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The "Crazy Diamond" box set presented here gives the listener a very large dose of material by one of rock's true hermits, the late Syd Barrett. Disillusioned with the whole successful popular rock musician's lifestyle, he left Pink Floyd in 1968 (a decision made by the rest of the band, though he probably agreed it was a good idea on some level), made a couple records of his own, then went away, though he has stayed in the public's eye nonetheless.
Some time ago I wrote a review about Disc One of this set, "The Madcap Laughs," giving it a four star rating, and I am inclined to sometimes waver between four and five stars, because I really do like Syd Barrett. It's just some of the tracks are painful to listen to; "If It's In You" in particular, with its yowling false starts, structural mistakes, and gradual departure from the song's proper key. It's awful. The take of "Dark Globe" sounds strained and difficult, "Feel" being the case too.
But the material is consistently good, very imaginative writing, spontaneous feel and so on. It's a trip you take along with him, listening to it, albeit with some less-than-enjoyable results.
Disc Two, "Barrett," is his second effort after leaving the Floyd; a more even-sounding record, aesthetically smoother, with one musical line-up throughout, as opposed to the ever-shifting approach used on "Madcap." He has some very good material on these records, even though it sometimes stumbles. Often gone is the spark that was present when Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Rick Wright were his bandmates, but some concentrated listening will reveal that even though his spark was going out, it never did go fully out. He was a really, really great songwriter.
Disc Three, "Opel," is a reissue of the 1988 release, when there was a groundswell of renewed interest in the Syd Barrett legacy. On the surface, it is the least of the efforts, as there isn't that much in the way of new material, "new" meaning previously unheard by the general public. In some cases, such as "Rats," from "Barrett," it is merely the original backing track you hear on the "official" record without any of the overdubs. It's just him strumming the acoustic guitar and singing. It's more candid, but in this type of song, the gradual build-up of chaos with the piling on of more and more instruments throughout gives it a mood of forboding and menace, an outsider's view of the world Barrett had created with his music and image, ironically, things he desperately tried to escape in the end.
All three discs contain many (!) out-takes and alternate versions of the selections which otherwise made it to general release, and hearing the out-takes, one sees why the ones used were the ones which were used. Some of this is atrocious. But you get to hear the ideas being developed for the records; quite obviously a labor of love. Producers Malcolm Jones, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Rick Wright, as anyone can tell, really liked Barrett personally and respected him professionally, but found him in his state at the time unworkable.
Included is a book about him and his brief career, as well as a lot of good photography that shows the different sides of him during his rise, flight, and fall. The casual listener may not appreciate this too much, but any Pink Floyd enthusiast will see the "Crazy Diamond" box set as a treasure.
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