The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Dark Side is one of my all time favorite albums, but man, this one is nearly unlistenable drugged out rambling. It's a miracle someone kept paying them to write more.

Strange and not really fun to listen to.

Another one I’m puzzled by its inclusion. Not very fun to listen to.

I discovered Pink Floyd as a teenager through the albums Wish You Were Here, Animals and Dark Side of The Moon. This groundbreaking influence on my musical taste came when I was the new kid on the block in my new peer group in a new city. It was very moving and inspiring. In my exuberance, I bought the albums Ummagumma and A Nice Pair. These were very irritating for me. Simply too experimental for my listening habits, which at the time were still too influenced by pop music with its emphasis on harmonies. In that respect, I also found The Piper at The Gates of Dawn interesting, but generally far too exhausting to listen to. It was only later that this changed fundamentally. Now I am also enthusiastic about Pink Floyd's early work under the brilliant influence of Syd Barrett. Well, the band's later work, starting with The Wall, is worth listening to, but significantly less impressive than the previous albums. The actual album is remarkable for its groundbreaking influence on rock history alone. But it also stands out as a great album in its own right, even after all this time. 5/5

First deep dive with Syd Barrett-era Floyd, and let's just say I admire it more than I actually enjoy it. Kind of amazing they went from this to writing a stone cold rock classic (that everyone on earth likes) within six years.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
I can appreciate the experimentalism and how this must have sounded for 1967 (although the extreme stereo panning hasn’t aged brilliantly), a combination of acid enhanced childish whimsy and droning space rock, while also finding it a not particularly engaging listen.

I wasn’t hugely into The Madcap Laughs, and I think I struggle to attune myself to Syd Barret’s songwriting and melodic style, which makes up the majority of this. And I think you can see the Gilmour shaped hole, missing his brooding, introspective bluesiness. Clearly they were a very different band at this point, and when they do hint at the atmospheric music they would go on to make on things like Astronomy Domine, Pow R Tc H and Interstellar Overdrive I like it, but elsewhere the green frog in bog, cat in house, hats for a queen and bells for a king whimsy doesn’t really resonate for me.

I think this is probably more contextually interesting than musically interesting, although I know lots of people absolutely love 60s psych, and I appreciate the influence it has had and the sense of novelty for the time. But musically I’m not as appreciative, so I think this settles as a low 3. I may come back and try again, but I would probably head toward their later music, once Gilmour is onboard.
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Playlist submission: Interstellar Overdrive

It's insane how good their later albums are compared to this debut. Shows a lot of promise, but I don't see myself choosing this over other albums in their discography.

*Interesting psychedelic rock
*I understand the significance but it's not enough to hook me into re-listening a lot

Først må jeg bare si det. Pink Floyd har laget sykt mye kjedelig musikk, men denne plata er ikke kjedelig.

Her har vi låter av ravebandet Pink Floyd. Så fett "Astronomy Domine" og "Interstellar Overdrive" må ha vært å høre live. De to låtene låter faktisk freshere enn ganske mye fra Sgt. Peppers, som utrolig nok kom samme år.

Men når det gjelder psykedelisk musikk så er det av en eller annen grunn en HÅRFIN linje mellom nyskapende rockemusikk og fjollete barnemusikk. Ok, så leste du Alice i eventyrland som barn, la det være. Jeg går ikke rundt og lager Mummitrollet-musikk heller. "The Gnome" er blant låtene som jeg syns er cringe. "Bike" er på grensa, men den er igjen så helsprø at den blir interessant igjen.

"Apples and Oranges" ble utgitt som single samme år og er utrolig fet, og vokalen er nesten rappende. Hadde vært fint å bytte ut "The Gnome" med den.

Schrijf ik net over Fever Ray, dat ik er onder andere Pink Floyd in hoor. Krijg ik die ter toetsing gelijk de volgende dag op mijn bord.

Eerder al wat albums van de band afgeserveerd wegens ontoegankelijkheid, maar ook een 5 aan hen uitgedeeld. Met name de meer toegankelijke rustige donkere klanken deden het voor me.

Dus wat krijgen we deze keer van hen? Het blijkt wat meer toegankelijk, met soms een onaangename onderbreking a la de afgeserveerde albums. De bijzondere kenmerkende sfeer hoor ik deze keer maar weinig terug. Zonder het stukjes ontoegankelijk geklooi, zou het vaak net zo goed een andere band kunnen zijn. De zang op bijvoorbeeld Lucifer Sam zou net zo goed van tijdgenoten kunnen zijn.

Dus tja, we hebben weer een overbodige 3 te pakken.

So different from what was to come. A psychedelic rock tour de force. Favorite track: Astronomy Domine

That was so much worse than I thought it would be - I’m glad they moved away from this sound

This is horrendously twee. The worst offender is the Gnome song, but it's far from alone. Interstellar Overdrive had brief moments that reminded me of bands I like a lot more, like Can, but lost me with the drastic left/right audio panning.

This is a strange album, but that doesn't mean it isn't good. It's out there, spacey, and sort of all over the place, but I enjoyed listening to it.

The whimsical psychedelia of posh boys messing around with hallucinogens. Sounds like Austin Powers but trippy, demented, unstable, a dream that inverts to nightmare and back- astral in theme but sometimes quite contained and tightly structured musically, baroque and sing songy, until it does descend into much shaggier looser spacier exploratory jams, before returning to songs that're short and tight and buttoned up nursery rhymes about gnomes. Extremely English.

Some moments are really cool, Bike is great. Too much of the time, it’s not.

So, this is not what I expected. I guess you can't go into a Pink Floyd album you've never heard and expect to know what it sounds like. There's actually a lot here that I don't like. Weirdly placed instruments that clash, interesting vocal choices and strange lyrics. However, altogether, it works well somehow. From the beginning, Pink Floyd knew how to experiment and put together albums that are not similar to anything that's ever been made before, but still be enjoyable. I don't think I can choose any standouts here because they all fit into the same category of "interesting, I'd listen again probably." So yeah. This album is strange and shouldn't work, but it does and I'd listen again probably.

Oddly enough I had Syd Barrett’s solo album earlier this week and now this one. Neither is anything I want to listen to a second time. But I now know a little bit of music history in learning about his sad story.

Sorry, Floyd, Renn faire was way overdone by everyone. I got a wall with that genre.

Wow this is so different than the more prolific PF albums. Barrett really provided a different vibe to the band, leaning more into classic psych.

I have to say nothing really stood out, but it was fun to hear little themes in this album that would become the Pink Floyd sound.