A Saucerful of Secrets is the second studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 28 June 1968 by EMI Columbia in the UK and in the US by Tower Records.

[12] Following a brief European tour,[13] in early October of '67, the band returned to the studio and recorded "Vegetable Man", another Syd Barrett composition (who also performed lead vocals), and "Scream Thy Last Scream" which was again rescheduled for release, only this time with "Vegetable Man" as the B-side, but it was once again vetoed by their label EMI.

[nb 1][14] During these sessions, Barrett, overdubbed slide guitar onto "Remember a Day", an outtake from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

[20][21] When asked in December 1967 by Melody Maker about the song's disappointing chart run, Barrett replied he "couldn’t care less really.

"[22] Around this time, the mental health of guitarist Syd Barrett was being called into question by the band; he was often unresponsive and would not play, leading to the cancellation of several performances and Pink Floyd's first US tour.

[23] In December 1967, reaching a crisis point with Barrett, Pink Floyd added the guitarist David Gilmour as the fifth member.

"[26][nb 3] For two days from 10 January 1968, Pink Floyd reconvened at EMI Studios, attempting to work on older tracks: Waters' vocals and keyboardist Richard Wright's organ were overdubbed onto "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun",[14] while drummer Nick Mason added vocals to "Scream Thy Last Scream".

During the next session, on 18 January, the band jammed on rhythm tracks, joined by Smith;[nb 4][29] Barrett did not attend.

[34] With Barrett removed from the sessions, the band struggled to come up with new material,[5][22] but in February 1968 recorded Wright's "It Would Be So Nice" and Waters' "Julia Dream".

Years later Nick Mason had offered the following opinion on the two tracks not being included in the album: "they were initially intended to be potential singles, but were never satisfactorily finished.

The opening, "Let There Be More Light", written by Waters, continues the space rock approach established by Barrett on their debut LP on songs like "Astronomy Domine" and "Interstellar Overdrive".

[47] "Corporal Clegg" is the first Pink Floyd song to address issues of war, a theme which would endure throughout the career of Waters as a songwriter for the band, culminating on the 1983 album The Final Cut.

[56] Two additional Barrett songs, "In the Beechwoods",[57] and "No Title" (frequently referred to on bootlegs as "Sunshine"),[nb 9] were recorded early in the album sessions.

[73][74] However, when reissued as A Nice Pair with the original version of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn after the success of The Dark Side of the Moon, the album did chart at number 36 on the Billboard 200.

[76] Rolling Stone was unfavourable, writing that the album was "not as interesting as their first" and "rather mediocre", highlighting the reduced contributions from Barrett.

The stereo mix of the album was first released on CD in 1988, and in 1992 was digitally remastered and reissued as part of the Shine On box set.

The stereo mix was remastered and re-issued in 2011 by Capitol/EMI as part of the Discovery series,[79] and again in 2016 by Sony Music under the Pink Floyd Records label.

[82] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger draws attention to the album's "gentle, fairy-tale ambience", with songs that move from "concise and vivid" to "spacy, ethereal material with lengthy instrumental passages".

[40] In a review for BBC Music, Daryl Easlea said Saucerful was "not without filler", adding that "Jugband Blues" was "the most chilling" song on the album.

[83] In 2014, Mason named A Saucerful of Secrets his favourite Pink Floyd album: "I think there are ideas contained there that we have continued to use all the way through our career.