Pink Floyd albums ranked

I'm going to start ranking all of the albums from my favorite artists here. Pink Floyd is my all-time favorite band, so it's only natural that I start with them. Everything below is based entirely on my own personal opinion.

[center][b]15. The Endless River[/b][/center]
This album should never have been released. At least not as an official studio album, but rather a compilation since that's pretty much all it is: a collection of outtakes mostly recorded during sessions for [i]The Division Bell.[/i] The quality of the music is what you could expect from music recorded during [i]The Division Bell[/i] era. Outtakes, no less. With the exception of one song, there's really nothing on this album worth listening to. The record's only single "Louder Than Words" is the one good thing about it, but even that should have been released as a non-album single. It would have been the band redeeming themselves all they could by releasing one last good song rather than going out with their worst album. [i]The Endless River[/i] marks a tragically abysmal end to one of the greatest bands ever.

[center][b]14. The Division Bell[/b][/center]
It's so bland... It feels like filler from beginning to end, like they weren't even trying anymore. But that's the sad part - they actually were! I can give them props for trying, but they missed the mark badly. The music does get slightly better toward the later half of the album, but it only ever gets mediocre at-best. [i]The Division Bell[/i] suffers the same problem as its predecessor - and its successor, for that matter - in that it doesn't really sound like Pink Floyd. I think this came to show that they simply weren't the Pink Floyd everyone knew and loved anymore and this was their attempt at trying to recapture something that was long gone. That's really all I can say about it. But I suppose the nicest thing I can say is at least it wasn't their last album, which managed to surpass this as their worst.

[center][b]13. A Momentary Lapse of Reason[/b][/center]
The first Pink Floyd album without Roger Waters and the start of a new era for the band led by David Gilmour. It's just too bad this new era was their darkest one. This one sees so-called Pink Floyd trying to be trendy by using that dreaded synth sound that plagued '80s popular music, which makes the fact that this is supposed to be a Pink Floyd album just embarrassing. That being said, it still manages to have some highlights. "Learning to Fly" and "One Slip", are decent albeit poppy tracks, while "Terminal Frost" and "Sorrow" demonstrate some of the better parts of Gilmour's songwriting. Gilmour can write excellent music and I believe this would have been a lot more respectable if it was done as his third solo album instead, which was in fact, the original plan for it. Unfortunately, Gilmour made the mistake of trying to make into a Pink Floyd album and ended up doing poorly.

[center][b]12. The Final Cut[/b][/center]
By now, you might be thinking this ranking is just me going down the list from their last albums, but I swear it isn't! Bear with me. [i]The Final Cut[/i] is the band's softest album and I think that proves to be one of its weaknesses: it's slow and rather boring. It's status as a legit Pink Floyd album is just as questionable as the albums that came after it. It really isn't a band album, it's a Roger Waters solo album. Waters wrote and sang every single track (though Gilmour does co-lead vocals on one). It essentially being a Waters solo album is its other weakness, in that it involves Waters injecting too much of his politics and anti-war sentiments into it. It gets to the point of being pretentious. In spite of all this, it does have its redeeming qualities. "The Hero's Return", the title track and "When the Tigers Broke Free" are the album's highlights. This was the last Pink Floyd album to feature Waters before he left two years after its release, declaring the band a "spent force". He wasn't wrong.

[center][b]11. Ummagumma[/b][/center]
Since the first half of this record is a live album, I will focus solely on the second half consisting of original studio recordings, which was an experiment where each member writes and performs at least one song without any involvement from the others. The result is the most avant-garde thing they ever did. I wish I could say that was saying something good... Each of the band's members have been pretty vocal over their disdain for this album in interviews and I can see why. The music is just too out there. It tries to be daring and provocative, but it just ends up being utter noise. Each song does have its moments where it shines, but they're overshadowed by the ridiculousness that makes up the rest of the track. An interesting project, but a poor one. But it's still better than their later albums and still worth a listen.

[center][b]10. Atom Heart Mother[/b][/center]
Yet another one the members of Pink Floyd have voiced their contempt for in interviews. It suffers many of the same problems [i]Ummagumma[/i] does in that it tends to get a little too out there with its attempts at being experimental. What Pink Floyd's problem was at this time was that they continued trying to be this psychedelic/experimental band when they just couldn't get it right without Syd Barrett's genius. At least they did a slightly better job at it here than they did with [i]Ummagumma.[/i] The songs are definitely more uniform and in turn more listenable. This was the last album they did with their original sound before permanently shifting to progressive rock with [i]Meddle.[/i] Still, one can hear traces of Pink Floyd's signature prog rock style in the title track, which is the highlight of the whole record for sure. The rest of the album, while not always bad, it's still forgettable.

[center][b]9. More[/b][/center]
Pink Floyd's first soundtrack album they composed entirely on their own, as well as their first without Syd Barrett. As their third album, [i]More[/i] features more straightforward psychedelic rock than its two predecessors, featuring dreamy numbers like "Green is the Colour" and "Cymbaline" as well as two of the bands heaviest songs "The Nile Song" and "Ibiza Bar". Though they do still delve into experimentation toward the later half and that's where it falls short. Whereas [i]Ummagumma[/i] and [i]Atom Heart Mother[/i] were too noisy, the experimental pieces on this record are just dull. Again, all the more evident that they just couldn't get it right without Syd Barrett. Shame, because the psychedelic songs aren't bad. Makes one wonder if they would have been better during this period if they had just dropped the experimentation altogether.

[center][b]8. Obscured by Clouds[/b][/center]
There's just something about making film soundtracks that causes Pink Floyd to meet somewhere in the middle in terms of quality. [i]Obscured by Clouds[/i] was their second film soundtrack done entirely by themselves and is their most overlooked album during the band's golden years in the '70s. While it is the least significant of the music they released during that period, by no means is it a bad album. In fact, it's quite underrated and has some solid tracks from start to finish. Songs like "Gold It's In The...", "Childhood's End". "Free Four" and "Wot's... Uh the Deal?" are criminally overlooked gems that deserve more recognition. There's nothing on par with some of their best-of-all-time work that came after, but it's still fairly decent and worth a fair listen.

[center][b]7. A Saucerful of Secrets[/b][/center]
Their second record and their last to feature Syd Barrett is arguably their most musically diverse one. They kick the experimental rock up a notch from their debut by drawing influences from all over to create a trippier, more otherworldly sound on this album. Yet one can't help but feel like something is missing that was present on the previous album. That would be Syd Barrett's masterful songwriting. But unfortunately, Barrett's deteriorating mental health forced his presence to be greatly diminished on [i]A Saucerful of Secrets.[/i] He only performs on three songs, one of which is also his sole writing and singing contribution. Consequently, the album suffers from the lack of Barrett's input and is a step-down in quality from their debut. Still, it does succeed in being a worthy follow-up to their first that carries some of the band's classics from their early years. Particularly "Let There Be More Light", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and the title track.

[center][b]6. Animals[/b][/center]
This is another one that seems to get somewhat overlooked, which is too bad because it has some of their best music. "Dogs" and "Sheep" in particular are top Floyd song material! It's quite possibly the band's grittiest record, being a borderline hard rock album with only two songs being light-hearted and soft. However, [i]Animals[/i] was also the start of Roger Waters asserting his dominance over the group. Waters wrote and sang every song except for one which Gilmour co-sang and co-wrote. Much like [i]The Wall[/i] and [i]The Final Cut,[/i] it sees Waters' songs getting a little too personal for music that's supposed to be Pink Floyd and not his solo work. It starts and ends with the two-part "Pigs on the Wing" - a love ballad to his wife at the time. While "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" has an early example of Waters shoe-horning his politics into Pink Floyd's music. Criticisms aside, it is one of the group's better records that deserves waymore attention than it gets.

[center][b]5. The Wall[/b][/center]
Some might object to me not ranking this album further down the list, but hey, at least it made the top five. Anyway, [i]The Wall[/i] is truly a classic and belongs in any Pink Floyd fan's top five. Nearly the whole album consists of vintage Pink Floyd, having many of their signature hits from "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2" to "Hey You". The first half of the album is the better part of the album and where most of its highlight tracks are. The second half is where it declines, mostly because of Roger Waters' pretentious filler tracks which ruin an otherwise amazing album. Even the story gets convoluted during the later portion of the record! Still, the album remains one of the greatest rock operas ever and marks the last great effort by Pink Floyd before they would enter a downward spiral they would never recover from. If only it could have been their last so they could at least end on a high point.

[center][b]4. Meddle[/b][/center]
This was the band's first straightforward progressive rock album and with it, they would end up making a statement that they had finally found their sound and would go on to make their best music from here on; starting with [i]Meddle.[/i] It features one of their best instrumentals - the trippy, cosmic rocker "One of These Days" - before mellowing out with more folky tunes like the inspirational "Fearless" and then finishing with the space rock epic that is "Echoes". It does have two novelty tracks "San Tropez" and "Seamus", but [i]Meddle[/i] is a strong album from start to finish and has some of the best songs the band has ever recorded even if they may be overshadowed by their music that came after. Again, as their first true prog rock effort, they hit the nail on the head discovering their signature style and the end result was one of their best.

[center][b]3. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn[/b][/center]
Pink Floyd's debut sounds much different than their later more famous albums, but if one were to introduce someone to the band for the first time, [i]The Piper at the Gates of Dawn[/i] would still be a great place to start. After all, it features much of the complexity and experimentation Pink Floyd are famous for. But above all, it is the only album that features Syd Barrett - the man who started it all - at the helm as principal singer and songwriter. It ranges from psychedelic pop-rock to acid pop to space rock to artful experimental music. Each song (except for one song written by Roger Waters) demonstrates the pure genius of Barrett's songwriting that would unfortunately be short-lived as his mental health deteriorated. At least we ended up getting one masterwork record that is a psychedelic rock essential. It's just sad that there couldn't have been more from Barrett-led Pink Floyd.

[center][b]2. Wish You Were Here[/b][/center]
After the breakthrough success of [i]Dark Side of the Moon,[/i] Pink Floyd were left unsure of how to proceed from there. What could they possibly do to top that? While their next album didn't quite surpass its predecessor, it came very close. [i]Wish You Were Here[/i] sees Pink Floyd still soaring at their peak with some of their greatest and most creative work. The sheer passion put into the music is clear throughout therecord. Not too surprising considering it is partly a critique of the decadent music industry and part heartfelt tribute to their former bandmate Syd Barrett. The end result is some of the most amazing and soulful music Pink Floyd has ever done. David Gilmour and Richard Wright have both said this was their favorite Pink Floyd record. One could say this was the last true band-driven effort by the group when they were still functioning as a team and not one man taking the lead.

[center][b]1. The Dark Side of the Moon[/b][/center]
Honestly? I could simply leave this without any explanation whatsoever, because it really goes without saying that this is Pink Floyd's best album. But at the same time, it would be a disservice not to provide any explanation, so I will anyway. [i]Dark Side of the Moon[/i] is a masterpiece on so many levels, calling it one feels like an understatement. There's not a single flaw on this album and that's something I can rarely say about any record, even if I may consider it an all-time favorite of mine. It's the ultimate concept album, focusing on the various stages of life - birth, aging and death - while also exploring the struggles one encounters in life such as greed, violence, traveling, the illusion of free choice and mental illness. [i]Dark Side of the Moon[/i] is not just Pink Floyd's best, it's the best album of all time. Even if you don't agree with that statement, you can't tell me it's not at least one of the greatest albums ever made. If you have never listened to it before, I implore you to stop reading this right now and go give it a listen. It's okay if you don't like it, but at least you can say you gave it the attention it deserves. But in the unlikely event that you did stop reading this to go listen to it and are now back here to tell me how much you enjoyed it too, you're welcome.

Feel free to share your thoughts below, be they in agreement or disagreement with this post.

Thanks for reading!