|
| |
Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs
- The original front man of Pink Floyd, whose career in the band was cut unfortunately short by his mental illness, released two solo albums before retiring from music forever. “The Madcap Laughs” is generally considered his best work from this period. The album mostly contains bouncy acoustic pop songs about love and other common topics. However, none of the songs are completely coherent or straightforward either. Long gone are the spacey freakouts that dominated his work with Pink Floyd. In their stead is a collection of bizarre songs that seemed to want to be lighthearted pop songs, but could never quite reach that goal.
The song structures and lyrics are all quite simple. Most of the tunes consist of no more than four or five strummed chords. The lyrics are usually simple and straightforward as well. However, they occasionally reveal the perception of the troubled mind that wrote them. In one particularly challenging song called “Dark Globe,” Barrett reveals, “I tattooed my brain all the way.” Lines such as this reveal a sense of regret and sadness at having caused his own mental demise by abusing LSD. Many of the lyrics, while straightforward in concept and tone, are often fragmentary and can even range into the nonsensical. One particularly powerful track is the dark “Golden Hair,” based on lyrics by James Joyce. Semi-dissonant chords, distant vibraphones, and Barrett’s hollow, double-tracked vocal work augment the song’s repetitive structure.
These songs are not necessarily good in a tangible way. Most of them come off as rants on love and life that borderline on complete disjointedness. The genius stylistic direction that Barrett brought to Pink Floyd’s early work is mostly gone; only flashes of his former creativity appear on this album. However, when they do appear, such as on “Golden Hair,” they can send chills down the listener’s spine. This album is only recommended to fans of the Barrett-era Pink Floyd.
Reviewer: Kris Lorenz
new
Reviewer's Rating: 8
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 3-Aug-2009
Talk to other readers about this story.
|
|
|
|
|
