Reviews for Pink Floyd - A saucerful of secrets:


this is a geart psychedelic album, sounds more well produced than Piper at the gates of dawn, but much less interesting.

Review by: forgotten



This is the second Pink Floyd album, and the only 5 Floyd line up. This is the last album to feature Syd Barret, who was kicked out because of his deteriorated mental condition.

The album starts with the bass intro of Let There Be More Light, a great psychodelic tune with science fiction lyrics. It's a shame that no one talks about this song, it's fantastic and Rick Wright's vocals are very hypnotic here.

Then it goes into Remember A Day, a beautiful song written by Richard Wright. Nothing special about this one, but it has this sixties athmosphere that makes it great to listen to.

The masterpiece of the album is Roger Waters's song Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun. It's a very athmospheric and quiet song based on a single melody and it works perfect. However, the version of this song in Live At Pompeii is much better because it has that wonderful keyboard solo by Rick Wright and the fast part there is insane. Don't know why they didn't include those parts on the album...

Corporeal Clegg is an insane song, that sounds abit like circus music. It's a very catchy tune.

The other masterpiece of this album is the highly experimental A Saucerful Of Secrets. This song is just...noise! There's a lot of tension in here, and it's very creepy. Then it goes into a tribial rythm along with noises and stuff. The ending has more coherence with an athmospheric keyboard and some pretty voices. The Live At Pompeii version is much better anyway.

See Saw is a pretty Rick Wright song, kinda melancolic, but my least favourite on the album.

Jugband Blues is the only song in this album written by Syd Barret, and also his last one with Pink Floyd. What makes this song so special are the lyrics. They are disturbing in a certain way because it's like a self diagnose of schyzofrenia. The second half of the song, with all the trumpets and noises, shows it. The last lines of the song, performed just by Syd and his acoustic guitar are absolutely haunting: "and what exactly is a dream? and what exactly is a joke?" It's a shame that he ended so badly...

Overall, this is an excellent album and one of Pink Floyd's best ones. There's lot of experimentation in here and everyone who likes psychodelic or athmospheric music must give it a try.

9.5/10

Review by: paathoven