A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS

Pink Floyd's legacy continues, this time without Syd, he was only contributing to one song on this album. As I mentioned in my review about PF's debut, the band had to replace Syd because his mental condition started to be critical. He couldn't keep track of the songs they were playing during live shows, and his songs started to just become akward and overly controversial. So, he had to depart from the band, and pursue in his own footsteps.

This is when our friend David Gilmour comes into the picture, he is Syd's replacement, and is a much better singer and guitar player than Syd, he is actually the only one in the band that has some kind of musical education. He is however, a very bad songwriter in my opinion. Gladly, he won't be the one that handles the songwriting, for a very long time.

This is one of the few albums where you could really see the band working together to imitate Syd's sound. This is actually the most democratic out of all PF albums. I feel that there is less filler on this album than the debut and it's much more polished and sounds alot better. This is also the closest you can get to a mix between the 60s pop psychedelica and a progressive rock sound.

The album starts of with "Let There Be More Light" which has propably one of the fastest intros PF has ever used in a song. After the intro, the song goes into a very ethnic sounding riff, which is played in the minor scale. And the song doesn't evolve much from that, it contains one of Gilmour's weakest solos ever and is not very impressing at all.

Afterwards, the song "Remember a Day" comes. Which is without any doubt the best song on the album, it sounds alot like Syd's poppier, childish tunes. Except that it's alot more musical and more interesting to hear. It also has quite a few dramatic changes in the song. If Syd could write psychedlic pop songs as well as Rick could, Piper would propably be regarded in the same league as Sgt. Pepper by casual rock fans. This song is also a obvious example that the band is doesn't know where to go without Syd, and tries to copy the successful formula from the last album.

Next song is "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" which is also an attempt at following the last albums formula (hell, the whole album is an attempt at that). There is not much to say about this song, it doesn't change alot, one riff and some singing/jamming on it. Pretty good song, but it's not anything remarkable.

"Corporal Clegg" is next up, it's a fun song about a war vietnam, it doesn't really fit into the album, but to make this a perfect copy of Piper, you have to have some silliness in the album. This song includes a kazoo part which is pretty amusing, but once again, Syd beats Roger at writing songs like this, it just isn't Roger's strong side. Propably the worst song on the album, it's still a good and enjoyable song.

The title track is the next one, and is a completely instrumental song, where all band members has been credited. This song is very hard to memorize, and it just goes in and out. I can't say that I'm a big fan of it, it has it's nice moments, but it's way too slow and doesn't really seem to go anywhere. This was a live favorite for a long time, and was played at every single PF concert until '72. And this song was also alot better live. This is also a first look into how Ummagumma would sound, but on that album the members of PF would've refined this style of playing and made it alot more interesting and musical.

Now that we've had a look into Ummagumma, PF will deliver their next sound, the More sound. Which is Pink Floyd's take on folk rock, however, one difference is the songwriters, this is Rick and Roger is the one writing the folk songs on More. Alright, now onto the analyse of "See Saw". Which is pretty much a more progressive version of what they would do on More. It has time signature changes and everything that makes prog what we know it as (exotic instruments, complex arrangement and so on). This is almost on the same level of perfection as Remember a Day. I realize now that I really love the songwriting style of Rick. Maybe he is my favorite member?

And the last song, is Syd's last contribution to a PF album, but it's also his best one. You really hear that his lyrics has matured and so has his songwriting skills. Oh, what wonderful things could Syd have done if he continued with Pink Floyd. This is also one of the most bluesy songs Pink Floyd have released (the most bluesy goes however to Seamus). It's a fantastic song, which is a big influence on my own songwriting, a perfect way to end this amazing album.

This album was easy to give a rating to, it was not mature enough to get a 5, however, the songs were still very impressive and the band manages actually to surpass their former leader. From now on they are gonna pursue a completely new sound, and they will soon be known as the Pink Floyd we are all familiar with.