Yet, just as this album was receiving critical acclaim, Barrett’s drug use and erratic behavior spiraled out of control. Most of the songs on their 1967 album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, were written by Barrett. That spring, they became one of the most prominent groups in the psychedelic rock genre. Additionally, it was during that concert they found their musical voice using enigmatic lyrics and spiritualism. During this Games for May concert, they used many things that would become part of the iconic band, including light shows and distortions. In May of 1967, their fame started to rise at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall concert. According to biography, the band made the UK top twenty with their single Arnold Layne. However, this had a significant impact on the group’s musical style and also created chaos. Unfortunately, this was the same year that Syd Barrett found LSD. 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.Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright founded Pink Floyd in 1965. 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. 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 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. 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 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. 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 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. Surprisingly, Jones' tracks are song for song much stronger than the more-lauded Floyd entries. 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. Wisely, The Madcap Laughs doesn't even try to sound like a consistent record.

Syd barret madcap laughs