I’m quite a fan of Pink Floyd’s middle and later (not latest!) stuff (Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Final Cut, etc.) so I’m interested to hear Syd Barret’s influence on the formative years of such a dynastic band.

Sadly I’ve struggled with this, preferring to listen to other Cream albums, Dark Side of the Moon (on vinyl, of course) and even the new Pink Floyd album (which I don’t like at all) whilst I’m writing this.  I think I’m struggling with what I perceive to be disjointed tracks and the overall lack of consistency in the forty two minutes as a whole.  For example, the opening track, ‘Astronomy Domain’, and the following track ‘Lucifer Sam’ have nothing in common with each other at all, and that’s before you grapple with ‘ Matilda Mother’, track three, that has nothing to do with either.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a crazy ‘Radiohead – Amnesiac’ fan (and there are not many of those!) and that is the weirdest disjointed album you’ll ever hear but it has a tone and a pace and a rhythm you can dial yourself into and get totally immersed in but this is not where this album is, although I do understand there are new themes here, not heard before.  ‘Take Up thy Stethoscope…’, for example is a Doors fore-runner, surely.

So I’m at a bit of a loss, I can’t even pick out a favourite track to be honest.  I’ve struggled with this over a few days so I’m going for a late five, could have been an early six but it has been tortuous.

Released – 1967

Rating – 5.7

Favourite track  – Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk (a biblical reference I gather)