Review Summary: A journey through the whimsical, joyful, and reflective all in one.
Syd Barrett is a genius as a lyricist, he could paint images in your mind using words and clever rhyme schemes, his songs are almost fairytale-like and really start working your imagination, these songs will make you feel carefree and they're definitely incredible, with some deep thought-provoking lyrics too like on "The Scarecrow". Rick Wright's organ and keyboard work on this album is nothing short of phenomenal and is highlighted in a lot of the compositions, Syd's vocals are iconic and honestly really great, what I love about him is that he definitely doesn't attempt to hide his accent, and is probably the most British sounding singer of the 60's psychedelia movement. I prefer when artists don't feel the need to work so hard to mask their natural voice or identities. Roger's basslines are fire as always, and you can hear the groundwork for how his style would develop as the band continued on. Nick Mason's drumming on "Interstellar Overdrive" (my personal favorite track) keeps the song together while the band dives headfirst into improvisation like jazz.
The songs are all incredible with a vast range of emotions, you've got light, carefree, and whimsical on "Chapter 24", "Flaming", and "The Gnome", hair-raising chill-inducing songs like "Astronomy Domine" (which uses unique sound effects and tape manipulation that was a first for its time alongside "Bike" which has an ending that was definitely inspired by Sgt. Peppers), melancholic and nostalgic on "Matilda Mother" which reads almost like a nursery rhyme, which makes sense considering a lot of the lyrics seem to be influenced by quite a few stories taken from Hillaire Belloc's "Cautionary Tales".
There are two bad songs however on the record, "Pow R. Toc H." which sounds like the band screwing around in the studio rather than trying to make a song, ending up with a good piano melody that doesn't seem to want to work with the contrasting random sounds and noises the band makes, and "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" which is Roger's first lyrical contribution which is surprisingly much of a letdown.
Overall though it's no doubt among the greatest albums of all time, and Syd's masterpiece. It's a shame what happened to him really, but we wouldn't have got the rest of their amazing work without things going the way they did!
