Syd Barrett

Artist Rating: 75%

Peak Album Score: 21

Average Album Score: 18

Development Score: 4

- His second album adds almost nothing to his legacy, aside from maybe a little cheeriness.

Originality Score: 10

- Twisted folk-children's songs? There's, quite literally, never been anybody like Syd. 

Personal Bias Score: 22

- While, at his most cracked and far gone, Syd's music can be utterly heart-wrenching, it doesn't succeed at that too often.

The Madcap Laughs (1970) - 84%
This album is somewhat torturous to listen to, in part because Syd is so clearly standing at the edge of total insanity. The songs themselves are generally pretty good, if a little inconsistent, but most of the real highlights of the album are the ones on which he sounds craziest. I guess there's an appeal to that abyss. His voice cracks all over "Dark Globe" are chilling ("Would you miss me? Wouldn't you miss me at all?"), and "Long Gone" sounds so directly like a fading to oblivion. Harrowing.

- Highlights: "Love You", "Dark Globe", "Long Gone"

Barrett (1970) - 76%
Barrett is much more stylistically mixed than its predecessor. Certain songs sound as if they could have been aborted Pink Floyd songs, while others are just meandering little nothings ("Rats", "Maisie", etc) which have little reason to exist. Most of the album fails to thrill, unfortunately, even in the way Madcap did (if a little inconsistently), and I'd only recommend it to hardcore Syd fans.

- Highlights: "Baby Lemonade", "Love Song"