Description

The Madcap Laughs is the debut solo album by the English singer-songwriter recorded after Barrett had left Pink Floyd.

Wisely, The Madcap Laughs doesnt even try to sound like a consistent record. Half the album was recorded by Barretts former bandmates Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour, and the other half by Harvest Records head Malcolm Jones. Surprisingly, Jones tracks are song for song much stronger than the more-lauded Floyd entries. The opening Terrapin seems to go on three times as long as its five-minute length, creating a hypnotic effect through Barretts simple, repetitive guitar figure and stream of consciousness lyrics. The much bouncier Love You sounds like a sunny little Carnaby Street pop song along the lines of an early Move single, complete with music hall piano, until the listener tries to parse the lyrics and realizes that they make no sense at all. The downright KinksyHere I Go is in the same style, although its both more lyrically direct and musically freaky, speeding up and slowing down seemingly at random. Like many of the band tracks, Here I Go is a Barrett solo performance with overdubs by Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, and Robert Wyatt of the Soft Machine; the combination doesnt always particularly work, as the Softs jazzy, improvisational style is hemmed in by having to follow Barretts predetermined lead, so on several tracks, like No Good Trying, they content themselves with simply making weird noises in the background. The solo tracks are what made the albums reputation, though, particularly the horrifying Dark Globe, a first-person portrait of schizophrenia thats seemingly the most self-aware song this normally whimsical songwriter ever created. Honestly, however, the other solo tracks are the albums weakest tracks, with the exception of the plain gorgeous Golden Hair, a musical setting of a James Joyce poem thats simply spellbinding. The album falls apart with the appalling Feel. Frankly, the inclusion of false starts and studio chatter, not to mention some simply horrible off-key singing by Barrett, makes this already marginal track feel disgustingly exploitative. But for that misstep, however, The Madcap Laughs is a surprisingly effective record that holds up better than its ooh, lookit the scary crazy person reputation suggests. ~ Stewart Mason