A Saucerful of Secrets

What dire and wonderful secrets are in that flying saucer that you have to set its controls for the heart of the sun? I bet it’s all that mad imagination locked inside Syd’s brain. No matter, though. We’ll discover it again in time. It’s our destiny, like entering the Monolith. An ascension indistinguishable from apotheosis.

Syd starts to show signs of being fried out of his mind, and is mostly out of it, and Gilmy comes in and turns the band from a psychedelic la di da band into a mushroom-gobbling, space-riding animal.

As far as the album goes, it's spotty and rocky throughout. The first two songs are amazing space psych numbers, Set The Controls... is an ok studio track, but is far better done live, and Corporal Clegg showcases Waters' war-itis syndrome, for better or worse, while side B's s/t opener is at most listenable as a sort of "easy-listening, beats-to-study-to" vibe, and at worst, a waste of almost 12 minutes of my time, and See-Saw is alright, but due to the previous song, I'm fazed out of it, while Jugband Blues is a song that perfectly captures the essence of Syd: weird and mysterious, but also fragile, sad and misunderstood. A good closing album to a chapter of a bands life, but beyond that, only a footnote in history.