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A Saucerful of Secrets (appelé parfois par les fans S.O.S.) est le second album du groupe de rock britannique Pink Floyd. Il fut enregistré en 1967 et 1968 dans les studios Abbey Road et sorti le 29 juin 1968.
C’est la dernière participation, et de manière limitée, de Syd Barrett avec Pink Floyd. Dès la fin de 1967, il est sous l’emprise des nombreuses drogues qu’il absorbe quotidiennement, notamment le LSD : il n’arrive plus à jouer en groupe, a de plus en plus peur de se produire en concert et ses absences répétées fragilisent la cohésion du groupe. Les autres musiciens cherchent alors un autre guitariste pour, dans un premier temps, épauler Barrett, puis pour le remplacer. Le premier nom à circuler est celui de Jeff Beck, mais c'est David Gilmour, originaire comme les quatre autres de Cambridge et ami d'enfance de Barrett, qui devient le nouveau membre de Pink Floyd. Barrett joue sur les chansons Jugband Blues, Remember a Day et Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. Il a peut-être participé à See-Saw et Corporal Clegg.
C'est un album de transition dans l’œuvre de Pink Floyd car l’influence créative de Barrett s’atténue avant de disparaître définitivement au profit de celle de Rick Wright et de Roger Waters, qui écrivent à eux deux la plupart des titres de l’album. Le jeu de guitare de Gilmour est particulièrement propice aux atmosphères des compositions de Wright. Pink Floyd glisse du psychédélisme vers le space rock et devient l'un des groupes majeurs de la scène internationale.
La pochette de l’album est la première collaboration entre le groupe et Storm Thorgerson avec son agence de graphisme Hipgnosis.
User Album Review
Recorded over the end of 1967 and early 1968, A Saucerful Of Secrets is transitional record that marked Syd Barrett's final recordings with Pink Floyd and the birth of their 'space rock' direction. It was also the recorded debut of new boy David Gilmour, finding his feet only on the incredible yet somewhat buried solo at the end of "Let There Be More Light".
A Saucerful Of Secrets is not without filler, catching the band regrouping after Barrett's departure – Rick Wright's "See Saw" had the working title of 'The Most Boring Song I've Ever Heard Bar Two', while Roger Waters' "Corporal Clegg", his first oblique rumination on the loss of his father in the Second World War, is fairly unremarkable. Yet when the record hits, it does so extremely well – the frantic, bass driven raga-like "Let There Be More Light" and the final recording the group made with Barrett, "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" develop the cosmic territory marked out by "Astronomy Domine" and "Interstellar Overdrive" from their first album. "Set The Controls" was as relevant to the underground of 1968 as their earlier material had been the previous year.
Although Barrett plays on three of the tracks, it is "Jugband Blues", recorded in November 1967 that is the most chilling. A song about loss and alienation, its sequencing as the last track really underlines his departure. The Salvation Army Band of North London's improvisation in the middle is cut abruptly short – just like Barrett's period within the group – and then, like a postcard from an outer space colony, he returns for the thirty-second coda, culminating in the lines 'And what exactly is a dream? And what exactly is a joke?' Although the group was moving forward, it was an early demonstration of just how much his spirit would inform them for the rest of their career.
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