And I don't care when nothing is mine."
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And I don't care when nothing is mine." |
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| Artist | Pink Floyd |
| Title | A Saucerful of Secrets |
| Type | Album |
| Released | 29.06.1968 |
| Genre | Psychdelic Rock |
| Style | Experimental, Prog |
| My rating | (7) |
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Tracklist:
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Credits:
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I'm generally not a big fan "psychdelic rock" 60s music. Stuff like Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Sergeant Pepper doesn't do much for me. And it's actually the same with the previous PF record - "Piper at the Gates of Dawn". It's na "ok" release, but most of the songs I just don't get. This however... it's different. Somehow this particular album is my favourite psych rock record and one of the best early Floyd efforts in my opinion.
The atmosphere here is just like the cover. It's murky, weird and distinctly mysterious. The only thing that lightens the darkness of this trippy journey is Rick's glorious organ work, that (as I've seen somebody in the YouTube comments once writte) "sounds like the sun". Now with David on board, the band completely changed it's approach to songwriting. It's got more experimental and less acid-y and the arrangenents are now more complex and weird. Even the Syd song here is crazy and unnerving, when prevously he was writing much more simple, nursery-rhyme type of tunes.
I like how this album manages to really highlight (almost!) every members talent. Roger sticks to the bass here, delivering one of his best performances as a bassist. Nick does his usual tribal, flowing drum work (and it's actually the band's favourite album!). Rick provides beautiul and colorful soundscapes that bleed through the music like sunbeams through dark clouds. Syd has his moment to shine with the last track. Dave is nowhere to be heard tho! Except from a couple of vocal lines, I cannot exactly pinpoint his guitar work here...
Let's look at the tracks now. Right of the bat, we are hit by psychedelia of "Let There Be More Light"'s intro. I've always like this track and it's mysterious lyrics about an alien encounter. It's absolutely uncomparable with PF's best stuff, but it's cool and I come back to it really often.
Next we have the Rick's song - "Remember a Day". Really nice, nostalgic atmosphere that is a quintesential Richard Write tune. I wish the band had more songs just like this one. It's sunny, very memorable and the lyrics are somewhat earth-bound, which might be a breath of fresh air for people that listen exclusively to their 70s albums. And it's the same with the later track "See-saw", although the former is noticeably better. Apparently Roger called it "the most boring song he ever heard" or something like that and I hear him on that, even though I like this track.
Then, there comes a big one. "Set the Controls" is a staple in Floyd's early catalouge. The bassline here is just legendary and really fits the whole mystical, ancient-egyptian, spacey sound there were going on here. I'd like to talk now about the title track too, because they have the same issue that I'll mention in a moment. "Saucerful" is mess. It's noisy, experimental piece that hardly even can be called a "song". I've heard that the band composed it by drawing some shapes on a piece of paper and then tried to recreate them in a musical format. It definitely worked cause it just sounds like a bunch of jagged, disjointed shapes that form a very uncompromisingly hard to listen to soundscape which resolves beatifully to the epic outro. But the studio version might be actually the worst one. And as I said, it's the same with "Set The Controls"! Pompeii version, Ummagumma version and a lot of different bootlegs ones are just superior to this messy, muddy arrangements that seem very shy and uncertain of their sound. But I believe this isn't really a big hot take in the fandom.
"Corporal Clegg" goes so hard! Unbeliveably hard for just a quirky weird joke-song that they made half seriously... I love the kazoo bit and vibey 60s guitar hits. The songs then bleeds into the noise outro and just ends. I go back to this song more often that I should...
And for the end, the most heartbreaking Floyd song ever. It's full of spiteful irony and bitterness, yet they still decided to put it on the album. This song years later became a basis for the style of entire discography of early Car Seat Headrest, what I hardly ever see being talked about. I takle it some time in the future. Anyway, goodbye Syd! You will be missed! Escpiecially by the band that now will proceed to casually spit out the best music ever made album by album while singing almost exclusively about you!
"Saucerful" is a whimsical journey that is not for everybody. If you like weird sonic experimentation, hippie songs and overall psychedelic vibe, this is a record for you. If you enjoyed 70s Floyd stuff, watch out! This is admiteddly nothing like their later music. Even though it features one of their best songs (a title track's outro) but in very weird and uninteresting version that pales in comparison with Pompeii stuff. But still, it's a legendary record that is a must listen for every more up-to-speed music fan.