THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

My first problem with PINK FLOYD's debut album is generated in my mind, I have to confess. I just can't get over the fact that this is the same band that would give me "Animals" or "Dark Side of the Moon" or "Meddle". In a way, then, me not liking "The Piper at the Gates at Dawn" is then purely my fault.

But if that was the case, I would definitely enjoy this music if I imagined it to have been written by somebody else. There's countless examples of cases where ignoring the band playing the music made me like it even more. After all, I'm first and foremost reviewing music. And there's where I find the biggest flaw in this record: it is just not good music.

Sorry Barrett adorers all around the globe. I can't see the magic. I hear, I admit, original ideas; I detect, I confess, a talented person behind the compositions; I see potential. And that's all I see: potential. I can't be happy with poppy/psychedelic songs like "Matilda Mother" or pseudo-unique experiments like "Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk" (this one crafted by future-real-masterpiece-craftsman Roger Waters.) Yes, I hear some details here and there, some original ideas that sadly don't help make the listening experience any more bearable. Sorry, I'm not happy just when I'm supposedly being exposed to originality; it first hast to be good, then original. It could be debated that something original by default is always something good. With that position, I have to say, I most fervently disagree. The world of music is full of experimental waste.

So then we reach the two songs that should, according to many, make me realize how extraordinaire this album is: "Astronomy Domine" and "interstellar Overdrive". Again, I don't fail to listen music that must've been incredibly new for the time, and yes, very progressive. They still leave me cold. The second one, in particular, appears to me as the ultimate example of why drugs and music are a perfect match, and at the same time the worst match possible. Many people see magic, "avant-garde", pure genius; I just hear a musician making noise with his guitar with certain coherence, I must say, but in the end that's it. I'll agree it can be the more interesting track in this album, but, again, that still doesn't make it good.

In the end, you should ignore me and go buy this album because it definitely is important from a historical-musical perspective, and maybe even from a purely musical one. But you'll also have to forgive me for ignoring all the people who adore and revere this record, as I certainly don't, and I'll give it the rating that it deserves for me: 2 stars for the music, 3 stars for originality. I can't round up as that would make this album as good as "Atom Heart Mother" and that's totally preposterous for me. Therefore, 2 stars sounds just fine.

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