A Saucerful Of Secrets – PINK FLOYD***

Let There Be More Light/Remember A Day/Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun/Corporal Clegg/A Saucerful Of Secrets/See-Saw/Jugband Blues

The forced retirement of Syd Barratt resulted in songwriting credits for Pink Floyd's second album being shared with the rest of the group and new member David Gilmour. Unfortunately, A Saucerful Of Secrets still finds them struggling to create a consistent musical identity. (UK:9)

"Band's line-up was in flux, as guitarist and songwriter Syd Barrett had left, while David Gilmour came in to replace him. This change had a great impact on the band's sound. Barrett's songwriting veered between little ditties of childlike innocence and spaced-out paeans to the glory of the cosmos. As his role diminished, Pink Floyd lost that whimsical side and came to focus exclusively on complex psychedelia."

"A pretty strange, transitional album for Pink Floyd. A Saucerful Of Secrets also has the distinction of being the only album that features all five main members of the band. Syd Barrett's role had already been visibly deteriorating and he only contributes one song, Jugband Blues. Pink Floyd would go on to create some of the best music rock 'n' roll has ever seen by the '70s, but their writing abilities were still half-formed here. Many of the songs sound like '60s psychedelic pop and aren't all that outstanding. Set The Controls and the title track are the obvious highlights."

"Atmospheric and unsettling, the group’s mostly forgotten second record is more impressive for its potential than for its actual results. With Syd Barrett more or less jettisoned, their languid 'classic' sound begins to coalesce, and Let There Be More Light, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun and the title track are creepy excursions into spaced-out ambience. Like most transitional records, the whole doesn’t quite hold together."

"The album starts off so great, with that fantastic bass line, but then degenerates quickly into Boringville. The wacky, childish psych songs have largely disappeared to be replaced by tunes that set the template for the incoming 'Space-Rock' movement. Best track has to be Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun."

"On this album we find Pink Floyd in the transition phase from a psychedelic pop band to a spacey progressive rock band."