Baby Lemonade/Love Song/Dominoes/It Is Obvious/Rats/Maisie/Gigolo Aunt/Waving My Arms In The Air/I Never Lied To You/Wined & Dined/Wolfpack/Effervescing Elephant
The second and final album from Syd Barrett, the former front man of Pink Floyd, made with the help of some former colleagues. At his best his songs were creatively idiosyncratic, but too many were self indulgently whimsical.
“Producer Gilmour drained much of the life out of this one, taking the blandest takes Syd recorded and having Rick Wright overdub them with the most uninspired keyboard playing of his career. Only on Wolfpack and Rats does Syd's unfettered madness shine through.”
“This album is like the biggest soap bubble I’d ever blown, trembling with the most vibrant colours of the rainbow, only to pop and disappear before anybody else noticed or cared.”
“There's a perversity about listening to Syd Barrett. I always feel like I'm eavesdropping onto something I shouldn't be. I am curious as to how far the poor guy will go, like on Rats when he almost loses control of the song, it's so oddly fascinating. The stranger the lyrics the more I am interested. Only after several listens did I appreciate his solo albums for what they are - a jumbled up collection of folk songs hanging together by a split thread.”
“Gone is the folksy meanderings of The Madcap Laughs and the guitar freak-outs of Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. In their place comes a cohesive sounding set of whimsically bumpy and bouncy psychedelic pop songs. This is Syd Barrett's goodbye to the world of music and fame.”
“A much more cohesive and refined album from Barrett, mainly because it was pieced together by people not out of their heads. Put together the best tracks from this and Madcap and you have a brilliant album.”
“This is basically The Madcap Laughs part two with the only difference that there are less poppy hooks here, and generally Syd sounds very tired and bored. Quite an unfortunate goodbye album.”
“It's just too disjointed, disconnected, inconsistent and obtuse to be more than a cult album, which is where its reputation is built. There are glimmers here and there but not enough and even those glimmers are fading fast too. Tragic but fascinating.”
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