Wouldn't You Miss Me? - The Best of Syd Barrett

This Syd Barrett collection focuses solely on the crazy-eyed minstrel's solo career after his days in Pink Floyd. In 1970, Barrett recorded and released two solo albums—The Madcap Laughs and Barrett—with the outtakes from those sessions appearing on the surprisingly rich and cohesive Opel album in 1988. (A further expanded version of Opel was issued digitally in 1993.) In this collection, there's one true rarity for hardcore fans: the previously unreleased "Bob Dylan Blues." "Two of a Kind" is taken from Barrett's John Peel session, while the remainder of the songs come from the three aforementioned albums. (Nine are pulled off Barrett.) It's certainly a poetic summary of a man who suffered mightily at the hands of the psychedelic age that he helped usher in. The strain of success and copious amounts of LSD weighed on Barrett heavily, yet his music was filled with whimsy and unpredictable musical passages. Fact it, any true fan of '60s music shouldn't be caught short without the beauty of "Terrapin," "Golden Hair," "Baby Lemonade," "Gigolo Aunt," or "Wouldn't You Miss Me? (Dark Globe)."