The Madcap Laughs is the debut solo album by the English singer-songwriter Syd Barrett. It was recorded after Barrett had left Pink Floyd in April 1968. The album had a chequered recording history, with work beginning in mid-1968, but the bulk of the sessions taking place between April and July 1969, for which five different producers were credited − including Barrett, Peter Jenner (1968 sessions), Malcolm Jones (early-to-mid-1969 sessions), and fellow Pink Floyd members David Gilmour and Roger Waters (mid-1969 sessions). Among the guest musicians are Willie Wilson from (Gilmour's old band) Jokers Wild and Robert Wyatt of the band Soft Machine.

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.

Track List:

01. Terrapin [0:05:04.43]
02. No Good Trying [0:03:26.20]
03. Love You [0:02:30.10]
04. No Man's Land [0:03:03.17]
05. Dark Globe [0:02:02.18]
06. Here I Go [0:03:11.65]
07. Octopus [0:03:47.65]
08. Golden Hair [0:01:59.62]
09. Long Gone [0:02:50.35]
10. She Took A Long Cold Look at Me [0:01:55.30]
11. Feel [0:02:17.38]
12. If It's in You [0:02:26.22]
13. Late Night [0:03:11.33]
14. Octopus [Takes 1 & 2] [0:03:09.22]
15. It's No Good Trying [Take 5] [0:06:22.50]
16. Love You [Take 1] [0:02:28.65]
17. Love You [Take 3] [0:02:11.25]
18. She Took A Long Cold Look at Me [Take 4] [0:02:44.55]
19. Golden Hair [Take 5] [0:02:28.25]

Personnel:
Syd Barrett - guitar, vocals
Mike Ratledge (Soft Machine) - keyboards
Vic Seywell - horn
John Wilson - drums
David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) - bass, guitar
Hugh Hopper (Soft Machine) - bass
Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) - bass
Robert Wyatt (Soft Machine) - drums