Wisely, The Madcap Laughs doesn't even try to sound like a consistent record. Half the album was recorded by Barrett's former bandmates Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour, and the other half by Harvest Records head Malcolm Jones. Surprisingly, Jones' tracks are song for song much stronger than the more-lauded Floyd entries. The opening "Terrapin" seems to go on three times as long as its five-minute length, creating a hypnotic effect through Barrett's simple, repetitive guitar figure and stream of consciousness lyrics. The much bouncier "Love You" sounds like a sunny little Carnaby Street pop song along the lines of an early Move single, complete with music hall piano, until the listener tries to parse the lyrics and realizes that they make no sense at all. The downright Kinksy"Here I Go" is in the same style, although it's both more lyrically direct and musically freaky, speeding up and slowing down seemingly at random. Like many of the "band" tracks, "Here I Go" is a Barrett solo performance with overdubs by Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, and Robert Wyatt of the Soft Machine; the combination doesn't always particularly work, as the Softs' jazzy, improvisational style is hemmed in by having to follow Barrett's predetermined lead, so on several tracks, like "No Good Trying," they content themselves with simply making weird noises in the background. The solo tracks are what made the album's reputation, though, particularly the horrifying "Dark Globe," a first-person portrait of schizophrenia that's seemingly the most self-aware song this normally whimsical songwriter ever created. Honestly, however, the other solo tracks are the album's weakest tracks, with the exception of the plain gorgeous "Golden Hair," a musical setting of a James Joyce poem that's simply spellbinding. The album falls apart with the appalling "Feel." Frankly, the inclusion of false starts and studio chatter, not to mention some simply horrible off-key singing by Barrett, makes this already marginal track feel disgustingly exploitative. But for that misstep, however, The Madcap Laughs is a surprisingly effective record that holds up better than its "ooh, lookit the scary crazy person" reputation suggests.

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 3 from 28. July 2007

EAC extraction logfile from 15. September 2007, 21:15

Syd Barrett / The Madcap Laughs

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7170A Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.32 | 5:04.43 | 32 | 22874
2 | 5:05.00 | 3:26.20 | 22875 | 38344
3 | 8:31.20 | 2:30.10 | 38345 | 49604
4 | 11:01.30 | 3:03.17 | 49605 | 63346
5 | 14:04.47 | 2:02.18 | 63347 | 72514
6 | 16:06.65 | 3:11.65 | 72515 | 86904
7 | 19:18.55 | 3:47.65 | 86905 | 103994
8 | 23:06.45 | 1:59.62 | 103995 | 112981
9 | 25:06.32 | 2:50.35 | 112982 | 125766
10 | 27:56.67 | 1:55.30 | 125767 | 134421
11 | 29:52.22 | 2:17.38 | 134422 | 144734
12 | 32:09.60 | 2:26.22 | 144735 | 155706
13 | 34:36.07 | 3:11.33 | 155707 | 170064
14 | 37:47.40 | 3:09.22 | 170065 | 184261
15 | 40:56.62 | 6:22.50 | 184262 | 212961
16 | 47:19.37 | 2:28.65 | 212962 | 224126
17 | 49:48.27 | 2:11.25 | 224127 | 233976
18 | 51:59.52 | 2:44.55 | 233977 | 246331
19 | 54:44.32 | 2:28.25 | 246332 | 257456
20 | 59:44.57 | 14:13.18 | 268857 | 332849


Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename C:\Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs.by.rat.eac.ape.covers+bonus.trx\Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs.by.rat.eac.ape.covers+bonus.trx.wav

Peak level 93.9 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 67243BD4
Copy OK

No errors occurred

End of status report