A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS

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!

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