Like any good "Prog Rock" band, Pink Floyd has had its members turn out a large number of side works. Well long before The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, and the infamous Wet Dream, the original Pink Floyd Guitarist, Syd Barrett, made a number of releases. This article reviews the second one of those, the eponymous Barrett. There was a decline in interest for this album, unlike The Madcap Laughs before it, eventually resulting in fellow Floyd members David Gilmour and Richard Wright producing the album, long before the executives let them produce and Pink Floyd material. While the effects of this are noticeable, do they interfere with Syd's genius?
The first thing heard is a bit of a guitar solo, which is, for lack of a better word, brilliant. After around 45 seconds the rest of the instruments come in to play the first song. The keyboards (Richard Wright again) work very well in conjunction to the guitar, except for one part in the middle where it sort of flies into a window and knocks itself over. The drumming is also noteworthily good.
This is followed by the unimaginatively named Love Song. The omni-talented David Gilmour shows off his newfound bass guitar skills, as the rest of the band follows to make a surprisingly good song in the end (considering the apparently simple structure and theme). The organ solo is probably the peak of the song.
Unfortunately that delectable fusion ends there. The third track, Dominoes, has a painfully slow rhythm. None of the instruments mesh very well, although they probably aren't very good in and of themselves. Even Syd's wonderful voice can't repair it enough in my mind.
It is Obvious isn't quite as bad as Dominoes, but it isn't spectacular either. In fact, it's almost a copy of Dominoes, but faster, and with a pretty cool keyboard trick. It feels like the bands working together again although the song probably isn't that worthwhile on its own.
The next song continues this trend, with Syd not singing in time with the rest of the music (or vice versa). It seems more like noise than actual music. On the other hand, you can definately feel the direction they were trying to go, even if they didn't quite get there right.
And capping off side one, is an experiment, better known as Maisie, which involves Syd Barrett singing at a strangely low pitch. David Gilmour does yet another good bass role, and most importantly, the song works. Well except for it going a bit too slowly, but it still works.
Starting off side two is Gigolo Aunt. Gigolo Aunt returns to the good chemistry the band was experiencing earlier, and features an incredibly singable chorus. Of course, if you actually do sing along you're going to get strange looks from those around you but it's still good. It also features a great guitar solo, which despite being a bit long, never really loses itself.
Waving my arms in the air is a lot shorter, and there isn't really much to talk about, outside of the rhythm guitar. It's a good song, but not one you're likely to think much about.
This leads directly into I never Lied to you, which is sort of the previous song, but more boring, and with less direction. This is, if you will, the dark side of Syd. Even though he sometimes produces brilliant songs, he has also produced a lot like this.
Wined and Dined has that same going on too long problem. In it's defence, the rhythmic pattern is fairly interesting, and it has cool keyboard noises. Not really enough to keep you going.
The penultimate song, Wolfpack, seems more annoying than interesting. Screaming vocals, misdirected guitars, nothing fitting really. One of those songs you don't really need to hear
Finally we have Effervescing elephant. It starts with a funny tuba sounding synthesiser. It all fits together with those hilarious lyrics to create a perfectly ingenious song.
This album includes some of Syd Barrett's best material. It also showcases some of his worst. On a personal note, I really enjoyed this album. However, I realise that there are a lot of people out there who wouldn't appreciate this. That said, if you're a fan of psychedelic rock, or are looking for a complete Pink FLoyd collection, you will probably appreciate this quite a bit. For everyone else, you might be better spending your time and money elsewhere. More reviews