in full Eastern-psychedelic glory in the studio setting, most notably on "Set the Controls" and the apparent forerunner of "Echoes" (far more so than "Atom Heart Mother"), "A Saucerful of Secrets". Lyrically, all three writers are turning away from the Piper-era whimsy towards nostalgia (in WRIGHT's case) and madness (in WATERS' and BARRETT's cases), although some of the psychedelic, free-form style remains.

Those of you who have not heard Piper or Relics may be shocked to hear the severe recording-equipment limitations the Floyd suffered from in their early days--this is down to their label, in my opinion, which underfunded them. This, along with my dislike of "Jugband Blues" are why I dock the rating of this album half a star. But as both are due to difficult, uncontrollable circumstances, and the band DOES come through them well, I must give them their due credit. Overall, this album is a must-have for any PINK FLOYD fan's collection. It was truly a unique moment in their history--never again would yin and yang experience such synergy with both virtually in "command".

Any fan of psychedelic rock must know the first two records of Pink Floyd. "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" was up-spaced too, but with "A Saucerful Of Secrets" they redefineed the genre of psychedelia. More music from far away dimensions and the music got an new character with the second lead guitar by David Gilmour.

Songs like "Let There Be More Light", "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" or the romantic "See-Saw" are definitive chill-out-pieces, but don't only work under the influence of marijuana or harder drugs. They can take you on a trip of undiscovered mental feelings and mind conclusions. This trippy side of Pink Floyd won't be loved by some people, specially by the mainstream-audience may find it annoying, but it deserves attention as essential part of the band history. Syd Barret was the hero of the psychedelic movement in the late 60's and he will always be missed by fans of this era. Schizophrenia was the reason for, that he left the band after that record. All the best Syd, you crazy diamond!

Simply put, if you've liked the debut album, don't hesitate to get A Saucerful of Secrets as well. It may be an aquired taste, since it's light-years away from the direction of Pink Floyd's big era, but it's undeniably a worthy addition to the collection of any prog listener. Even if you are mainly into Symphonic prog or Jazz rock or RIO/Avant-prog or...

album rating: 7.5/10 points = 76 % on MPV scale = 4/5 stars

point-system: 0 - 3 points = 1 star / 3.5 - 5.5 points = 2 stars / 6 - 7 points = 3 stars / 7.5 - 8.5 points = 4 stars / 9 - 10 points = 5 stars

The importance of the loss of Syd Barrett on the PINK FLOYD sound can not be overemphasized. It was infinitely more serious than their later loss of Waters in the 1980's. After all, to their fans at the time Syd was PINK FLOYD!

Whereas 'Piper' was entirely Syd-dominated with slight glimpses of Rick and Roger's vocal and writing influences, 'A Saucerfulof Secrets' (ASoS) is a hodge podge of: 4 different vocalists (everyone but Nick Mason sings), multiple lyricists/song writers (Waters is credited with 3 songs, Wright with 2, and Barrett with 1) and a very unnecessary and indulgent percussive experiment on the eponymous track ('ASoS'). In actuality, much better (live) versions of the song 'ASoS' appear on 'Ummagumma' and 'Live at Pompeii' with Gilmour's rendition of 'Celestial Voices' sounding absolutely "heavenly".

These factors make this album distracting at times (is that Dr. Strange on the album cover?) and more a collection of different musical visions, rather than a cohesive work. I mean, there is space rock, psychedelia, whimsical tunes, blatant prog, Mason's over-indulgent drum solo and even the proverbial brass band in 'Jugband Blues' on this album. Add to all this, a very hesitant (for good reason) replacement in Dave Gilmour and well, it takes its toll.

This album does have its strong points though:

1) Space Rock. 'Let There Be More Light', 'Remember a Day', and 'Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun' are definitive offerings of what was to be become PINK FLOYD's early signature sound, progressive space rock.

2) Rick Wright. FLOYD in later years would come to be dominated and synonymous with Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters. But in the early days, Rick Wright was a full participating member of the band and easily as influential a songwriter as Waters. He writes a strong piece of music in 'Remember A Day', arguably his best.

3) Syd's Swan Song. It is not on 'Wish You Were Here's' melancholic 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' where we sense Syd's ghost the most, but rather in his own fittingly haunting lyrics of this album's 'Jugband Blues' : "It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here and I'm almost obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here"

'ASoS' is good prog, and a great (the best?) example of the 'space rock' genre. It is however extremely disjointed compared to its predecessor 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn', and is very unapproachable for the average listener. If you are not a fan of prog or space rock, this album should be devalued even further to 2/5 stars.

"Far Far Away" opens the adventuress and psychedelically charmed masterpiece from early Barrett influenced FLOYD. "A Saucerful Of Secrets" was I suppose a bit of a transition album bridging Syd's psychedelia influenced music with new member David Gilmour's and his slightly more progressive leanings. I love the early FLOYD psychedelic experience and IMHO "A Saucerful Of Secrets" represents one of the key albums that helped shape both the progressive rock era as well as the generation readiness for the prog explosion. This album also manages to cover a good chunk of ground from the dreamy membrane of Wright's "Remember A Day" to the socially poignant and surface humor of "Corporal Clegg" to the pure progressive magic of "Set The Control For The Heart Of The Sun". The end result is a tremendous little album full of dark and psychedelic influenced exploratory progressive rock.

The only really good things about this album are that it is marginally more listenable than its predecessor and that it marks the end of Syd Barrett in the band. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun and See Saw give glimpses of what was to come, but suffice it to say that I've had this album for 35 years and have only played it half a dozen times. I tried to listen to it for this review but just couldn't face it all and gave up halfway through. How did they ever survive such awful debut albums to become the geniuses they later were?

The title is also great!

Im not going to tell you about Pink Floyd`s history, only remark things that you already know, A Saucerful of Secrets was the second album that Pink Floyd released, but the difference is that here Syd Barrett put his last collaboration before being kicked away by the band, so that`s a special taste about this for that reason, what is next to the Barret`s psychedelia, what`s left of the Barret`s insanity , i dont know, but what im sure is that this album made differenc in the history of music, and in the hearts of Floyd lovers.

A difference to their debut album, here a new touch was led to the album, David Gilmour on guitars joined the band to create a rockish and more experimental sound, which we wont appreciate yet in this album, because it has yet the psychedelic and acid LSD Barrettesque sound, but anyway we can notice a new mind and a new prescence here.

Seven are the tracks which were placed in this great album to delight and please music lovers, starting with a great atmospheric and acid song called "Let There Be More Light", which is recognizable for it`s guitar sound at the beggining of the song, then it starts to fade down and vocals appears, a great song to start the album, i personally enjoy this song very much, i wont review all the songs, but i will tell you about some of them.

"Remember a Day" is the track which was composed by Richard Wright (when non Waters - Gilmour big ego guys could create compositions) and believe it or not it has his particular touch, besides his vocals, it has yet the early peace and love organ sound.

"Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", who considered Pink Floyd fan doesn`t know this classic, great song with pretty nice lyrics and a superb atmosphere during it, this time a Waters hymn, but chek out the drums.

"A Saucerful of Secrets" is maybe the lloniest or craziest of them all , instrumental, only with Gilmour`s voice and screams at the end of the song, it could be an improvisation, i dont know, but great.

And the last song is also the last Syd Barret`s touch and composition during his time in Pink Floyd, "Jugband Blues" with his very own style, giving us a song alike to thos Relics songs, not the best, but also nice.

So far this is not my favorite album, but i really love it, you can have a great time while listening to it, no matter if you are a Floyd or better said an early Floyd fan, i suggest it to you all.

This is another excellent early record by The Floyd, slightly different to their debut, as it shows the beginning in places of the lengthier pieces they were to develop later on. 'Set The Controls' is the sort of thing that was to be reinvented by bands such as 'The Orb' many years later. Repetitive and hypnotic, it is particularly effective through the headphones. The opener, 'Let There Be More Light' is another fine piece, with superbly contrasting vocals in places. My personal favourite though, has to be the romantic 'See- Saw' with simple but evocative piano from Richard Wright. The whole album is suffused with atmosphere, and sounds quite modern considering its age. Both Barrett and Gilmour are influencial here, and it was a fascinating period, with, for a brief time, a five piece line- up. For me, they weren't to do an album anywhere near as good again until the classic 'Meddle', three years later. Superb cover too.

This album was a huge disappointment to me personally, though I realize the influence it had as pioneer to both soon emerging post-psychedelic musical scene and the acid rock oriented krautrock acts. I had high hopes about the LP when I had just started to find the material of early Pink Floyd. The stunning album covers made promises of a highly aesthetic voyage to the inner realms, this expectation forced with heard live versions of the album compositions and its high appraisals. The major flaws here are in my opinion the following: The shorter tracks are not good as compositions, and the good long tracks have been ruined with sterile studio sounds. I believe there are much better versions of "Set The Controls for The Heart of The Sun" and "A Saucerful of Secrets" on the recordings from their live performances. Even the "Jugband Blues" with late Syd Barrett sounds quite silly, unlike his later solo works at their best. On a whole, I have found the discography of Pink Floyd very unbalanced, reaching sometimes unbelievable heights, then other occasions getting lost either to unpolished psychedelic abstractions or over produced bluesy boredom.

This album marked the departure of Former frontman Syd Barret, who have a composition here, the beautiful Jugband Blues. This album was made in the purest tradition of the psychedelia era, with long acid trips ( Sauceful of secrets), some short moving songs ( Jugband Blues, Remember a day), and original things from wich Pink Floyd would construct (Mainly Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun) The first step into Space Rock were aready made, and even though this is not a masterpiece, it is still a plesant album to listen to, mostly withou a bad song. The first side is definitely stronger, but even the second side has its strenghts. 4.5/5

It looks like i'm one of the few people who consider this a masterpiece from start to end...*gets shocked*

Anyway, this is the last album with Syd's presence. I really love this one, in my opinion it is much better than "Piper", "More" and "Ummagumma", making this the best FLOYD work from the 60's era. What we have here is awesome and complex psychedelic music.

Opening with the memorable intro chords of "Let There Be More Light", the cosmic tour begins leading to the great Rick Wright's piece "Remember A Day", showing how important this keyboardist's contributions were to the band. The first song has some very insane lyrics mentioning even Lucy, from that famous BEATLES' song. The latter is one of my fav Wright's works, that leads to the amazing "Set the controls..." that is even better live. I have a profound passion for this song and consider it one of the most underrated ones of the FLOYD catalogue. "Corporal Clegg" is very Waters-ish and the worst track from the album - but i like it as well! It can get a bit annoying if you are still not used to the FLOYDIAN psychedelia, but then we have the title epic to put the album back to its pedestal. "Storm Signals" and "Celestial Voices" are pure heaven, being the previous parts not bad either. The whole epic according to Waters is about a battle being "Celestial Voices" the cry of the dead ones. Of course the live version from Ummagumma is much better, but i love this studio one a lot too. Then the album goes very dreamy with "See Saw", another Wright's contribution leading to Syd's farewell on the disturbing and moving at the same time "Jugband Blues".

In my opinion this album is the first real important FLOYD one. It is the best side of pure Space Rock made by this band, and soon they would get into a more complex and crafted progressive sound on Atom Heart Mother. We have two weaker albums until then, though: "More" and "Ummagumma". But those aren't bad and do have some great songs within them. The FLOYD is only begining to show the world why they are here for, and slowly growing and discovering their true sound.

Psychedelia at its best!

The sophomore FLOYD album has been largely dismissed as a "transitional" Barrett to Gilmour album, where the band were "searching for their sound". Hell, the sound is already here and what a sound! Absolutely essential psychedelic album for any serious music listener. Wright provides his two excellent contributions, "Remember a Day" and "See-Saw", while Waters delivers his first masterpiece, "Set the Controls...". A big filler is a dull and never-ending title track, which however seemed to have paved the path for the early TANGERINE DREAM, although not the sound that I like very much. Recommended as PINK FLOYD at their most psychedelic moment.

Much better!! for my taste. They have started to developed their stuff! And, what will make PF unique in every sence in the Space Rock Genre.. There are real Gems in this album!! Recommended to any prog lover.

A kind of transition album with Syd Barrett leaving and David Gilmour arriving and both present in the content. Even it is remarkable this does not turn ASoS into a spectacular work.

The feeling is that no step forward previous studio album ("The Piper...") was achieved which is clearly represented by a kind of distinctive sound repetition. Best points are the enjoyable opening track 'Let there be light' and the mantra-like psychedelic anthem 'Set the controls to the heart of the sun', recommended for all kinds of trips.

Other songs range from weak to average and are worthy to be heard when one is interested in listening to the album as a whole.

Average, stepping up to a good rating for being historically interesting. Total: 3.

Hmmm. This was one of the most interesting albums I think I have ever heard. The good tracks definitely out-weigh the bad tracks, but trust me the bad tracks are still there. "Let There Be More Light" opens the album in a fine fashion, with a nice bass line that hooks you in until the song starts. One of my favorite Floyd songs, and probably the best off of this album. "Remeber A Day" is on both sides of the spectrum at the same time. It is incredibly psychedelic and has a dreamy atmosphere, but some of the lyrics are absolute paranoia ("Hide from your little brother's gun..."). Another one of my favorite songs however. "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" features some nice percussion but that's about it. The chanting is a little over the top if you ask me, and I usually skip over this song. "Corporal Clegg" is a fine song - at your first few listens. Once you start to hear this song again and again, it starts to seem a little dated, boring, and just annoying. The kazoo has to go. Ahhh, time for the title track now. The nice big long 11 minute "A Saucerful of Secrets". What to say about this? Well I can start off by saying it is A COMPLETE WASTE OF DISK SPACE! This is one of the most boring, rambling, get-stoned-and-jam-for11 minutes thing I have ever heard! I just skip this track, it is highly overrated and it ruined any chance of a 5-star rating. "See-Saw" is another prime example of those bad tracks I told you about at the beginning. It is pyschedelia at its rawest and most mind-shattering, but if you aren't stoned while listening to this then you realize that you are listening to complete gibberish over a repetetive chord. Worth a listen, but it is very dated. The album ends in a fine fashion however. Syd Barrett's last contribution to the Floyd is here as his final send-off. "Jugband Blues" tells the tale of Syd's insanity, disguised as a poppy pyschedelia song. Listen to the lyrics, and somebody tell me why they didn't get Syd to a doctor sooner.

4 stars. A really great pyschedelia album overall, but the title track kills the masterpiece appeal. Definitely worth your time though.

From this album onwards, they dropped "The" from the band name to become "Pink Floyd". A major line-up change with this album with the arrival of David Gilmour. He used to replace Syd for their live gigs (in December 1967). Then he became a permanent member of the Floyd from then on. Although he will not sign a lot of songs on ASOS (only one, as co-author of the title track) his influence will be huge on the band. About Syd, David wil say : "We were friends first, then we picked up guitars later on. I was playing professionally in groups before Syd. He'd know something, I'd know something and we'd swap, as people do in back rooms everywhere."

About the way the band thought they still could work with Syd, he will say : "It was fairly obvious that I was brought in to take over from him, at least on stage. It was impossible to gauge his feelings about it. I don't think Syd has opinions as such. The first plan was that I would join and make it a five piece so it would make it easier so that Syd could still be strange but the band would still function. And then the next idea was that Syd would stay home and do writing and be the Brian Wilson elusive character that didn't actually perform with us and the third plan was that he would do nothing at all. And it quickly changed 'round, and it was just....it was *obviously* impossible to carry on working that way."

In terms of composition, there is also a major difference. While "Piper" is almost Syd's album, this one contains only one song from him (Jugband Blues) which is the poorest of the album. Due to his addiction and slow way down to craziness, he was not able any longer to be the song-wrtiter he used to be, so the other members had to perform or ... disappear. Logically, there was an enormous pression on Roger's shoulders who had to write as many good tracks as he could. Their producer (Norman Smith former sound engineer of the Beatles till "Ruber Soul" ) wanted them to become the new Beatles !

Waters signed three songs (of which two are from the best one here) as sole composer :

"Let There Be More Light" is a great piece of psychedelic music : great bass work during the intro, some Oriental influence (more to come) and hypnotic vocal passages (with reference to Lucie in the Sky ...). A very good opener.

His next great track is "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun". It could have come out of Syd's mind but Waters showed his ability in writing great psyche songs as well. The bass play has a major role, and the repetitive tempo is truely fascinating. Actually it is very similar to "Let There..." in the sense of the hypnoytical sound, Oriental influence. This one will be the one Floyd will choose as a highlight of their live sets instead. Very good. It is a great psychedelic trip. His third one is "Corporal Clegg" which is a combination of psyche and hallucinating moments, Beatles type vocals and a kind of stupid chorus. Poor.

Rick Wright ever said that they really did not how to write songs and that they were not quite happy with their results. I must agree for the two songs he wrote " "Remember A Day" : is a nice little tune with drums à la "Set The Controls ..." but not so powerful. A bit childish but not too bad. "See Saw" on the other hand is one of the poorest rack of ASOS and is not worth to be remembered. I quote Rick : "I don't think I've listened to them (Remember A Day, See Saw), ever since we recorded them. It was a learning process. The lyrics were appalling-terrible but so were a lot of lyrics in those days."

Another highlight of course is the title track "A Saucerfull of Secrets" : an almost twelve minutes piece of the craziest psychedelic stuff ever heard (on par with "Interstellar). During a concert in Forth Worth Roger introduced it saying : "The next song, if you may call it a song is A Saucerful of Secrets". I guess there is no better introduction to this piece of music. The lenght will be extended to 23'45" for this occasion.

Rick will say : "We all believed it was going to be one of the best things we'd ever put onto record." Then Rick again : "I did the title track and I remember Norman saying, 'You just can't do this, it's too long. You have to write three-minute songs'. We were pretty cocky by now and told him, If you don't wanna produce it, just go away. A good attitude I think. The same reason why we'd never play See Emily Play in concert."

Lenghtly and bizarre first section (almost four minutes). It is accordingly titled : "Something Else". It is a kind of rehearsal or fine tuning of the instruments before a concert. This part is more a "trip" to the outer world for which each listener can use his imagination to define his feelings.

In the second part : "Syncopated Pandemonium" Mason enters with nice drumming (again a bit à la "Set The Controls...) but it is unfortunately almost unheard in the background (he will be more proeminent during their live sets). It lasts for 3 minutes.

The third part is called "Storm Signal" and is a beautiful introduction to the grand finale called (again accordingly) : "Celestial Voices". The most beautiful vocals on an instrumental track (well, is this possible) ? It is my favorite part of the "song" : very melodious and cresendo building. What a great musical moment. IMHO this is the real start for Pink Floyd and contains three masterpieces of prog / pschedelic songs and announces already tracks like "Echoes" for instance.

The album will peak at Nr. 9 in the UK charts. In terms of touring, 1968 will be a quiter year for Floyd : around sixty concerts. Mostly in the UK but they will also tour in the US and on continental Europe (The Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland). They won't play as opening act any longer. They will perform in some festivals together with bands like Santana, Steppenwolf and The Who. I rate this effort as a three star work.

Most of Pink Floyd's early albums were transitional in one way or another, and this was no exception as it marked the move away from Barrett's whimsy into a more experimental psych phase as Gilmour joined. It's a good album, as they search for new inspiration, with many songs demonstrating an embryonic form of the band's future direction with both Waters and Wright learning to write better songs. Remember A Day and Corporal Clegg are worthy efforts, but the album is most remembered for the studio versions of concert classics Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun and the title track, both developed into extended on-stage psych classics. Barrett's final songwriting credit for the band came in the form of the album finale Jugband Blues, a twisted and very poignant lyric allied to perverse arrangement. A fine way to go out, but not a wholely successful album.

Piper at the Gates of Dawn II

The pressure must have been on from Columbia - the band needed to get product out to the punters - and they'd sacked the ace up their sleeve.

From a record company's point of view, this meant get the product out fast to maintain momentum - hence the intermediary release between the debut and this less charismatic release.

Overall, the music lacks the innocent charm of "Piper", and even though there are some absolute belters on here that would go on to provide momentum for a certain burgeoning music scene in Germany, there is also much filler, and what seems to be an unsuccessful attempt to imitate Syd's inimitable style.

The outstanding tracks don't make this album a compulsory purchase, great as they undeniably are, as there are better (live) versions of these tracks on later releases - notably the outstanding "Live at Pompeii" video soudtrack, but also on "Ummagumma".

"Let There Be More Light" begins with a somewhat frenetic piece of psychedelia, somewhat aimless and noodly in places, but quickly segues into a Barrett-styled song more along the lines of "Chapter 24" than, say, "The Scarecrow". It is probably Wright's keyboards with majestic Hammond sweeps and harmonic minor embellishments that really save this piece from the cosmic dustbin - although the coda loses it more than a bit, Gilmour joining in the general fracas of mindless noodle.

"Remember a Day" is a clear attempt at Barratt-esque whimsy, and to some extent, it does work - Wright's vocal effects have Syd's signature all over them, albeit as a sad reflection of the great man's experimentation. The lyrics seem a little autobiographical on this point, and the melancholic feeling of this song is something that would remain with the Floyd for many years.

"Set the Controls" is the dynamic and dramatic close to side 1 - sadly, in terms of album composition, it's a bit lost in the melancholy mire, but it's the track with the most artistic attention to detail lavished on it - and it shows. Perfect ambience is built up with primaeval drums; Washes of ringing Vibraphone and haunting drifts of Mellotron and other keyboards create a texture that was unique at the time and is still perfectly identifiable back to Floyd to this day. The seagulls would later be re-used in "Echoes".

"Corporal Clegg" is an even more obvious attempt at maintaining the image of the band that once featured Syd, and is a bit of a mish-mash really - an over decorated (read over-produced) pop song with more than a feel of Sgt Pepper about it. Admittedly, there is considerably more darkness than the Beatles - and Hendrix style 11ths and 13ths crop up in all the verse riffs. A bit of an oddity, really.

The title track, which follows, is one of my all-time favourite Floyd pieces - and a four- part suite to boot.

The first part is called Something Else, and is essentially a sound collage that grows in intensity until Syncopated Pandemonium [3:57], another sound collage, led by Mason - but less intense, and more rhythm focussed, such that piano rhythms cross over drum rhythms wild keyboards scream and guitars squeal and wail over the top. This is beatifully shaped noise with all manner of suggestive gestures and a clear display of tight interplay between the band members - it seems random, and is probably supposed to, but indicates a very clear compositional structure.

At [7:16] comes Storm Signal, in which a sinister rumble is topped by slowly drifing, ominous keyboards and rattly percussion that suggests rain. Celestial Voices allegedly starts at [10:14], but there is a distinct change in the keyboard at [8:38] that more than hints strongly at things to come, by playing the Celestial Voices chord progression which acts as a kind of slow ostinato from here to the end of the piece.

The vocals themselves start at [10:14], as promised - a heavenly harmonised choir of angels that are too low in the mix for my tastes, although it's clear that the Floyd intended them as part of the texture rather than the focal point. This was later fixed :o)

Sound effects don't really fix the lazy, but mildly progressive pop song that is See-Saw - enjoyable enough for what it is, and a welcome break after the insanity of "Saucerful..".

But we round off the album with the only Barrett-penned and (I believe performed) number: "Jugband Blues". This, unfortunately (in terms of Progressive Rock), sounds like most of Barrett's solo material - quirky and imaginative songs that you could either think of as experimental, the product of a mind addled by drugs, or the most innocent and spontaneous expression of a song that it's possible to create.

It sports a kind of warped codetta that leads to a final verse section - but, unhappily for Barrett this is probably the worst swansong he could have had, and it's just as well he recorded "The Madcap Laughs".

In summary, then, a patchy album with some really good bits, some filler, and one most excellent we-are-not-worthy, carefully constructed work of art in "Saucerful of Secrets".

Which you can get superb performances of elsewhere.

Not essential - and only just manages to scrape out of the "Collectors/fans" bin by dint of "Let There Be More Light", and the genre-inspiring "Set the Controls..." (also available elsewhere :o).

Clearly among the best Pink Floyd albums in term of inventivity, excentricity and psychedelic "grandeur". This album is off course less impressive than German first essays in free form psych-electronic experimentations (Zodiak free art lab, Organisation...) but we can listen to some astonishing epic improvisations. The sonic potential of psychedelica is well exposed in "Set the controls for the heart of the sun" with its rolling dreams, fuzzing organ sequences and linear, floating atmosphere. The title track is maybe the best thing written by the band: immediate psychedelic nirvana for long, resonating church like organ chords, featuring an efficient immersive ambience. My favourite album with "Ummaguma". The rest of their discography is just mediocre and sometimes painful (despite some good "isolated" spacey rocking tracks as "Obscured by Clouds", "One of these days".) Sorry I can only give 3 stars because of some poppy, easy , childish songs as "Jugband blues", "Corporal Clegg"...

A Saucerful of Secrets was a transitional album for the band. Syd Barrett basically acidified his brain, no longer functioned like a typical human being, and was on his departure from Pink Floyd and reality. The talented David Gilmour joined on guitar duty taking their sound to even higher reaches of psychedelia. Although one might expect this to be a mixed bag, which it is, some signs of advanced compositional and musical skill emerged on this album. Most of the shorter pieces have a Barrett-like quality to them, but musically the band seems a little more cohesive. Waters and Wright do most of the vocals, and admittedly some Barrett fans are going to hate this, but I think it was an improvement. The lyrics are also an improvement (e.g. Corporal Clegg and Remember A Day). The production is still sloppy though.

The nearly 12-minute title track is probably the most interesting piece of music on the album. However, it takes some getting used to as parts of it just seem like noodling around. The non-noodling sections are quite interesting with some haunting atmospherics. Remember this is 1968, so Pink Floyd were already proving how "way ahead of their time" they were this far back.

I still quite enjoy this album after having listened to it for more than 20 years now. Although many consider their debut a groundbreaking album, I personally think this one should get those accolades. It's not perfect enough to merit a five-star rating, but is well deserving of four stars. Essential for Pink Floyd fans and highly recommended to all others.

4.5 stars. After "Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn" Syd Barrett was displaying some really bizarre behaviour, so much so that they brought in a friend named David Gilmour to play guitar during concerts. Gilmour became a permanent member of the band taking part in this their second studio record. Again like "Pipers..." this was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and Norman Smith is again the producer. This is a transitional album of sorts with Barrett being phased out. He did write one song though that recalls their debut album and he takes part in three songs overall. I'm looking forward to Finnforest's review of this album because he knows much more than I do about what was going on behind the scenes at this point. Love the album cover done by another friend of the band, namely Storm Thorgersen.

"Let There Be More Light" is such a good tune. It opens with Waters great bass lines as drums and synths come in. I really like the first part of this song. The song then changes as we get more of a sixties sounding vibe with vocals leading the way. The instrument work is powerful for the last minute and a half. Gilmour and Wright share vocal duties on this one, the latter is heard on the verses. "Remember A Day" is a Wright tune that looks back on what it was like to be a child. Almost sad lyrics like "Why can't we play today ? Why can't we stay that way ?". This is a hazy and dreamy psychedelic tune. Great song. "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" is one of my two favourites on this album along with the title track. The vocals (Waters) on this one are almost whispered as synths, organ, drums and vibes are played. You can hear the seagulls at times. This is a classic FLOYD track written by Waters. "Corporal Clegg" is Waters' first anti-war track. The guitar is aggressive and sharp sounding. This one really sounds like THE BEATLES. It also has some silly moments that recall the first record.

"A Saucerful Of Secrets" reminds me of so much music I listen to. The dark, haunting and eerie atmosphere with organ drones, synths and mellotron and experimental sounds continue for 4 minutes. Then a change as drums roll in. Dissonant sounds come and go. Very freaky low rumbling sounds take over before the scary vibe is back. Organ, vocal melodies and mellotron to end it. "See- Saw" is another Wright tune. This is a dreamy, psychedelic tune with some mellotron. I like this one. It could have fit well on the future "Meddle" album. "Jugband Blues" is Barrett's last song with PINK FLOYD. As Finnforest mentioned to me, the lyrics are to be studied. The first two lines are poignant "It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here. And i'm almost obliged to you for making it clear that i'm not here." Sad actually. Acoustic guitar and vocals lead the way in this unmistakeable Syd song.

For me this is a step up from their debut. I know i'm in the minority with those feelings, but I love the variety and the direction they are now going. So while this may be a transitional album it's an important step for the band. Richard Wright certainly stepped up to the plate here along with Waters of course. I love this album.

An enormous come-down from their essential debut album, 'A Saucerful of Secrets' shows up each and every one of PINK FLOYD's inadequacies without the compensation of good music.

While 'Piper At The Gates of Dawn' featured concise and interesting psychedelic music that captured the spirit of the times, this album simply meanders without direction. The band's numerous critics claim that this characterises their entire post-BARRETT output, and to a degree one is forced to agree with them, no matter how much one personally loves their music, given this record as an example. 'Let There Be More Light' and 'Remember a Day' meander past without troubling the listener either with melody or dynamics. 'Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun' is a marvellous title, but the music, though interesting, doesn't match up. The live version on 'Ummagumma' is far superior. 'Corporal Clegg' is the first of ROGER WATERS' interminable heavy-handed attempts to write about the war and, annoying as it is, it is easily his best effort - which doesn't say much for the stuff to come.

What a pity they didn't think to bolster this largely empty album with some of the better work they had done. 'Careful with that Axe, Eugene' would have worked well here, for example. The title track is a psychedelic freakout - think 'Mind Your Throats Please' from 'Atom Heart Mother' extended for twelve minutes. Unlike 'Interstellar Overdrive' it is totally unsupported by a riff or melody to give it any legitimacy. The average 'See-Saw' and 'Jugband Blues' are dispensable tracks in the PINK FLOYD canon but actually lift the album.

I find myself strangely receptive to Jim Miller's argument that "unfortunately a music of effects is a weak base for a rock group to rest its reputation on - but this is what THE PINK FLOYD have done" (Rolling Stone, 1968). There is certainly nothing on this album to contradict him, and the next two albums simply serve to reinforce his argument. I prefer enjoying an excellent song to trying to get excited about freaky noises. This album lacks the direction, the energy, the charm and the relevance of their debut, and is an album for collectors and fans only.

All this sounds like I don't like PINK FLOYD. Nothing could be further from the truth. They would go on to produce at least four or five true five-star albums, introducing compositional credibility to their array of sound effects and drawn-out, atmospheric noodling. This album simply goes to show (by its absence) that at the heart of music is the ability to write songs.

From the Gates of Dawn to the Saucerful.

1967 was one gigantic rainbow for Pink Floyd. They would start the year with a freshly inked record deal and end the year with a leader in shambles. The first official Piper session with producer Norman Smith took place the evening of February 21 and the first track recorded was "Matilda Mother." It was a magical time and the Piper album would be a phenomenal artistic success, a piece of genius that many fans would place great historical importance on. Sometime in late spring friends began to note changes in Syd. In early August Piper was released and the band began the first sessions for their second album. The next few months would see Barrett become disillusioned with the thought of having to repeat what they just did and deal with the increasing publicity. His drug use was both active and passive. Everyone knows Syd took legendary quantities of acid, what they may not realize is that he was also constantly being dosed by the people around him. These "hangers-on" around Barrett were taking advantage of him and helping fuel his destructive behaviour. I recall reading that they were dosing everything from the tap water to the afternoon tea so that Syd never came down from one trip before the next one started. The Floyd were unable to intervene and some admitted they really didn't try very hard, it was easier to look the other way according to Mason. One wonders if things could have been different had they called for a break and had an intervention to get Syd out of destructive living arrangements but instead they forged ahead. By the end of the year he had become largely useless to the aspirations of the other members. Conventional wisdom calls Syd an acid casualty or mentally ill and there is evidence that supports those assertions. But that is only one piece of the puzzle. The other piece of the puzzle that doesn't get mentioned (because the "acid casualty" angle sells more magazines) is that Barrett forced the end consciously because he hated the direction they wanted to take it. This was at least a part of the reason along with the other issues. But he was conflicted of course: Syd liked the idea of being in a band but he wanted it to stay low-key and underground, he wanted things to be ever weirder and more avant-garde in direction. The others naturally wanted success in the more conventional sense and this meant singles, albums, interviews, and TV. Syd wanted no part of this and so he began to "act up" in ways that were no doubt magnified by his drug use and mental condition. They also admit to putting relentless pressure on him to come up with new material (per manager Andrew King) and being nasty to him when he couldn't do it. I have read other accounts as well stating that the band were unnecessarily mean, not just indifferent, but mean to him in a sort of bullying, mocking way that could not have been helpful. Of course they were quite young too and under pressure so some slack has to be cut. By early '68 Gilmour had been brought aboard as the back-up plan and Syd knew his tenure was about finished. He actually knew earlier than that when the problems began to escalate in the fall of '67 and he began to butt heads with Waters regularly, the legendary "Have You Got It Yet?" story just being one example. (More on his farewell middle-finger to Roger later.) Syd would play his last date with the boys January 20th 1968 at Hastings Pier, the last of a handful of gigs that included both Barrett and Gilmour. Gilmour would sympathize with Waters' decision to sack Barrett as he would again concur with firing Wright about a dozen years later. I wanted to provide this account of the Barrett to Gilmour transition because I get tired of the simple, degrading accounts in magazines-if you dig deeper into the many accounts (in books) of Syd's closest friends, family, and management, you eventually discover his story is a little more complex than just "acid casualty" alone. Also, I am a fan and enjoy boring you all to tears with this :-)

While Syd's exit and the reasons can be debated there is little argument that a Syd-less Floyd was not ready for prime time initially, though they would recover quickly to their great credit. Roger Waters was left to assume control and was far from ready to be lead songwriter though he must be given huge credit for keeping the ship afloat through this difficult period. Saucerful is a big step down from Barrett's masterpiece of psychedelic whimsy and underground folklore. To reduce the reason for this down to the simplest bottom line, it just lacks the incredible spark that happened to be in Syd's grasp in those few months while Piper was being cut. It lacks the wide-eyed enthusiasm they had in their first months before things began to sour. Saucerful is not horrible though and within the tracks can be heard scraps of the band they would become in a few years. Gilmour's first recording session with the Floyd took place on January 10 of 1968. "Let There Be More Light" opens the album with Roger Water's new role as songwriter and it's not too bad, with different trippy sections that fit well together and a nice whisper effect on the vocals. This was also one of the first tracks the new line-up worked on together. Gilmour contributes a somewhat tentative solo towards the end as Wright's keys swirl around it all. "Remember a Day" is a nice psych-pop song by Wright that was a leftover from the Piper sessions: Syd can be heard doing the scrapes of slide guitar roughening up what is an otherwise very "pretty" song. I love the mood of the song which is so melancholic and the theme of wanting to remain in an earlier more pleasant phase of life. There are very nice piano parts by Wright here that contrast well with the slide. Apparently Mason couldn't manage his drum parts on this song and so they are played here by producer Norman Smith who also contributed some backing vocals. "Set the Controls" is an early example of space rock, a tag which would drive Waters crazy in the years to come as he attempted to write more about the human condition than abstract ideas like outer space. The song features prominent keyboard work by Wright and Mason's typical rolling drum variations along with various sound effects. There has long been controversy about Syd's contribution to this track. According to David Parker's excellent book "Random Precision," which documents every early recording session with actual studio records and handwritten notes off the EMI tape boxes, the version that appears on Saucerful is take 2 from the August 8, 1967 session and is Barrett on guitar, not Gilmour. While Gilmour claims that some of his overdubs were added later Parker says there is no written evidence in the record to support this and there is no question that the version used on the album is the August '67 take. In a 1993 interview Dave would confirm Syd plays a bit on Set the Controls but still maintains he also is on there via later overdubs. Parker says the records do not show this but admits records aren't always perfect! Either way, the song is dominated by the main riff and would again be much better on future live versions. "Corporal Clegg" is the closest the band would get to the Piper sound with its harmonies and kazoo parts but it clearly shows a different thought process happening lyrically. There is some fine guitar work here by Gilmour and a Beatle psychedelic feeling at the end with the effects. The title track "Saucerful" is the only composition here written by the entire new band and is a source of disagreement among fans. As the longest track at 12 minutes it either makes or breaks the album for you. It features spooky sounding dissonant weirdness for the majority of the song. Some see it as incredibly boring and uneventful; others find the progressions and the bit of melody late in the piece promising. Nick Mason believes the song is one of the "most coherent pieces" they ever did. He and Roger carefully planned the piece out on paper and there was a real spirit of cooperation and constructive work ethic in the studio. This makes complete sense because the band needed to prove themselves in a hurry-no one really thought they had a shot without Barrett. One person who wasn't that happy was Norman Smith. After Barrett's departure he figured the boys would settle down and make some music that was more conventional, instead he wound up working on Saucerful which he called "rubbish." But while Mason thinks this studio version is great I think most fans would probably say that future live versions are a big improvement as the band had time to develop it substantially. Rolling Stone agreed saying "the group and particularly Wright have achieved a complexity and depth, building nuances into the main line of the music, far beyond what is on the studio version or Ummagumma." Other members of the press were not so kind calling it long, boring, and uninventive. "See Saw" is another lovely psych pop moment by Wright which sounds incredibly corny and melodramatic but features nice harmonies and string arrangements. The working title of "See Saw" in the studio was "The Most Boring Song I've Ever Heard Bar 2" which likely means Rick was getting some good natured ribbing over this track. Around 1990 Wright said he considered his two songs "an embarrassment" with "appalling" lyrics and that he had not listened to them since recording them. I think he's being too hard on himself, they are decent enough flower-power pop songs even if out of line with where Waters and Gilmour were heading.

And then there is "Jugband Blues" the one track written by Barrett. It is surely far from Syd's best song but it is one in particular where the lyrics are more direct and biting than usual. It's an important song because it is almost a resignation letter, an open letter to the others indicating he was unhappy and that he knew quite well he was on the way out. Some of the more obvious lines have been quoted to death but to me two other parts are the most striking. First we have the line "And I'm grateful that you threw away my old shoes. And brought me here instead dressed in red" which I believe is sarcasm thanking the others for bailing on him (in advance) and for making him something he was clearly not. (also others have noted that red is a color that signifies human sacrifice for what that's worth.) I tend to think it's about the business making him act in a way that is uncomfortable for him. More biting is the sharp edge of the final two lines that tell me everything I need to know about Syd's departure from PF: "and what exactly is a dream. and what exactly is a joke." This is Syd's "middle finger salute" to Roger Waters in my opinion. There were two directions that PF could have taken. Syd's avant-garde, low-key, underground, counterculture band of artistic weirdness which he clearly wanted (the dream) or Roger's desire for big commercial success (the joke.) Any skepticism of this interpretation I had vanished by watching the video of the Jugband Blues performance on youtube, which hopefully will not been removed by the band. In it you'll see Syd singing and you'll note that Waters is just over his left shoulder. Syd is very still mouthing the words and staring straight ahead. At the end when he utters the last phrase "a joke" he turns to look right at Waters as the cameras fade. Pretty clever for someone who supposedly had no idea what was happening. Sure this is only my speculation but after all I have read on the subject it's certainly not a big stretch.

This is a unique sounding album because Gilmour had yet to assert himself much and Waters was mediocre at best in the musical sense. Wright had the most formal musical training and certainly he was needed here. If you'll notice when listening there are many parts of this album where Wright is actually the most active, impressive player. This is surely the most democratic band period the Floyd would manage, out from under Syd-control but not yet under Roger completely. The band would get the album finished and released by summer '68, while also touring extensively in Europe and the US throughout the period to introduce their new guitarist to the world. Watching some video of early Gilmour performances one can sense a certain relief in the band to be playing with a more dependable vocalist/guitarist. There were probably few bands as good at live gig crisis-management than early Floyd and the Doors, always having to be ready for whatever crisis Barrett and Morrison respectively would throw at them! The cover was the first of many Floyd album covers designed by Hipgnosis.

So how to rate Saucerful? An interesting and mostly good album that fans will surely want to own but not an essential album by any means. They would develop their sound and explore their most fiercely progressive directions over the next few albums before refining and moving to the next level in the 70s. Waters and Gilmour have both been dismissive at times of their pre-Meddle material but their fans know better. There is much there to enjoy despite the frustrations and dismissal of their creators

This 1968 release by Pink Floyd, has, since around 1986 (of course, many reviewers have been familiar with 'Saucerful' since it appeared during the year of 1968...), been a fascination with me - I was 14 then, and I continue to listen to it on a regular basis, and it never fails to amaze me - cover art and all. True pioneers of a newfound style of musical expression, without question. From Roger Waters' opening Bass Guitar riff, through to dear Syd Barrett's acoustic strumming, the compositions on this record are truly wonderful. Striking Organ playing from Richard Wright (of course he's also utilised Piano and some effective Mellotron parts on some songs), Dave Gilmour's integration within the ranks (somewhat residual Barrett recordings are sparsely incorporated), and Mason's willingness to experiment percussively are in evidence throughout the tracks presented here. Maybe, the most annoying track could come in the form of 'Corporal Clegg', with its psychedelic Kazoo arrangements, and somewhat silly chord progression. Fun, but wears thin fairly quickly.

'Let There Be More Light', superb psych song with a great intro, catchy verses, and colourful outro serves as an excellent opener to the album. 'Remember a Day', a left-over from the debut album seems to fit perfectly on this album, and is quite a reflective, darkish tune with Barrett on guitar, and has a somewhat 'haunting' feel to it. 'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun' is one of the HIGHLIGHT's of Floyd's career - live versions take this basic version to extreme heights, but remains a really inspired and mysterious, early sample of Space-Rock, might be the first. Said 'Corporal Clegg' is whimsical by name, whimsical by nature - flower- power tune which would be sacreligious to skip over.

Title track is an avant-garde tour-de-force, almost 12 minutes of experimental inspiration. Honestly, it needs to be heard to be 'mis'- understood. Very difficult to put this peice of prog history into words. 'See-Saw' is an underrated, soft, psychedelic tune, could remind one of the 'Beach Boys' from the same period (for some reason) but incorporates a lovely Mellotron-line in place of an authentic Strings-section. Closing song, 'Jugband Blues' is pure Syd Barrett. Amongst its dis-jointed structure, lies a sort of completeness, and the tune seems to represent Syd's state-of-mind during this period. The free-form section in the middle, complete with trippy (for want of a better word) organ playing and an improvisation from a local Salvation Army band couldn't befit the composition more precisely. 5 Stars.

Attempting to explain what's going on here is a hard task to perform. A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS was recorded during a band member transition phase, and the music kind of gives that aura. It sounds like Pink Floyd was rather confused on a direction.

Be prepared for some avant-garde stuff. The title track sounds like just one sound collage attempting to describe an event (I think it's a war, but I'm not sure). The collage at least has a point to it unlike other collage pieces, say ''Revolution 9'' (different band). Traditional prog fans might find the last four minutes of the title track quite delightful as it is a choir-type thing revolving around an organ thing. ''Jugband Blues'' also has rather strange shifts in music including a spot where a brass band feels the need to play whatever the heck they want.

The other five songs have some sort of melodious ground, but it's really hit-or-miss in terms of how well each song grips you. Personally, I find ''Set the Controls...'' to get rather monotonous too fast; nothing special happens here. Nothing special happens in ''See-Saw'' either, at least for me. ''Let There Be More Light'' and ''Remember a Day'', on the other hand, have nice enough motives to keep me hanging around, particularly the former with the stellar guitar solo at the end.

''Corporal Clegg'' is something else, almost as if Pink Floyd had an excuse to goof off in the studio and that song is what came out of it. Goofy guitar riffs, Nick Mason singing, annoying falsetto vocals and kazoo solos are what to expect here. I actually like it as the song gives me a good laugh.

Not a particularly great Pink Floyd album by any means, but if you're bored of their classic stuff, give this one a try.

Pink Floyd's sophomore effort is undoubtedly an album that polarises listeners' opinions, as the previous reviews show quite clearly. Some see it as dated, or lacking in cohesiveness, since it was released at a turning point for the band, when Syd Barrett, who was slowly descending into madness, was being gradually replaced by his friend David Gilmour - which meant a significant shift in the band's overall sound. In my personal opinion, though, it is one of PF's best albums bar none, and one of the great unsung masterpieces of progressive rock.

"A Saucerful of Secrets" can boast one of the strongest opening tracks ever, which is no mean feat for a band that specialised in killer openers thoughout their career. "Let There Be More Light" is the archetypal psyche/prog composition, with weird, mesmerising, Eastern-influenced sound effects, and vocals alternating between chant-like whispers and shouts. Together with the album's best-known song, the equally iconic "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (whose definitive version is the one featured in the "Live at Pompeii" film), the track was written by Roger Waters, who was well on his way to becoming the band's true driving force. Those who maintain that Waters was a less gifted composer than David Gilmour should probably take a careful listen to both songs.

The mood changes almost abruptly with the following song, the Richard Wright-penned "Remember a Day". With soothing, wistful vocals that match the nostalgia-filled lyrics, it is a delicate, charming piece that is definitely easier on the ear in a musical sense, as is the the keyboard player's other composition, the lullaby-like "See Saw" (in my opinion, the weakest track on the album). On the other hand, the only two contributions by the departing Syd Barrett, "Corporal Clegg" and "Jugband Blues", hark back to the whimsy of much of PF's debut album, with endearingly zany vocals, odd noises and ironic, nonsense-filled lyrics. "Jugband Blues", which closes the album in stark contrast to the eerie soundscapes of the opener, can be seen as Barrett's testament, and feels particularly poignant nowadays, almost two years after Syd's untimely death.

An album's title-track often acts as its focal point, and this is particularly true of the schizophrenic masterpiece that is "A Saucerful of Secrets". Over 12 minutes long, the track is introduced by an uncontrolled chaos of weird noises and hypnotic percussive patterns, a sonic storm that suddenly abates and is replaced by a solemn, organ-driven section, featuring features vocals somewhat reminiscent of a church choir. In a way, ASOS reflects the nature of the album itself, and the circumstances in which it came into being.

For those who have come to know Pink Floyd through their milestone albums of the Seventies, this record may well turn out to be a disappointment, since it is in no way as accomplished, let alone as polished as regards production values. ASOS is a child of the late Sixties - raw, experimental, slightly incoherent - and as such captures the essence of an era in which creativity and envelope-pushing were rife. It also captures the full potential of the band just a few years before they took the leap that would lead them to conquer the world. An essential listen.

.And Gilmour said, "Let there be more light" and there was more light.

At the top of my review for Supertramp's Brother Where You Bound album I wrote a disclaimer: "Warning: adding Dave Gilmour to your album may make it awesome." This is where that disclaimer becomes especially true. This is the album were Pink Floyd was (even if for one track) a five piece as Gilmour swept in to take out insane genius Syd Barrett for Pink Floyd's second album.

This album was a giant step forward for the band. Where Piper At The Gates Of Dawn was a monumental album towards the birth of prog rock it was still mostly a psychedelic album which had a huge taste of what would later be labeled as "prog rock" in it. This album saw Pink Floyd pull away a bit from the psychedelic music that they started by making, but still sticking to those routes somewhat. The music on this album is much darker than that of Piper. with a few exceptions, and this time the album also has a much more consistent feel to it. Still with a psychedelic feel to it on tracks like See-Saw, Corporal Clegg and the Barrett written/ominously voiced Jugband Blues (''It's clear that I'm not here.''), this album starts to lean more towards the Pink Floyd that we know now.

Most of the tracks proceed slowly and with a great amount of precision. Let There Be More Light is an excellent sign of things to come from the band with Gilmour's chilling voice throughout while Remember A Day feels a bit more catchy but still along the same lines. The two biggest standouts of the album still have yet to come, though. One of Floyd's greatest masterpieces, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, is a cold sounding dark thriller which to this day doesn't sound dated as it takes the audience for a ride. The longest piece on the album is the instrumental A Saucerful Of Secrets which is a reflective space rock journey which doesn't quite measure up to Interstellar Overdrive but still manages to provide quite the trip.

While Piper. may have helped to open the progressive floodgates, this album certainly let Pink Floyd step through at the top of the pack. This is likely Pink Floyd's most accomplished album pre-Meddle, and certainly worth having in your progressive collection. 4 stars!

A Saucerful Of Secrets is the only one album where this five great musicians are together. And it is unique with one more thing.This is the only Pink Floyd album where Richard Wright sings predominantly. It is also the last album with Syd Barrett. A Saucerful Of Secrets is a turning point in the history of Pink Floyd. It makes stylistic transition from pure psychedelic rock to more progressive direction and it's regarded as one of the first progressive rock albums. For me it contains one of the most typical Pink Floyd sound. With this far drums and dark suspense! Of course, most of the songs have sound that describe something from the reality. The album contains maybe the best song from extremely avantgarde style by Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets! Led There Be More Light is one of the most popular songs by Pink Floyd and it is landmark of band's sound! Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun is the most dramatic piece on the album. The half of the album is influenced by the melancholic style of Rick Wright! Interesting!

Having made such an impact during the brief yet relevant Syd Barrett-era, Pink Floyd was restlessly pushing itself to move forward not only because Barrett was losing rapidly his way into the ordinary world but also because the important standard of psychedelic rock stated in The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was in itself a catapult to new things on the brink of the British underground rock's development. The first statement of Pink Floyd was also their rocket engine for higher musical propulsions. Pink Floyd was eager to leave behind the connections with pop-beat that were still very present in the early repertoire, and luckily, Dave Gilmour was around to provide the proper touch of proficiency (he didn't still make compositional contributions, but it didn't take long before that), slowly yet convincingly making room for himself to contribute an important dose of sonic power in the band's global sound. His hard rock and blues backgrounds joined with ihs open mind to the experimental sign of the times allowed him to move comfortably (not comfortbaly numb, eh?) in the artistic situation assumed by PF in the writing and recording processes of A Saucerful of Secrets. I respect and enjoy the Syd-era, but definitely, in my opinion this is the first great PF album. The opener 'Let There be More Light' is a perfect example of how well PF managed to instill exotic Asian flavors to the melocies and rhythms of their most explicitly psychedelic pieces; another example is in this very album, 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' (other ones? - 'The Embryo', performed live extensively by the band in the late 60s although never included in a Floyd album, and the second section of Gilmour's 'The Narrow Way' in Ummagumma Volume 2). 'Let There Be More Light' starts with a hypnotic jam that leads to a less frantic but more magical sung section, whose coda features an amazing lead by Gilmour (as if he were particularly interested in making himself noticed from the very beginning). A fantastic opener, indeed, that shows a band tighter than ever with its lightly refirbished line-up. 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' comprises a more constant structure, with Wright's organ deliveries and Mason's pounding drumming stealing the show from the other instrumentalists. Caught between the two is the lyricially evocative 'Remember a Day', penned by Wright about the subject of nostalgia for lost innocence and childhood gone. Even though the main motif and arrangements are playful, the mood is genuinely melancholic. The same can be said about the other Wright-penned song, 'See-Saw': greyish nostalgia wrapped in a colorful paper. The song is slower but with a richer instrumentation: the use of tuned percussion adds nuances to the piano lines and mellotron layers, while the soft guitar phrases emphasize the song's dreamy nature. The title track is a PF staple in itself, long left behind in live setlists yet never forgotten. This studio version takes advantage of the controlled recording environment, with a clever utilization of volume processors, sound effects, overlapped keyboards and percussions, and of course, a celestial choir with an augmented use of Gilmour an Wright's vocalisations for the final section 'Celestial Voices'. The 'Syncopated Pandemonium' section is a prog classic i nitself, with its mixture of tribal madness and avant-garde alleatory weirdness. 'Corporal Clegg' is the closest to pop that PF gets in this album: this sounds to me like a mixture of Revolver- era Beatles, 'Matilda Mother' and a touch of Zappa humor. The subject of wounded survivors of war is treated with all the sarcasm it deserves, and countless times have men witnessed the downfall of unattended heroes who after a day of public glory are left behind in oblivion without any kind of support from the same Powers-that-be that sent them to the destructive insanity of war. The closer is the last Barret contrinution to the band: 'Jugband Blues' is a playful exercise on humoristic psychedelic rock, including a Salvation Army brass band's chaotic improvisaton. Barrett's lyrics are very touching: they can refer to either the mental alienation that was driving him apart from people or the distance that was separating him from his fellow PF members - my bet is for both issues, since one is connected to the other. Dadaistic humor in the music, sad ironic reflectiveness in the lyrics: wah ta way to bid farewell to the band, what a way to close this album. This is a great PF album, and as such, indispensable in any good rock collection (prog or not).

This album is so much of its time that it is almost unbelievable. This music is pure psychadelia with some very experimental moments. It has not aged well at all in my opinion and it sounds horribly dated today. But it really captures the essence (and the excesses) of British Psych music of the late 60's. As such it has nothing to do with the progressive rock of the 70's.

This second Pink Floyd album is not as groundbreaking as the debut album, and the songs are generally much weaker than on the debut. It would take Pink Floyd several more years before they found their direction.

The very experimental title track is basically just atonal noise for over 10 minutes with no structure at all. In describing the quality of this song I am tempted to use words I'm not supposed to use on Prog Archives, so I'll just leave it at that! I pose a question instead: Is this supposed to be adventurous and interesting music?

This is one of the worst albums I ever heard by a well respected band!

After listening to the live version of the A Sauceful of Secrets song in the Ummagumma album, for years I had the idea that this second album from Pink Floyd was as noisy as the live version included in Ummagumma. Fortunately, I was wrong, and this 1968 album is much better than I expected.

I still have not yet listened as a whole to their The Piper at the Gates of Dawn album because I don`t have it. But I read in several books and in the web that after their first album with Syd Barrett it really was going to be very hard for them to survive without him. But he still appears in some tracks in this second album (Remember a Day, Jugband Blues and one more which name I don`t remember now).

After Barrett`s departure, Waters and Wright became the main composers in the band, and in this album is clear for me that Wright was a good composer despite he underrated his own early songs in later years. He really was a creative force in the Pink Floyd Sound despite Waters underrated him in later years until Wright was forced to leave the band in 1979. So, I think that Wright`s songs are the best in this album: Remember a Day (with Barrett on slide guitar) and See Saw. Both songs have Pink Floyd`s psychedelic atmospheres more than Waters`songs in this album: Let There be More Light is also psychedelic with a very good bass riff; Corporal Clegg reflects Waters`obsession with military themes, but at least with a bit of humour in this song; and Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun is very interesting, dark and with very good atmospheres created by Waters, Mason, Wright and Gilmour.

The title track, A Saucerful of Secrets, is still very experimental, and it was the first song composed by Waters-Wright-Mason-Gilmour. This studio version is better than the live version included in Ummagumma.

Finally, the album includes Barrett`s last song recorded with Pink Floyd, called Jugband Blues, an experimental and psychedelic song with sad lyrics which for many reviewers are like Barret`s farewell because they think that with this song Barrett was aware of the changes in his mental health.

In conclusion, this album showed that Pink Floyd could really survive without Barrett and without composing and recording hit singles like they did in 1967 with Barrett. David Gilmour was still finding his place in the band, but his guitar playing was good. He really helped the band a lot to suvive without Barrett, and this album shows a bit the new sound for the band for their next albums.

Review +1, A Saucerful Of Secrets, Pink Floyd

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A Saucerful Of Secrets is an album that, as the title suggest, breeds mystery, thrives on mystery, on unshared insight, and, to an extent, both ensuring the listener is aware they are only an observer, but also initiating them into a musical/spiritual tradition. As such, the descriptive words are vague, and the music and atmosphere must speak for itself. It remains a peak of Floyd's early psychedelic career, and also a challenging, bold entity, and is compulsary listening for anyone interested in Pink Floyd, psychedelia, atmospheric or experimental music, with a sort of spiritual significance that goes beyond plain atmosphere. Not to be missed out on.

For a chap who'd heard only Meddle... onwards, Nick Mason's drumming, in particular, came as a revelation. On this album, a more impressively tasteful, distinctive and threatening drummer could not be found. Mason isn't just an, admittedly very valuable, cog in the Floyd emotional machine, here; he is a standout in any sense of the word. His classical-sounding fills and rhythms are one of the most interesting aspects of a none-too-shabby album. Barrett's performance, though brief, is comprehensively winning, and the three remaining members are perhaps at their best in the dark, brooding atmospheres of this album. Gilmour manages to pull off the most mislocated blues solo with verve and grip, Wright holds complete emotional clutches, and Waters' bass parts are all distinctive, though less obvious than the others. From a playing side, in my opinion, this is where Floyd were at their best.

A chugging rhythmic bass drags us headlong into the psychedelic grandeur of Let There Be More Light, an eerie number, providing a heady feeling of being surrounded by the music. Enigmatic, nervous and invocative whispering is alternated with a superb confident vocal line, trading off ambiguous, evocative, spaced out lyrics. Wright's organs and Mason's very 'psych' percussion, complete with ingenious fills, provide a feeling of unchartered depth, while the snarling bluesy presence of Gilmour adds in some distinct presence. One of Floyd's best pieces, in all respects, and the overwhelming menace and atmosphere of the final 'jam' needs to be heard.

Of the two Wright pieces, Remember A Day is probably the better, opening with an absolutely enthralling bit of hollow piano supplemented by an understated acoustic guitar, before moving, a bit abruptly, onto a 60s pop number, albeit with distinctive drumming, a screaming background guitar part, and the occasional interesting piano line. Certainly the haunting atmosphere, when Wright moves off the vocals onto the organs, does more than make up for the slightly twee main body of the song. A good effort, and certainly interesting, but I can't help feeling it could have been better.

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun is one of the archetypal Floyd numbers, a moody, cold and dark piece, with some absolutely stunning presence from Mason (on a very classical set of percussion), a mechanical bass part from Waters and the reverent vocals holding up the stark, daring atmosphere while Wright and Gilmour, menacingly devoted to their effects pedals, remain bleak and mysterious throughout. Almost an incantation: secretive, haunting, and distinctly giving the feel that there is something you don't know, and shouldn't know, complete with a foreboding set of lyrics. Stunning, if you're willing to listen to music that makes you feel out of the loop.

Corporal Clegg is the comic relief of the album, though no less biting or experimental than any of the others, with some very sharp, punching guitar lines from Gilmour, vocal harmonies and madness of all sorts... conversation, theatrical hilarity, multiple voices, ironic lyrics (often going on at the same time), blip blip blip blip. The mocking bassline, curious tish-a-tish rhythm and absolutely hilarious kazoo solos and bulldozer sound effects just add to the general chaos. Cheerfully insane, and a great listen.

The title track, a twelve minute extravaganza, initially relies heavily on volume-shifting, trembling organs, mysterious percussion, coming in start-stop bursts with little explanation, or care, and the background intrusion of other instruments, whether screaming guitars, nervous, twittering harmonica (I think, could be guitar), and thunking, off-key piano chords. Blocks of noise, searching runs, nonsensical bleats, it all adds together to produce one effect: alienation. This drops to a close for the presence of a solid, repeated drum line and desperate, lower-end, vicious piano swipes, overlaid with some screamingly unforgettable guitar effects. The only real constant is a dead end... something that appears one day, and hangs around, and the manic chaos of the other parts gives you little to rest on, this descends into blank noise again, a thundering wall of drums, from under which a dissonant, cathedral-like organ creeps, whence a tingling presence of percussion emanates. Wright, left alone, takes a sudden control, a slow, soul-searching, knowing organ, forming out of the chaos of the rest of the piece a sudden all-grasping order. As choral calls and soothing mellotron emerge to join this framework of peace, the piece reaches its reverent conclusion. Absolutely incredible, and a necessary listen even for those who aren't fond of Floyd's more popular material.

See-Saw, the second Wright number, is a bit less memorable, but perhaps (ironically) a bit less unpredictable in quality, since it has a more interesting set of lyrics and a consistent progressive attitude, whether from Mason's absolutely fantastic, pattering drumming, the crazed production (I love crazed production), some deliberately jarring piano bits, or the plain sound innovation from Wright and Gilmour. Wright's voice is also great here, and the interest of the song is perhaps let down from the lack of verve behind it.

Jugband Blues, the Barrett finisher, is another highlight, going through as many distinct sections, carnival flare, little acoustic ditty, determined atmosphere, calm, off-beat pop chorus, complete silence as most epics in only a couple of minutes, all of them catchy, effective and moving in their own way. Syd's vocals and the harmonies are all great, often unusual bass throbs and a menacing Wright organ solo add colour and compositional oddity in a way I've never really heard elsewhere. The final words, the melancholy, 'and what exactly is a dream, and what exactly is a joke?' bring to an end the mystery, the intriguing secrets of the album, and also conclude a simply incredibly compact and interesting song.

So, there you have it. An album with tunes I'd want to go and see live, embryonic and developing, rather than a mercilessly perfected statuesque creature like Dark Side or Wish You Were Here. An enigma, and one of, in my view, the most interesting drumming albums I've heard. It helps that it contains what's possibly now my favourite Floyd tune, the incredible A Saucerful Of Secrets. The level of the five strong tracks, all of which are among Floyd's best is extremely high, and I can say the Wright numbers are weak only in that they aren't of the same calibre¸ not because they're bad songs. A must-have, and, a masterpiece of progressive psychedelic music, though not a flawless album.

Rating: 13/15, or Five Stars.

Favourite Track: A Saucerful Of Secrets.

Edit: Felt obliged to drop to four when I was tightening/shuffling ratings for a bit of consistency - only for the Wright tracks, but it's still an absolute must-have for any 'progger'.

An improvement over its predecessor, but still far from the PINK FLOYD that was to come.

This album continues in the psychedelic vein of "A Piper At the Gates At Dawn" though it starts to mnove in a different direction. The minimal input from Syd Barret and the arrival, though not yet in full force, of David Gilmour, help to make this a more coherent work, with strong contributions from Rick Wright, in an era where the band was much more democratic that it came to be.

There is one outstanding track, in my view: "Set the controls for the Heart of the Sun" is at the same time psychedelic but progressive, very obscure and haunting, dark, this Roger Waters' creation is the highlight of the album. Very percussive and atmosphere-rich, it stands out over lesser tracks like the more down-to-earth opener "Let there be more light" or the irrelevant "See-Saw".

There are two tracks that need mention. One, the title track, a psychedelia's fan's dream, full of effects and lacking any proper "song" qualities, can be either viewed as an accomplishment or as a disaster. I stand somewhere in the middle. Two, "Jugband Blues", Barrett's only contribution to this album, and without a doubt its weakest piece. there's no question his departure only helped the band in the long run, even if we reached that conclusion on hindsight. But this track surely shows that he no longer had anything to give to PINK FLOYD.

I'd give this album 2.5 stars if available. As I can't, i'll round off this time, as i think other works like "Atom Heart Mother" deserve that third star much more clearly, and have to be differentiated from this uneven disc, even if we have to use a star-rating to do it.

"A Saucerful Of Secrets" is the 2nd full-length studio album by UK psychadelic/progressive rock act Pink Floyd. The album was released through EMI in June 1968. After the succes of their debut album "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)" the band started recording sessions for their sophomore release in August 1967. Unfortunately original guitarist/lead singer Syd Barrett became so mentally unstable during this period that the band brought in David Gilmour to replace him in January 1968. Initially as a second guitarist to fill in for Barrett, when he wasn´t able to perform. It wasn´t until March 1968 that Syd Barrett finally left the band. The recording sessions which took place at Abbey Road Studios in London ended in April 1968. "A Saucerful Of Secrets" features vocal contributions from all five members of the band (including Syd Barrett on three tracks). Most tracks were written by bassist Roger Waters and keyboard player Richard Wright while "Jugband Blues" is the only Syd Barrett penned track on the album.

Stylistically the music on the album is psychadelic rock. Spacey sound effects, stoned mellow vocals, and what at times sound like improvised psychadelic jams although most tracks feature recognisable vers/chorus structures. However stoned and out there the music sometimes is there´s always a focus on memorable melodies which is an important factor, that sets "A Saucerful Of Secrets" apart from some of the output by contemporary artists. While most tracks are pretty simple psycadelic rock tunes, the haunting "Set the controls for the heart of the sun" is an intense repetitive track which shows the more adventurous side of the band. The 11:57 minutes long title track is a long psychadelic jam which in those days was probably considered quite experimental and inventive.

The musicianship is on a high level and Pink Floyd proves to be innovative in both thought and playing style throughout the album. The album is packed with beautiful psychadelic organ from Richard Wright and great guitar parts too from David Gilmour (even though he is not as prominent here as he would be on later recordings). Great sedated vocals and harmonies, and a loose and organic playing rhythm section which suits the music perfectly. "A Saucerful Of Secrets" features a slightly muddy sound production and especially during some of the most intense jam part of the title track, it´s a bit hard to make out what´s happening, but the production generally suits the music well, and considering the time of release, the sound production is certainly decent.

Upon conclusion I will label "A Saucerful Of Secrets" an excellent psychadelic rock album. The music featured on the album is still far from the more sophisticated style of music that Pink Floyd would produce in the 70s but that doesn´t make it less enjoyable. To my ears "A Saucerful Of Secrets" is a seminal album in the genre and a 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets. 1968.

There was still so much progression to be made in the music industry. The Moody Blues has just invented how to use the Mellotron, Procol Harum invented the multi-part sidelong progressive song and Pink Floyd was busy installing the space/psychedelic scene. Where their debut was still a song driven album, referred to as psychopop, this a fully psychedelic album with very little commercial tendencies. Which is good in my opinion!

Let there me more Light is clearly a composition made by Roger Water intended to resemble the great Astronomy Domine. Though I still prefer the latter, this is a great Pink Floyd song. I wished they played material like this on their live dvd's! Spacey, vocals of Water and Gilmore and with a punching beat this is a great progressive achievement. Remember a Day is great song of Rick Wright. Beautiful chords and lyrics are the basis of this classic song. Set the Controls for the heart of the sun is a good example of Pink Floyd heading into psychedelic depth. The song became a live favourite by the fans. It was so played so often that the song grew to a masterpiece on the Live at Pompeii film (now on dvd!). The original is nice, but sounds still a bit incomplete. Corporal Clegg has been blamed for ruining the album, but I disagree. It has nice melodies and the stupid part in the middle is part of the psychedelic search. On side two A saucerful of secrets is the dark (no completely black) opener. Dark progressive soundscapes are introduced here by Pink Floyd. This is somehow the Pink Floyd I like most. The somehow spiritual vibe of psychedelia, the devotion of four man playing their instruments like they we're never used before. This ain't easy listening nor soothing, but it touches my very soul. Great! See-Saw and Jugband Blues are great songs ending the album with the last vocal lines of Syd Barrett. His presence has been unnoticed until this last song. I think it's better to place this record in the Water-Gilmour-Wright period then in the Barrett period.

A great ground-braking psychedelic record of the second classic Pink Floyd formation. Waters-Gilmour-Wright continued the songwriting duties Barrett had left and succeeded to make a worthy second record. Four Stars!

Second Pink Floyd Album is similar in style to the debut.

It starts with very strong song ( in fact all the A-side is good enough), but slowly goes deeper and deeper in psychedelic visions.

"Let There Be More Light" and "..Controls.. " both are great.Whenever still a Barrett album, you can feel more Waters ( and other guys) in some songs. Some very first signs of future WYWH sound presented yet!

Record quality is good for it's time, still some interesting sound effects are presented. The same level, as debut one, and last really psychedelic PF album.

A Saucerful of Secrets is the first in a series of 6 uneven releases where Pink Floyd would find their own true voice after the rather mainstream debut. During that process, the mix of their strong personalities and originality would produce music of pure genius alternating with unfocussed and self-indulgent drivel.

Despite its obvious flaws I've always enjoyed this one a lot. It has a very dark and moody feel that flashes me right back to those rainy winter afternoons when I was 12 and playing this weird record on constant repeat together with Umma Gumma. Let There Be More Light, the title says it all. It's one of my favourite early Floyd tracks and a defining space-rock track: eastern tinged melodies, dark sound effects, pulsating bass, dazed vocal melodies and spacey guitars. What a departure from the debut. Welcome David Gilmour.

Remember a Day is a Richard Wright song featuring his known hesitant melancholic vocals. It has a very romantic mood, not as strong as the opener but still very charming. Next on is Set the Controls, the ultimate space-rock track, again with a very eastern melody and Nick Mason's invigorating percussion serving as an entrancing base for the sonic outbursts from Gilmour and Wright. Every live version of this track is better then the embryonic form that it still has here, but nevertheless it's a landmark moment, hugely influential on both kraut, progressive electronic and space-rock.

Corporal Clegg would have fitted better on the debut. It's still fun but it has none of the visionary power of the preceding tracks. The title track is the most experimental moment on the album, not as good as The Heart of the Sun but very powerful in its live version on Umma Gumma. See-Saw is the second Wright track but it's less captivating then the first. Jugband Blues is an enjoyable track from Barrett but it pales greatly against the ground-breaking music that preceded it. It's a tough conclusion, but I very much doubt if anyone of us would be marvelling at the Floyd right now if Syd had been able to stay in the band. Who knows.

It's sure not the most consistent album in music history, not by a long stretch. But this is from 1968 and back then, Pink Floyd was pretty much inventing everything they did while they were doing it, without any examples to emulate, without anyone to advise them but their own stubborn will to explore and create music history.

A transtitional album, 'Saucerful...' is here, there, and everywhere. But whilst it is fequently ignored by Floyd fans for it's lack of cohesion (even in terms of who was in the band), it does mark a significant point in the band's career, and as a result, is more diverse than it first appears.

Most people, including the band themselves, will overlook it, especially in terms of categorisation, as it doesn't really fit into the "Barrett phase" or the "post-Barrett experimental phase". Except it does. There may only be ONE Barrett tune, but one counts. It's a good one as well, carrying forward the emotion of his own departure. And then there's the title track, which is experimental enough to be on 'Ummagumma' or 'Atom Heart Mother'. I don't enjoy it too much but it sits nicely inbetween the other, shorter tracks and sets the tone for future Floyd. And there's other stuff as well. TWO Wright compositions (a rarity) which both capture the strength of Barrett's whimsical lyrics, without being too whimsical themselves. And of course, the only live survivor, 'Set the Controls for the Heart of th Sun', which most people will agree is a good song, or at minimum, a good opportunity for psychedelic noodling on stage. On top of this, there are a further two Waters efforts: the album's opener, which is pretty strong if you give it the chance to be, and the light-hearted 'Corporal Clegg',the guilty pleasure that you'll hate to love.

I find this album to be surprisingly fresh (not at all like it's cover artwork). There aren't really any other ones like it in the Floyd catalogue. And I will agree that it lacks in amazingness pretty much all over, but what it doesn't deliver in terms of wow factor, it makes up for with charm. The thing is, the band probably didn't realise just how warm this little gem is, given their internal affairs at the time. The five-piece works, it just requires a little more effort from the listener.

Is it sacrilegious for a Pink Floyd addict to detest this?

I am a massive Floyd fan and would bleed 'Dark Side of the Moon' if you cut me, but this is the worst excuse for an album I have come across from this band. Worse than 'The Final Cut?' Well, I may draw the line there, but this is still a detestable album. Why? I will give you two reasons; Syd and Barrett. The man was a raving nutter as we all know, but he can't sing a note to save himself, that droning monotone voice is enough to make you want to pickle your granny, and before I get lynched by a pack of Floyd freaks, of course Barrett was an iconic figure, but he produced some questionable material and questionable albums, including the abysmal self pitying debut solo effort who's name escapes me at the moment. Also Waters was absolutely wrapped up in his own cerebral cortex on this effort. The music is so lacklustre, it is heart wrenching, and although Barrett only is allowed to sing on the last track, his influence is prevalent.

What are the highlights on such a mediocre album? Perhaps we have to start with the obvious, the compelling Roger Waters' masterpiece 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' that has a hypnotic groove that draws you in with dark overtones and a riveting bassline. I always loved this. 'Let There Be More Light' is certainly a fabulous track with a spacey guitar feel and very moody keyboards from the incomparable Wright. Floyd can pruduce brilliant epics such as 'Echoes' and 'Shine On', but 'Saucerful of Secrets', running for a tortuous 12 minutes, is mind numbing and dull. Trimmed down it is OK, but how many spacey guitar runs and Dracula organ do we need? 'Ummagumma' provides better versions in any case. The Floyd were always better live and it seems in the studio at this stage of their careers, the four walls of a booth were stifling their creativity.

These tracks save this album from the one star bomb, but the other tracks are truly forgettable. The dreadful caterwauling of Waters' 'Corporal Clegg' is the type of puerile nonsense I am talking about. A psyched up weird thing that sounds like bubblegum now or the pale shadow of The Beatles. Listen to those kindergarten lyrics by Waters: "Corporal Clegg had a wooden leg, He won it in the war, in 1944., Corporal Clegg had a medal too In orange, red, and blue, He found it in the zoo. Dear, dear were they really sad for me? Dear, dear will they really laugh at me? Mrs. Clegg, you must be proud of him. Mrs. Clegg, another drop of gin." Does anyone really care about this anymore? In its time it probably knocked all the hippies off their heads, but now it sounds dated and obsolete.

The album has not dated well and the flower power psychedelic sounds are nauseating and at times Waters' vocals are akin to a cat scratching its claws down a blackboard; 'See Saw' is the idiot child of 'Sgt Pepper' and really is ear cringing wallowing beyond comprehension. The lyrics are childish and Wright is off with the fairies on this. "Marigolds are very much in love, but he doesn't mind, Picking up his sister, he makes his way into the seas or land, All the way she smiles, She goes up while he goes down, down, Sits on a stick in the river, Laughter in his sleep, Sister's throwing stones, hoping for a hit.." Obviously an overdose of magic mushrooms for Wright who wrote this one.

'Jugband Blues' is Barrett's paean to a love interest with his lack of songwriting skills on display: 'And I never knew the moon could be so blue, And I'm grateful that you threw away my old shoes, And brought me here instead dressed in red, And I'm wondering who could be writing this song.' OK. I rest my case.

Contrary to popular belief, not everything Floyd touched was pure gold, in fact some of their early material stinks like yesterday's diapers, and unless you were stoned to the hilt, you would have thought this album was a yawnfest. People pretend to understand it, but there is no thread of reason throughout. I realise Floydians will gush over this album, simply because it is iconic Floyd with the legend in his own mind, Barrett in all his insane glory, but just because it is iconic and from the psychedelic 60s does not necessarily mean the actual music is any good. Well, now I have released all that anguish I can move on to a better album from Floyd; take your pick, this effort is a bottom of the barrel doped up Saucerful of Secretions!

Collectors Only!

The purely Psychedelic era in Pink Floyd's history was a short-lived such as A Saucerful Of Secrets shows the band working out a new way to express their musical abilities. Syd Barrett was pretty much out of the picture by this point which is why David Gilmour was recruited to fill in the gap that was left by the enigmatic front man. Even though Gilmour wasn't much of a replacement for Barrett, he did bring in a new approach to guitar playing that felt quite original in its own right.

Roger Waters and Richard Wright took over songwriting duties in the absence of Syd Barrett and managed to pen quite impressive new material. It's obvious that the band members were still heavily inspired by the Psychedelic movement even though the material they wrote also has a touch of Space Rock to it. Let There Be More Light and Remember A Day are great examples of Syd Barrett's legacy working in favor of Waters' and Wright's ambitious compositions. Still, Pink Floyd manages to kick it up a notch on Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun where the early signs of Space Rock show a completely different, more polished, side of their repertoire. This is a number Roger Waters still rigorously incorporates in his solo act which to me says a lot about this composition.The rest of the album is filled with acquired taste material, which I actually find highly entertaining. Starting with Corporal Clegg, which is the first Pink Floyd song to address the theme of war. I dare you to guess who wrote this track!

The album's title track is another stab at the 10 minute format and this one actually accomplishes a whole lot more during its allocated space. I always imagined the composition to be a conceptual piece that describes the creation and evolution of Earth. Staring with sporadic sounds of volcanic eruptions, creation of wild life and the screaming vocals towards the end represents creation of the Homo sapiens. Richard Wright does another fine rendition of Syd Barrett's style on See-Saw while Jugband Blues depicts the master himself doing his last performance on a Pink Floyd album.

You've probably noticed that I happen to like this album quite a lot. It might not be the obvious choice for a classic from the wide array of great Pink Floyd performances over the years but I would definitely rank it among my top 3 personal favorites. Even if you don't disagree with me on this point, A Saucerful Of Secrets is still an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection!

***** star songs: Let There Be More Light (5:38) Remember A Day (4:33) Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (5:28)

**** star songs: Corporal Clegg (4:12) A Saucerful Of Secrets (11:57) See-Saw (4:36) Jugband Blues (2:59)

Outtakes from the previous masterpiece, plus some new material. Soon after Piper was released, Syd's mental state went from bad to worse. He was becoming increasingly unstable, and was doing nothing to help the band's reputation. Some of his 'episodes' border on legendary, such as when the group was interviewed on American Bandstand and Syd wouldn't answer any of the questions asked of him, choosing instead to stare blankly into the camera for five minutes. More troubling, and more devastating, was that he was killing their ability to play live. Without warning, he would become completely spaced out in the middle of a song, and just wouldn't play at all or, even worse, start de-tuning his guitar on stage, which naturally made things difficult for the others. To try and fight this, the band hired a friend of Syd, David Gilmour. He basically had one duty; to run out on stage and start playing the lead guitar parts whenever Syd was going through one of his phases. Although his normal guitar style was the complete opposite of Syd's, cold and calculated whereas Syd was completely random, he was perfectly willing and able to play the parts given to him. Plus, he had that cool bluesy voice, far more pleasant than Syd's. Anyways, this worked for a few shows, but after a while the band just got sick of it, and one evening, as they were heading over to a gig, they simply decided to not pick Syd up. Syd was a bit angry about this, as you might imagine, but he was appeased when the group worked out an arrangement whereby Syd would remain the principal songwriter and Dave would do all of the actual stage work. Alas, though, Syd's songwriting had gone completely off the deep end, and the rest of the group finally decided that they had no choice but to fire him. This cost them a great deal of their fanbase, yes, and many of the financial supporters of the group bailed out on them and decided to invest in Syd's solo career, with the idea that a Barrett-less Pink Floyd had no chance of succeeding, but ultimately it was for the best.

Now for the album itself. Like I said, it's mostly Piper outtakes, but if you're expecting the same zany compositions as on the previous album, look elsewhere; the songs on here bear almost no resemblance to those on its predecessor. Wright throws in two pretty, romantic-sounding tracks, with wonderfully rich and syrupy vocals and a gorgeous atmosphere in general. "Remember a Day" is one of the great forgotten Floyd tracks of all time, I think; the combination of the pretty piano lines with the sweet vocals with the little bits of whacky slide guitar in the background make this into, at worst, a minor classic. "See-Saw" is good too, despite the fact that the working title for the song claimed that it was boring as hell. I've always found it to be a lovely bit of nostalgia, remembering the time when the person singing was a child and he and his sister were best friends. I guess one could find a note of creepiness in this if one so chose, but I don't think that's what Wright had in mind.

Waters' material is more in the 'cosmic' vein, and rather cool overall. The opening "Let There Be More Light" starts with a neato-sounding bassline that sounds a lot more interesting on closer inspection than it does from afar, and gradually turns into a slow and ultra-weird (if overly rambling) jam with Wright and Gilmour's new styles well established right away. Also, although it may seem on the surface that this was a Dave-era song, since the guitar parts highest in the mix are vintage Gilmour, closer inspection reveals ultra-loony parts in the background which cry out Barrett. Meanwhile, the lengthy but still good "Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun," with lyrics taken straight from a book of chinese poetry (except for the title/chorus) is strong, quiet, and great for chilling/meditating. The final Waters composition of the album, the anti-war "rocker" "Corporal Clegg," is awkward as hell and not that impressive, but it's still rather funny; the kazoo solo is a total blast.

So there's five tracks. A 6th can be found in the form of the closer, a Syd composition called "Jugband Blues." Now, in and of itself, it's not that great a song, but if you know what had happened to Syd previously, the track is one of the saddest songs in the history of man. The ending part is particularly heart-wrenching, with just Syd and his acoustic, and the wonderful lines "And what exactly is a dream? And what exactly is a joke?". I can never help but mumble quietly "goodbye, Syd" whenever I hear that.

All those positives aside, these songs are not why I give this album a ****. The title track, credited to all 4 members, is why I give this album ****. Generally regarded as one of the first 'science fiction songs,' it seems to portray a battle in the depths of space. At first, Wright is just playing random chords, which help me to think of the cold emptiness of space, when out of nowhere it disappears. A Mason tapeloop comes on, and suddenly the guys are all trying to make as much noise as possible, and you can just see ships blowing up and getting shot and all of that cool stuff. Eventually, the battle fades out, leaving the wounded to recuperate, and there's some wonderful harmonizing at the end before it fades into "See- Saw." It's simply marvelous, and while Yes would one-up the concept with the epic "Gates of Delirium" 6 years later, this still works to me as kind of an abstract sketch of that piece.

Anyway, this album is certainly very patchy, and there's virtually no flow between each of the tracks, but there's not a single song on here that I dislike, and several that I love. **** it is.

Looking to the high number of reviews that this album already has I won't be too long.

This is a transition album. Pink Floyd have just missed Syd Barrett replacing him with Dave Gilmour. In this way they have improved the execution side as Gilmour was already light years more skilled on guitar respect to Syd but have lost the mind of the band as Syd was an absolute genius and his sogwriting is still unique while Gilmour is co-writer of just an instrumental track.

The departure of Syd gives to Waters the possibility to discover his talent as songwriter. Some of his compositions are still heavily influenced by Syd. Probably the EMI had a part in this. However a song like Set The Control For The Heart Of The Sun is a masterpiece still executed live after more than 40 years. The influence of Syd is less evident and this is one of the milestones in moving from the original psychedelia to what was interpreted as space-rock. Waters never liked this definition, but this song fits well in this descripton.

A Saucerful of Secrets is composed of three distinct sections which originally were meant to be three different tracks. This is where Gilmour is credited as co-author.

Jugband Blues is the last Syd Barrett's song to appear on a Pink Floyd album, Corporal Clegg is the first Waters lyric with political contents. Remember a Day and See Saw are two of the first three songs written by Wright...

Without taking into account the excellent "More", that's a soundtrack and has a different personal story, this is the album that will be followed by Ummagumma. It's not yet the Pink Floyd's new deal. They are searching for a new identity. Also Ummagumma will be a moment of transition. It's with Meddle that the Waters era begins.

Here we have an overall very good album with at least two long tracks that will remain in the band's history like Set The Controls and the title track, but the rest is still immature. Not a masterpiece, then, but it deserves 4 full stars.

This is the beginning of the band's wilderness years. Syd would leave the group partway through the recording of the album (he plays on only three tracks, and only sings on Jugband Blues - the only composition of his on the album), but even before his departure it was clear that he could no longer provide the band with the leadership and songwriting focus he had previously managed to exert. Without Syd's vision guiding them, the band found themselves adrift, and it would be several albums before they hit on the artistic direction - Waters-dominated concept albums balancing spacey moods with emotionally insightful lyrics - which would ultimately sustain them until The Wall.

Roger Waters and Richard Wright step into the songwriting breach with three and two songs respectively; Waters' Let There Be More Light and Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun are two psych-space classics which show an impressive command of atmosphere, whilst Corporal Clegg - as with Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk on the last album - shows that Waters just doesn't do "whimsical" nearly as well as Barrett. As far as Wright's contributions go, both Remember a Day and See-Saw have a placid and somewhat sunny mood but feel lightweight and forgettable when set next to Waters' work. The standout track by far is the group composition A Saucerful of Secrets, which stands as proof that the post-Barrett band had managed to gel as a performing and songwriting unit with exceptional speed.

As for Jugband Blues itself, its inclusion on the album must have been a tough call for the remaining members, pointing as it does both to the direction Syd's solo work would take, but also to the isolation and personal disintegration which Syd was undergoing and which would continue until he finally burned out. There's also a mild accusatory tone to it ("It's awfully nice of you to think of me here...") which must have made for uncomfortable listening for the band. At the end of the day I thin they must get points for honesty and for picking the most coherent and fitting Barrett track from the time period to include on the album (Vegetable Man or Scream Thy Last Scream would not have fitted the tone of the rest of the album)... but as far as Barrett compositions go, it's probably my least favourite, lacking the coherence of his earlier work or the stripped-back and simple charm of his solo material.

At the end of the day, A Saucerful of Secrets shows the band doing a good job of salvaging a terrible situation. Yes, the atmosphere is a bit up and down; Corporal Clegg is a discordant "clang" in the middle of what is otherwise a spacey, peaceful album whose louder moments come as crescendos that are gradually built up to rather than leaping out and startling the listener (as Clegg does). But at the end of the day it's a better album than anyone had any right to expect from them at the time. I don't think it ranks amongst their classics - it's just a little too patchy for that - but it is good enough to be worth a listen. A three star album with some four-star moments.

'A Saucerful Of Secrets' - Pink Floyd (4/10)

Now, I have never been too big on the music of Pink Floyd, despite rightfully acknowledging that they have a few masterpieces to call their own. Moreover, they made one of the greatest debuts that ever came out of the groundbreaking '60s, and 'The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn' may even be my most listened-to Floyd album. As tragic a downfall as any other rock star's however, original Floyd frontman Syd Barrett would start breaking down under the pressures of the newly found stardom, becoming one of the most enduring examples of an 'acid casualty'. With the integrity of their leading man compromised, Pink Floyd were somewhat scattered, and this really reflects on their second full-length album, 'A Saucerful Of Secrets'.

While integral to the development of the band past their original pop roots, I cannot help but feel that 'A Saucerful Of Secrets' pales in comparison to the quirky charm of the debut. While 'The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn' carried the same sense of British warmth and eccentricity throughout, this album is much more evidently the work of several opposing forces. Syd Barrett would now be sharing the reins here with their newly admitted David Gilmour - brought in to help the band from sinking- and it almost sounds here like each member had a different idea of where they wanted to go with the album. There are some poppier songs here that sound like they are trying to continue the psych-pop legacy of 'Piper' such as Barrett's 'Jugband Blues' or Waters' Barrett-soundalike piece 'Corporal Clegg'. On the other side of the spectrum, there is the title track, which is not so much a composition here as it is a sweeping soundscape of eerie feedback and sound effects.

While I may have thought I would prefer another album of Barrett-led psych-pop, the songs here that follow that route feel like shadows; miles away from the great melodic sensibility and spacey vibe of 'Piper'. The soundscapes and more spacey moments on the album are actually much better done all things considered. The only two songs here that are much memorable are 'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun' and the title track, even though they can get a little monotonous. The rest of the stuff here is cut between banal spacey effects and rather uninspired songwriting, and don't get me started about that forsaken kazoo on 'Corporal Clegg'.

Okay, Pink Floyd. For your second album, you will be, for the most part, without your songwriter/guitarist/leader and your manager. You will bring in the guitarist that you've had warming up in the bullpen for the past season. And you'll try to make a successful album. How does that sound?

It sounds great!

While Syd Barrett had his talents, but his erratic behavior was a distraction. So by letting him go, the rest of the band was allowed to flourish, and imprint more of themselves on the music.

From the start the music has a darker feel. And while Barrett's sonic experiments were unique, the sounds used here mesh better into the music (let's not mention the kazoos, however).

Highlights are the eerie Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun and A Saucerful Of Secrets.

Now, as for the single Barrett-penned tune on the album, Jugband Blues. It seems to be a bittersweet farewell to the band. With lyrics like: "It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here. And I'm much obliged to you for making it clear That I'm not here." And "And I'm grateful that you threw away my old shoes And brought me here instead dressed in red And I'm wondering who could be writing this song."

He seems to be resigned to his departure, while not entirely happy about it. But in the long run, it was our gain.

As far as Pink Floyd's psychedelic excursions went, this one is pretty far out there.

"Let There Be More Light" A Saucerful of Secrets kicks off with that groovy psychedelic guitar riff with Rick Wright's dissonant organ. The main riff is ghoulishly maladroit, dragging the melody alongside it.

"Remember a Day" One of Pink Floyd's many psychedelic acoustic pieces, this one firmly rooted in the 1960s style. Wright trades out the organ for a feathery piano, a contrast to Nick Mason's aggressive (well, aggressive for him) drumming.

"Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" The moodiest and most dismal, "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" is a shadowy journey of both repetition and evolution. The steady bass mimics the melody, adding its own touches, while enigmatic sounds pour forth.

"Corporal Clegg" Excepting the refrain, this song is an exercise in playful silliness.

"A Saucerful of Secrets" One of Pink Floyd's eeriest pieces, this was the soundtrack in 2012 for my trip to a little Halloween party. Creepy keyboard passages strive against one another in the first four minutes, while thudding drums, screeching guitar, and inharmonious piano banging. Eventually the piece settles into melodious bass and organ droning. The avant-garde nature of this piece is unrivaled by anything in the Pink Floyd studio discography, excepting Ummagumma.

"See-Saw" Soporifically beautiful, this song shows the untapped potential of the late Rick Wright, both as a writer and as a vocalist (Wright is my favorite Pink Floyd singer).

"Jugband Blues" It's another goofy tune, this one penned by the unpredictable Syd Barrett. It's a disjointed thing. I never was a Barrett fan, I never thought he was a genius, and Pink Floyd were better off without his antics.

Pink Floyd was probably my first real foray outside of heavy metal though I still looked for heavy guitars as heard in parts of 'The Wall' and 'Animals'. Having an interest in music of the late sixties, one of the earlier Floyd albums to enter my collection was 'A Saucerful of Secrets'. Released in 1968, this was the second Pink Floyd album and notable for being the first to feature David Gilmour and the last to include material penned by the madcap, Mr. Syd Barrett, as the album's recording actually began in 1967 while Barrett was still a contributing member. Barrett appears on the tracks 'Remember a Day', 'Jugband Blues' and 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun'.

The album sees the band moving ahead, focusing more on darker, seriously-themed music with the childlike quality in the lyrics and playful approach to the music relegated to only a song or two. There is also one long experimental piece in the title track.

Side one of the album is in my view the more enjoyable, all four songs being of interest. The first track, 'Let There Be More Light' is in two parts, beginning with a rather quick bass line and rapidly developing into a space rock instrumental with Richard Wright's keyboards providing eerie tones that at times seem a little improvised as though he was asked to record them while listening to the backing track for the first time. The music then slows down for the song part and the vocals are shared by Wright and Gilmour. The song winds down with a guitar solo by Gilmour. The article on Wikipedia delves into the lyrics, describing the many references.

'Remember a Day' and 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' are both slow songs, the former featuring some pretty piano work by Wright but also some eerie, spacey slide guitar work by Gilmour who creates some very high tones in a psychedelic approach to slide guitar playing. The drumming picks up pace throughout the verses of the song but the vocals by Wright are still soothing and soft. The song looks back on childhood. 'Set the Controls' develops the haunting space theme further, slowing down to a mysterious and almost unsettling journey through the unknown. Nick Mason's percussion here is based on a repeated rhythm of light drumming and cymbal crashes while Richard Wright provides eerie tones.

The mood lifts for the final track, 'Corporal Clegg', a Water's song that begins his war themed lyrics. The song is more guitar-oriented with very sharp and harsher sounds. It's about a retired war veteran whose career is actually not as esteemed as he makes it out to be, with his one medal being something he found in the zoo (metaphor?). The song becomes very cacophonic near the end as a slowed down polka theme is gradually layered with more and more sound effects and voices. The whole mess reaches an abrupt conclusion.

The title track opens side two and is in three parts. It is a long experimental piece with lots of Floydian psychedelia. Though it has its moments, I personally find this uninspiring and a bit of a chore to get through. As my musical tastes evolve I come back to this track from time to time to see if I can understand it better; however, to this day I still find little to appreciate. It does indicate, though, the direction the band would take for 'Ummagumma', so if that's your preference then you'll possibly enjoy 'A Saucerful of Secrets'.

Interestingly, I read that someone called the next track, 'See Saw' the most boring song in the history of rock. I have always liked it even back in my high school days. Richard Wright's soothing vocals and the pretty piano cascades appeal to me and I also like how the innocence of a song of non-innocence is maintained by the naivety of the lyrics and musical theme which only occasionally drops suddenly into a darker theme with a crash, only to return to the prettier sounds once again.

The final track is Syd Barrett's only contribution to the song writing and this is obvious because of the rather bizarre lyrics. 'It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here and I'm much obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here.' Barrett was no doubt referring to how the band was keeping him as a member but beginning to make decisions about the band without him. 'And I'm grateful to you for throwing away my old shoes and brought me here instead dressed in red.'

The music is typical of Barrett's playful themes with a joyous phrase of la-la-las and some jaunty brass band music played by a Salvation Army band. The music, however, soon becomes an adventure in crossing sounds of repeated la-la-las to inserts of guitar effects, fade ins and outs of brass band music in a different key and other effects. The final segment of the song is a strummed acoustic guitar and Barrett's closing lines 'And the sea isn't green / And I love the queen / And what exactly does it mean / And what exactly is a joke'. This final part is reminiscent of music that would later appear on the album 'Opel'.

As I said above, for me the best of the music is on side one with 'See Saw' having its charms and 'Jug Band Blues' having its moments as well. The title track remains too far outside of my music appreciation capabilities though I respect that the band was eager to try this. I do prefer this album over most of Floyd's pre-'Meddle' days and I give it four stars for being mostly enjoyable while also creative.

After a debut album dominated by frontman Syd Barrett, PINK FLOYD's second release A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS remains unique, mysterious and strange in not only their own discography but in musical history as well. First of all, it was created in the midst of Barrett's emotional breakdown which left the band to fend for itself and literally reinvent itself in the process. It is very much a transitional album that ushered in David Gilmour while still having Barrett on board. The result of all this turmoil makes this album feel like a grab bag of different sounds and moods and if you approach this as such instead of a full-fledged album that is coherent in nature then you might appreciate it more. It also has the only track in the band's career that features all five members of the band's history on "Set Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" where both Barrett and Gilmour cross paths for a brief moment in time to create a fleeting musical experience.

Like the debut "Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn" this one was a slow burner and didn't really hit me upon first listen but i continued to listen to it because a few tracks stuck out more than others. Like much progressive music it needs to incubate in your subconscious before unleashing its magic. Such is the case with this album as well. This album overall is still very much rooted in the very popular 60s psychedelic pop / rock scene but as with most PINK FLOYD music it has an extra oomph and panache that adds small almost imperceivable layers of sophistication to its final mix.

The tracks vary widely on this one ranging from the upbeat guitar riff oriented intro with psych organ which breaks into the mid tempo lugubriousness "Let There Be More Light" which flows perfectly into the following "Remember A Day" with its cool guitar slide action and piano followed by a groovy 60s riff in tandem with the intro about mourning and loss. "Set The Controls..." is unique in that it has some seriously rolling drum action that accompanies its downer effect. The out of place tracks of "Corporal Klegg" and "Jugband Blues" kinda go together in that they are more upbeat and semi-folky with kazoos and bring 30s Dixieland jazz bands to mind more than anything 60s but for me the true treasure of this album is the space-age bizarre title track that to this day still gives me shivers when i hear it. It really feels like a close encounter of some kind where the aliens are beaming down a musical pattern to help humans decipher certain patterns in the universe aiding us in avoiding self-destruction.

As stated, this album is really a mess if taken as an album, but as a collection of single tracks i have REALLY grown to like this. This dystopian in nature album perfectly coincides with that of the world in 1968 when astrologically and culturally the world was going through a serious upheaval in every possible way. In the world of popular music it was no different as evidenced by this strange second album by PINK FLOYD that couldn't have been created by sheer planning. Despite loving their 70s output i really find myself gravitating towards their 60s albums more often. Even though i wasn't around to experience the glorious 60s in their heyday nothing transports me there more quickly than a sonic exposure to a PINK FLOYD album in their full psychedelic regalia. An acquired taste for sure but if you do indeed get a hankering for such a sound then this album takes you on a wilder ride than even their debut which i find to be a much more consistent experience.

Even after decades, A Saucerful of Secrets remains my favorite Pink Floyd album. I'm not saying it's their best, but it resonates with me the most and the strange aura hovering over this thing is purely authentic. A band in turmoil, with its leader losing his mind and a second guitarist and longtime friend of the leader moving in while other members contribute more writing in the process while dealing with a chaotic situation. The album is like a document of this dark and stressful period of the band, atmospheric with a fog overlaying everything. I love it.

The murky production provides a strong element of eeriness to the whole album, even transmogrifying a piece of whimsy like "Corporal Clegg" into something strange with a weird undertone. The way the tune ends, after the kazoo gang finishes, confusion and chaotic noise ending with what sounds like a siren before abrupt nothingness. It's the first of Water's fixation on war, and takes a satirical approach rather than a serious tone. The kazoo's are part of this satire, but without them we're dealing with some pretty nifty acid rock to my ears.

"Let There Be More Light" is a strong opener with it's desperate kicking bass-line leading into unabashed psychedelic space rock with some cool guitars closing the song. "Set The Controls For the Heart of the Sun" is the most well-known of this batch, featuring all five members in that rarest of moments, creating what clearly sounds like a strong influence on the emerging krautrock scene. Tribal drums, repetitive motifs and a loose jam-like feel with gloomy overtones, it's quite a little adventure and remains as one of their most haunting offerings.

The two Wright penned numbers are noteworthy as well. Songs about childhood memories and the loss of innocence, the production does wonders for these two buggers, imbibing the pastoral instrumentation with the aforementioned fog, turning a song like "See-Saw" into an almost ghostly thing. I always picture some 19th century playground with a see-saw moving up and down on its own...like some pulpy gothic tale. It's lyrically interesting as well, with possible references to Syd's childhood sweetheart, as she was getting married around the time this song was penned. Speaking of Syd, his slide guitar playing during "Remember a Day" adds a sense of creepiness to what would otherwise be a pleasant enough tune (minus the production which "drears" things up a bit) with some kickin' drumwork.

The title track is in three parts, with the first part being ominous and foreboding, the second being wild and, in a way, just plain nuts, and the third being tranquil. It really is like some kind of strange flying saucer ride. Quite experimental, and sometimes I'm just not in the mood for it, but it's still hard to skip and I eventually get sucked in each time.

"Jugband Blues", in my opinion, is the most haunting of them all and one of the band's best songs as it describes a man losing touch with reality, his friends and those he loves in such a personal way that's uncanny and even heart-wrenching. There's a sense of resignment to Syd's losing battle with dementia as he sings this tune, and even the jaunty sections are disturbing. I dig the use of the Salvation Army Band as well, contributing first with a written piece, then towards the song's end, the big-band music returns like some monstrous calamity as if their instruments had been swiped and performed by escaped sanitarium dwellers. A perfect depiction of a mind before and after the breaking point. The song and the album conclude with Syd's distant voice and soft guitar strumming, a perfect, sorrowful yet enigmatic conclusion.

This album to me has a personal vibe that's completely earnest in approach, as it doesn't feel calculated. Hell, the band weren't even sure what they were doing at times or whether they should even continue to exist, giving this release an unusual sense of urgency and uncertainty while still providing lots of good ole' trippiness. It's dark though, maybe their darkest, and works in a different way than their celebrated 70's heyday stuff, as it's not about the dark side of things, but a representation of people in a dark place trying to find their way out.

Review Nº 311

After the release of their debut studio album "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn", Pink Floyd became a popular band with many road obligations. So, it was in that moment, because the stress of life on the road and the relevant consumption of drugs, that the mental health stability of Syd Barrett as deteriorated considerably. Due to that, there was the need to join another member to the band. Then, they called the guitarist David Gilmour, a very well known guy of Syd Barrett and Roger Waters. Initially, it was expected that Syd Barrett made the compositions while David Gilmour would play at the live concerts. But, due to the deterioration of the mental health stability of Syd Barrett soon he assumed both roles.

"A Saucerful Of Secrets" is the second studio album of Pink Floyd and was released in 1968. The album has seven tracks. The first track "Let There Be More Light" written by Roger Waters is a very good way to open this album. It's a very good song that sounds very promising with a beginning of a very strong line of the bass of Roger Waters. Here we can hear, for the first time, the unmistakable sound of the guitar of David Gilmour. It's a song with a more experimental musical sound, more complex, and this is the beginning of something new on the band's sound. This is a very good song to my taste. The second track "Remember A Day" written by Richard Wright is another great song on the album. It's a song with some reminiscences of the psychedelic sound but, it has a nice and love keyboard sound of Richard Wright, besides his own voice. I like very much of this song with the brilliant piano work of Richard Wright and the nice drumming of Nick Mason. The third track "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" written by Roger Waters is one of the two greatest moments on this album. It's a classic song of the group and the band used it often on their early live musical performances. This is, in my opinion, the first song written by them were we can clearly see the future space sound of the band, which would appear, for the first time, on their sixth studio album "Meddle", the first album totally progressive of the group. This is, for me, the best song composed by Roger Waters in the early days of the band. The fourth track "Corporal Clegg" written also by Roger Waters has nothing to do with the previous song composed by him. It's a nice and fun psychedelic song but it's, unfortunately, more vulgar and with a much lower level of quality. This is a song with childish music and lyrics, very hilarious and strange. Sincerely, I've no problem to hear this song but it's, for me, the weakest point on the album and is its Achilles' heel. The fifth track "A Saucerful Of Secrets" written by Roger Waters, Richard Wright, David Gilmour and Nick Mason is the lengthiest song on the album and the great magnus opus of the album. It represents the other great musical moment on the album and another sign that something is going to happen with the musical direction and the sound of Pink Floyd in the near future. We can divide this song into three distinct musical moments. The first part is composed by weird noises and sounds and is dominated by the keyboard sounds. It reminds me the electronic progressive sound of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze in their early days. The second part is also dominated by the keyboard sound with the weird noises and sinister sounds with the drumming and percussion on the back. The third part is also dominated by the keyboards but it's absolutely beautiful and astonishing. It shows clearly what Pink Floyd would be capable to make in the next future, and how their music can be beautiful and grandiose. The sixth track "See-Saw" written by Richard Wright is the other song written by Richard Wright, but isn't as good as "Remember A Day". Yet, this is a good and interesting song, better than "Corporal Clegg" of Roger Waters. I think we can consider it an early classic music composition of Richard Wright, very pleasant, charming and with some creativity. I also think that we can hear on it something of the future dreaming sound of the band. The seventh and last track "Jugband Blues" written by Syd Barrett is the only composition written by Syd Barrett and is also his swan song on the group that he founded. It's a very short song and it's clearly a different song from the others on the album. It's a typical Syd Barrett's song with its mysterious and eccentric lyrics and musical sound. This is also an interesting song.

Conclusion: "A Saucerful Of Secrets" is like "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" a great album. But, musically is a very different album. Despite have still many psychedelic musical parts, it has also, for the first time, the beginning of the fundamental elements of their future space rock sound, which only would be firmly consolidated on their sixth studio album "Meddle". "A Saucerful Of Secrets" is, in my humble opinion, a more mature musical proposal than the previous one. "A Saucerful Of Secrets" is the proof that there were two different bands, the band with Syd Barrett and the band without him. Sincerely, I don't think the main difference on the music on this album is David Gilmour but Roger Waters. It's true that we can clear hear the new guitar sound of David Gilmour on the album, but Roger Waters are the main composer on the album. I think the problems would appear with him and Syd Barrett if Syd had continued in the group.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Debut album follow-ups are always difficult, as history shows, and the mighty Pink Floyd are no exception to this notion. One could ask "Well, has there ever been a non-difficult Floyd album?" and it seems the answer would be negative, but the events surrounding the creation and the release of 'A Saucerful of Secrets' are quite interesting, given the fact that the end result is among the most interesting and most adventurous psychedelic recordings of all time. This statement, however, has a tiny bit of objectivism to it, but with the discography of this particular behemoth of a band it is always quite difficult to remain just a mindless reviewer, and not add some personal bias based on either the psycho-emotional reaction to the music, or just a personal experience that has led to a specific relationship with that album, and that could apply, more or less, to the case of this exact review.

June 28, 1968 is the release date of Pink Floyd's second studio album 'A Saucerful of Secrets', this one coming after the success of the underground cult classic that is 'The Piper', the band's first full-length release, with its unbridled psychedelia and charming British whimsy, both thanks to the leadership of Syd Barrett, then-guitar player and lead vocalist. Some months later, in another year, Barrett's mental state is deteriorated and working with him is becoming close to impossible; A new guitar player who can sing is recruited - old friend David Gilmour, and with the main songwriter of the band now gone, each member is left contributing material for 'Saucerful', sometimes individually, and sometimes as a group. The outcome of all this - one of the classic albums released in 1968, to me this one betters its predecessor, as crazy as it may sound, given the turmoil in the band. Still pretty much in the land of obscurity, space rock and psychedelic exploration, 'Saucerful' seems to be somewhat more complete, a pinch more focused, and strangely, even more psychedelic than 'The Piper'. The proof for that is, for example, the nearly 12-minute entirely instrumental title track, or the haunting 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' by Roger Waters (also the only track on which he sings), which has seen various live renditions and covers throughout the years, a testimony for its cult status. 'Let There Be More Light' is another gloomy track, the album opener that sets this ominous, venturous mood that stays on for the entire duration of the record. Then there is 'Corporal Clegg', another Waters tune, and the first one on a Floyd album to touch upon the topic of war, which we all know, would later be one of the two prevalent narratives in Waters' lyrics. This, and existential agony. 'See-Saw' by Wright is quite charming, every song on which he sings is absolutely delightful; and then we have the final track, the only one written entirely by Syd Barrett - 'Jugband Blues' - three minutes of melancholic darkness, dressed in whimsy, in my opinion. The track certainly speaks loudly about his mental state at the time.

A watershed album for Pink Floyd in many ways: Barrett is officially out after this one, Gilmour is in (also being a new contender for the band leader position), the band is left wondering which way to go (as we can tell from the releases coming after 'Saucerful'), just to become the biggest band in the world in less than ten years; 'Saucerful' presents musical qualities that depict a very particular part of the development of psychedelic rock (we certainly cannot speak of anything that progressive at this point, even with the extended length of the title track), and also depicts one of the crucial episodes in the band's career. Plainly, you either love it or don't.

The band's sophomore album sees tremendous growth and expansion of recording techniques and musical ideas. Was this album the signal of the actual birth of progressive rock music?

1." Let There Be More Light" (5:38) opens with a guitar and bass riff that must have been an inspiration and model for Grand Funk Railroad's iconic song "I'm You Captain (Closer to Home)," but then the instruments fill out with organ and drums, both slowly panning across the sonic field in opposite directions until 1:25 when the music thins out and settles into a CREAM-like blues rock pattern over which some two different and unusual vocal approaches alternate, on with multiple voice whispers and soft accompaniment, the other with background and very aggressive organ-led rock bombast. A long guitar solo occupies the fifth minute with one standard guitar soloing up front (constantly panning around) and another freak-out guitar squealing away in the back left. Interesting song that definitely goes beyond the usual psychedelia of the day. (9/10)

2. "Remember a Day" (4:33) an interesting song for its many familiar riffs and parts that have been masterfully synthesized into something totally new and fresh. Piano and guitar play together while Richard Wright occupies the mercurial lead vocal spot with a gentle, breathy style. Syd's slide guitar is all over the place, but then, Richard's Colin Blunstone-like vocal is sliding all over the wide sonic field. The use of really odd minor chords within a context of more standard pentatonic blues is really fresh--giving the song a kind of classical music feel. Quite ingenious songwriting and production. (9.25/10)

3. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (5:28) this is perhaps the only song from the Syd Barrett-era of Pink Floyd that I've actually ever really liked. I love how well-recorded Richard Wright's vibes and keys are. (9/10)

4. "Corporal Clegg" (4:12) with this heavier song the band seems to be reaching back into THE BEATLES' repertoire for inspiration "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," "Yellow Submarine"), but, as usual, the band doctor it up with plenty of inventive sound engineering and stylistic juxtapositions. The song is very theatric, using multiple voices in stage-like character performance roles. The use of kazoos and marching band drums at the end are so Sgt. Pepper/"Yellow Submarine." I don't dislike it but it loses its novelty in the face of all that the Beatles had done before. (8.5/10)

5. "A Saucerful of Secrets" (11:57) timpani and other percussive noise thingies populate the sound feel behind a macabre soundscape of organ, brass, Mellotron, and effects for the first four minutes of this one, giving the listener the feeling of being either in an amusement park's "house of horrors" or else a Loony Toons-imagined version of other planets. Around the four-minute mark cacophonous butt-sitting piano play and militaristic drumming are embellished by plenty of fly-by guitar squeals, screams, and crashes. Storm thunder interrupts the song around 7:15 allowing a kind of reset/start-over as organ, timpani, and percussives begin to repopulate the soundscape over the next minute. Progressing sustained organ chords then dominate--almost solo--for the next 90 seconds before other incidentals begin returning to the field's background. At 10:15, choral vocal "ahhs" and Mellotron join in, amplifying the organ's chord progression, multiplying as the song continues right up to the end. I can definitely see where Mike Oldfield got some of his inspiration for his first two or three albums. Quite a remarkable expansion of what is possible with musical expression! (23/25)

6. "See-Saw" (4:36) to go into this dreamy, French-sounding psychedelic pop song (something that must have inspired the founders of STEREOLAB immensely) is quite a ballsy move. Piano, jazz bass and drums, with Mellotron strings. Brilliant! This happens to be Richard Wright's second turn on lead vocals and I must say he's very effective over and within the controlled chaos going around him in the sonic field. What a delightful, fun, and truly beautiful song! (What killer chord sequences!) Not the most innovative music or song but it hits all of my pleasure buttons (including the incorporation of a little The Soft Machine's self-deprecating humour). (9.6667/10)

7. "Jugband Blues" (2:59) were the Beatles playing jugband music when they did some of their silliest, most "drunken" psychedelic songs? The "la-la-la" infinite choir and village square oompah band is brilliant. And then Syd returns with a solo-with-acoustic guitar verse. (8.6667/10)

Total Time 39:23

This is definitely the proggiest album I've heard from 1968--maybe the only one that could/would qualify as a true progressive rock album (as opposed to proto-prog or prog-related).

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of early progressive rock music that deserves major credit and kudos as a major innovator in the possiblities of both multi-track recording and song expression.