Pink Floyd

The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

What can I possibly add

Review Score:

(10/10)
to the nearly 300 reviews here? Nothing, really. It's true what they all say-this is an unqualified trippy masterpiece. If you have any interest at all in psychedelic pop, you must own this recording. It is one of the foundational works of the canon. It completely lives up to its reputation.

That said, I must add that it was a bit more whimsical and fey than I had expected, or that the Syd-era Floyd songs I'd heard before I bought Piper--Arnold Layne, See Emily Play (neither, alas, included here-see Relics), Interstellar Overdrive (which is actually an instrumental, not a song) and Astronomy Domini--had led me to believe. In fact, you could argue that with his decidedly androgynous style Syd was a precursor of glam (as further evidence, Bowie did a cover of See Emily Play on one of his later albums). Much of the time Syd sounds like a gay Mod on acid. Lots and lots and lots of acid. Not that that's a bad thing. Well, apparently the acid part didn't work out so well for Syd in the long run. But in 1967 it certainly seemed to have helped him create an utterly unique work of art that will continue to be listened to for generations to come.

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