01. Let There Be More Light
02. Remember A Day
03. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
04. Corporal Clegg
05. Saucerful Of Secrets
06. See Saw
07. Jugband Blues
This isn't one of my favourite Floyd albums to be honest although I would certainly rate it higher than most of the post DSOTM output. I bought Ummagumma before I got this album so the versions of Saucerful and Set the Controls sound pretty tame by comparison. Of the other tracks I quite like Let There Be More Light although its about a minute too long and Remember A Day is a pleasant enough song.
I've always found that the sound of this album is really quite horrible and a poor relation to the live performances of the best songs on here. I cannot believe that anyone could suggest that "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" or "A Saucerful of Secrets" sound good on here, in comparison with other recordings that are floating around (the choir does sound nice, but sounds badly edited into the end of the song). Nor are "Corporal Clegg" or "See Saw" good songs. I also think that "Jugband Blues" is horribly overrated.
However, both "Let There Be More Light" and "Remember a Day" are by far, some of the best songs from this era at all - it is a shame that they were not played very much live, if at all.
For me, this album is really asking to be re-edited and remastered as the Piper 40th edition was. I may appreciate the album more, but it sounds pretty badly rushed in places, just as though a record company was insisting on an album release of pretty much anything, as they were. A shame because (since there was a more full band input from Roger and Rick than on Piper) this album could have been a masterpiece, commonly regarded more highly than its more celebrated predecessor.
Underwhelming at times. It does feel rushed with quite a few live performances trumping most of the studio material. Definitely a step back from PatGoD, but a good glimpse of what is to come...
It's not a masterpiece by any means but it's interesting. I don't care much for the title track, think See Saw is boring (to be fair, so did Rick) and reckon Set The Controls could have done with a bit of snipping. Corporal Clegg is Roger's attempt at writing a Syd-like song I think but with a very RW subject matter. To me, it's more of a preview of what was to come.
thehumanzoo wrote:
However, both "Let There Be More Light" and "Remember a Day" are by far, some of the best songs from this era at all - it is a shame that they were not played very much live, if at all.
Dave played Remember A Day, thats the only performance live and there is footage of them playing Let There Be More Light
I think this album is really really really good at portraying the state of the band at the time, really messy hodgepodge of halfbaked schizophrenic ideas with no clear leadership or defined artistic direction at sight; as a historical document I quite like it because of that.
It shows the disintegration of Barrett and give this impression of the band as a headless chicken running scared to every direction without actually reaching any particular place. Let There Be More Light has the coolest intro of the entire band catalog, but the rest of the song is kind of a let down, it doesn't holds up to the quality of the intro. Both STCFTHOTS and ASoS are very interesting compositions, heavily influenced by Waters lack of musicianship, that opened new creative directions for the band to explore. Remember A Day is PATGoD great lost track and Jugband Blues was an early preview of what The Madcap Laughs was going to be. Sew-Saw is an average track, not bad not great either, so I guess Corporal Clegg's lame atemp at Hendrix/Lennon psychedelia is really the big offender here along with the main part of LTBML and the messiness of the whole thing.
I think Jugband Blues is one of the most startling ends to an album by anybody - of course, you must know the story. I wonder what I would think, if that was the only PF song I ever heard and did not know anything about the band.
I think it's a classic. I gave it a 5.
It was one of the last Floyd albums I heard and I just loved Let there be... It's very psychedelic and Daves guitar work is inspired. The title track is spooky and beautiful. Rick's song are a bit drippy, he said that, but still moving in that melancholic nostaligic sentimental way. I like stuff like that. Corporal Clegg is hard to take as serious as I guess it's intended and seems pretty wacky to me. Set the controls...is just a beautiful eerie piece.
I think Jug band blues is a great work of art and fabulously captures Syd's harrowing detachment from reality.