1967’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was Pink Floyd’s debut LP, and their only album to center the doomed brilliance of Syd Barrett. In the months following its release his mental health would begin to deteriorate and David Gilmour would soon be brought in to supplement and ultimately replace him. As such this album stands apart from the rest of the catalogue in a lot of ways. Syd was a very different sort of songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist and at the time the Floyd were operating much more in the Psychedelic Rock genre of England’s swingin’ 60s than the blues-tinged progressive rock they would later become most known for. It feels very much of that time and place and movement, though it’s by no means generic. I’ve listened to a lot of psychedelia and few can genuinely compete with Piper in it. Barrett was a child at heart and this album’s songs feel like a window into a child’s mind– even the Roger Waters-penned “Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk” feels like the anxiety of a sick child rather than the anxiety of an angry man he would later specialize in.

When we think about Syd Barrett it’s tempting to wonder what might have been. Even before he was the bandleader Gilmour was a significant creative force in Pink Floyd, would bold experiments like Atom Heart Mother, or the titanic brilliance of our top three albums have existed in a world where Syd could have kept things going? Would they have continued to be a tremendous force of music for another forty-odd years, or would they have faded to obscurity as ruffly shirts and men’s floral patterns receded into history? It’s impossible to speculate, but if they couldn’t have become rock gods, Piper alone would be enough to secure their legacy as legends. I firmly believe that.

The whole album might as well be a highlight if you ask me, but pay special attention to spacey album opener “Astronomy Domine”; “Lucifer Sam”, Barrett’s surf rock/James Bond-tinted rebuke of his girlfriend’s cat; the shredding guitar-driven instrumental “Interstellar Overdrive”; and the final track, “Bike”, a whimsical love song about trying to impress a girl by showing her all your cool stuff.