7. The Wall (1979)

This is probably the most perverse album ever to sell eleven million copies. While it's admirable at some level that Roger Waters decided to bare his psyche, The Wall's bombast seems to glorify the the narrator's paranoia, neurosis, and misery. Furthermore, Waters' songs relentlessly put the blame on other people, which undermines much of the catharsis he's going for at the end of the album. There are some great songs here, among them, of course, "Another Brick in the Wall Part II," "Comfortably Numb," and the refreshingly understated "Nobody Home." Still, the slick production, repetitive themes, and frustrating half-songs make this an oddity within Pink Floyd's catalogue: it works better as a collection of singles than as an album. 

Listen: "Another Brick in the Wall Part II"

 

6. Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)

It's difficult to rank this with Pink Floyd's other albums, because in a sense, it's the work of a different band — it's the only album-length exploration of Syd Barrett's naive-literary vision of psychedelic rock, and the only one without Dave Gilmour's contributions. Piper is nothing if not unique; standout track "Astronomy Domine" is built largely on cycles of chromatic scales, with a sonic texture of soaring guitars, almost constant drum fills, and eerie vocal harmonies. How you rank this album really comes down to whether Barrett's style is your cup of (very English and hallucinogenic) tea. 

Listen: "Astronomy Domine"

 

5. Meddle (1971)

Meddle begins and ends with two of Pink Floyd's strongest musical statements. The opener, "One of These Days," is a driving, foreboding instrumental rocker, and the closer, "Echoes," is a twenty-three-minute psychedelic piece which drifts nicely between grounded verses with rich vocal harmonies and abstract instrumental passages. The middle section, like Atom Heart Mother's, features some acoustic tracks which generally aren't quite at the level of the spaced-out instrumentals; the best of these is "San Tropez," a swinging, light-hearted send-up of the one percent.

Listen: "One of These Days" 

 

4. Animals (1977)

The followup to Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here breaks from its predecessors; gone are the gospel choruses and saxophones of Dark Side, and the warm acoustic guitar of Wish is relegated to two short tracks that bookend the album. While those two albums were at least partially based in traditional rock song structures, Animals abandons them entirely and focuses on three dense, dark, ten-plus-minute compositions. While the unrelentingly cynical lyrics and the expansive structure makes this a difficult listen, the powerful instrumental performances place this among Pink Floyd's best albums. The highlight is "Sheep," which showcases the interplay of keyboard and bass as well as some of David Gilmour's most blistering guitar work.

Listen: "Sheep"

 

3. Atom Heart Mother (1970)

Starting with the cover, Atom Heart Mother seems to invite incomprehension. The title track, a twenty-three-minute instrumental, might be the most bizarre piece in the entire Floyd catalogue, but its quasi-classical trumpet passages, haunting organ melodies, and floating guitars make it one of the musical high points of the band's career. The album also features some strong acoustic pieces, including "Fat Old Sun," in which unexpected minor chords in the chorus add some mystique to the otherwise dreamy, pastoral tone; "If," which sounds like a precursor to both The Wall and '90s Radiohead; and "Summer of '68," a nice piece of Baroque-psychedelia with great vocal harmonies.

Listen: "Fat Old Sun"

 

2. Wish You Were Here (1975)

Roger Waters was able to write with more warmth and humanity about other people's mental breakdowns than about his own, which is why this album holds up better than The Wall. The title track is one of the most heartfelt in the band's whole catalog; "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" not only contains one of the band's best guitar motifs and its jazziest keyboard explorations, but is wisely broken into two twelve-minute sections at the beginning and end of the album, making it much more accessible than "Echoes" or "Atom Heart Mother." "Have a Cigar" showcases a funkier side of the band that would almost completely disappear after this album.

Listen: "Wish You Were Here"

 

1. The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

Despite being to played death by both classic rock radio and marijuana-filled planetariums, Dark Side remains Pink Floyd's most powerful and enduring album. Musically, the songs are grounded in blues-rock structures but veer into stranger territory; "Breathe" and "Any Colour You Like" are based on familiar chord progressions, but jazz chords in the choruses separate them from the hundreds of other songs in the same vein; "Money" reinterprets the twelve-bar-blues structure with its 7/4 timing and abrupt shifts in tempo and dynamics. Lyrically, Dark Side addresses alienation, mental illness, and the fear of wasting your life (or someone else wasting it for you) in a sparse, impressionistic way, allowing room for rumination in the long instrumental passages between verses and phrases. And then, there's "Great Gig in the Sky," completely unique in Pink Floyd's catalog, wherein singer Clare Torry's wordless vocal seems to simultaneously suggest a sexual climax and a terrifying death. This is the album where Pink Floyd most successfully combined their psychedelic explorations with observation and reflection on life as actually lived. 

Listen: "Great Gig in the Sky"

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