A Saucerful of Secrets was the first album after Syd Barrett was phased out of the group. It was also the first album in which David Gilmore was brought in as the new lead guitarist. Although the album is a little less concise as many of their others it really seems to be just a reflection of the state of the band itself. The songs on an individual level stand very firm throughout each giving a complete experience container.

Let there be more light:

Echoing vocals describing gigantic imagery mixed with dramatic backing music. The song is epic both lyrically and musically. It creates a landscape of large intergalactic planetary systems and the interconnections of all of nature.

Remember a day:

This song is so elegant and poetic. It is a yearning for the simplicity of childhood and the philosophical arguments as to why we not return to that basic state of mind, and why time must pass. “why can't we blow the years away” “why can't we play today”

Set the controls for the heart of the sun:

Set the controls to go into the core of the psyche and once they are set you have no choice but to be pulled kicking and screaming even into the inner levels and realities of the self. Its a journey that can only end in destruction as a trip into the sun.

Corporal Clegg:

A message on war and the effects it can have on an individual level. The broken ambitions of a soldier who dreamed of heroics and only received medals in his dreams. Roger Waters lost his father in World War 2 and this theme continues in other works by Pink Floyd, most notably in The Final Cut

A saucerful of secrets:

This is the masterpiece of the album. It opens with a chaos of sound effects and experimentation. Its very brave and hard to pull this off but it is essential to build up the sense of being lost and confused. Then it fades to quiet and hammering drums come in structuring the entropy of sound into a steady beating rhythm with spirals of freeform sounds. This then falls with the sound of collapsing walls and ruble to a very spooky organ solo playing to the back drop of a storm. Then the melody shifts to an angelic sound. This esoteric force of music that then couples itself with voices takes the piece to a beautiful climax.

See Saw:

A haunting drifty song. Sounds like the balancing act of a relationship. ”she goes up while he goes down”.

Jugband Blues:

This is a sad song of departure for Sid Barrett. It is upbeat and melancholy at the same time and expresses a kind of abstract bewilderment. The last verse “what exactly is a dream and what exactly is a joke” is posed as a serious breaking of reality.