And if your head explodes: Pink Floyd’s 20 best songs – ranked! | Pink Floyd

20. The Gunner’s Dream (1983)Low on memorable tunes, huge on racked, strangulated lead vocals, possessed of a worldview that makes each different Pink Floyd album seem like a gushing font of Pollyanna-ish optimism, The Last Minimize is a slog. However The Gunner’s Dream cuts via the gloom, because of a heartbreaking, fragile melody.19. Wot’s … Uh the Deal? (1972)Overshadowed by the albums that preceded and adopted it, Obscured by Clouds could be probably the most underrated launch in Pink Floyd’s catalogue: it boasts implausible instrumental experiments, musical signposts to The Darkish Aspect of the Moon and, in Wot’s … Uh the Deal?, a superbly careworn, Beatles-y ballad undersold by its daft title.18. Grantchester Meadows (1969)Within the pink … Nick Mason, Dave Gilmour, Rick Wright and Roger Waters in 1968. {Photograph}: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesThe studio half of Ummagumma is a multitude – a band audibly looking for route with out success – nevertheless it comprises one unequivocal triumph: Roger Waters’ evocation of the parkland on the banks of the River Cam, its pastoral calm spiked with a curious sense of menace, as if one thing nasty is lurking within the undergrowth.17. Cymbaline (1969)The Extra soundtrack throws up the whole lot from proto-heavy metallic and mock-flamenco to bongo solos. However Cymbaline – hovering choruses, Rick Wright-heavy coda – is each splendid and oddly prescient: “Apprehension creeping like a tube prepare up your backbone” seems like a Darkish Aspect of the Moon lyric that arrived 4 years too early.16. Louder Than Phrases (2014)The ultimate monitor on The Countless River, the ultimate Pink Floyd studio album is, by far, the perfect track of their post-Waters period: it’s elegiac and beautiful, and Polly Sampson’s lyrics touchingly recommend that the band’s music will finally drown out the members’ vitriolic public rifts. Brilliantly, a couple of years after it got here out, they began slagging one another once more: plus ça change.15. Fats Previous Solar (1970)The choral experiments of Atom Coronary heart Mom’s prolonged title monitor might need attracted probably the most consideration, however its spotlight was tucked away on facet two, a sighing, totally pretty slice of very, very English late August melancholy that gave the impression of nation rock by the use of Parker’s Piece.14. Run Like Hell (1979)Rocking out was by no means actually Pink Floyd’s forte – see 1969’s hopelessly leaden The Nile Tune for proof – however Run Like Hell is the exception that proves the rule: powerfully claustrophobic and paranoid, pushed by a relentless disco-facing beat and David Gilmour’s echoing guitar (impressed by the cellos on the Seaside Boys’ Good Vibrations).13. Mind Harm/Eclipse (1973)Pink Floyd play the Merriweather Put up Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland, June 1973. {Photograph}: Smith Assortment/Gado/Getty ImagesDespite his departure in 1968, Barrett appears to hang-out Darkish Aspect of the Moon’s concluding medley. The eerie, nursery rhyme-like verses of Mind Harm sound distinctly Barrett-esque; the lyrics allude to his decline. The track can also be oddly equivocal: Eclipse’s epic climax is undercut by the Abbey Highway studios doorman Gerry O’Driscoll grumbling “there isn’t a darkish facet of the moon, actually”.12. Canines (1977)Animals is a troublesome however potent pay attention: its relentlessly bleak, contemptuous tone is as a lot an expression of mid-70s malaise and frustration as punk was. Canines embodies the album’s grim temper – screeching synths disrupt the quieter sections, the lyrics are a tirade of misanthropy and hopelessness – and its glowering energy: Gilmour’s guitar solos are significantly blazing.A 40ft-long inflatable pig suspended between two of the chimneys at Battersea energy station, London, throughout a photoshoot for the duvet of Animals, 6 November 1976. {Photograph}: Keystone/Getty Images11. Jugband Blues (1968)The unique Pink Floyd’s final stand, a darkish coda to the summer time of affection, and the sound of LSD’s psychological wreckage washing up in rock for the primary time. Barrett delivers an outline of his personal psychological disintegration in a chillingly dead-eyed voice, a Salvation Military band erupts into free-form mayhem: it’s each disturbing and extraordinary.10. Us and Them (1973)Primarily based on a Wright piece rejected from the soundtrack of Zabriskie Level for being “too unhappy”, the tone of Us and Them is totally defeated: the refrain seems like somebody making an attempt to awaken themselves into motion earlier than sinking again right into a crestfallen torpor. However it’s additionally exceptionally lovely, making dejection beautiful.9. See Emily Play (1967)Individuals who noticed the unique iteration of Pink Floyd reside usually declare their studio recordings have been too poppy to do them justice. However that scarcely issues when the pop songs have been as unique and inventive as See Emily Play – the psychedelic expertise crammed into three fabulous minutes, a definitive summer time of affection artefact.8. Considered one of These Days (1971)After a couple of tentative years, Pink Floyd 2.0 lastly discovered their footing on Meddle, one thing the band members clearly realised: constructed round Waters’ echo-laden bass, there’s a thrillingly brawny, assured swagger to opener Considered one of These Days. If you wish to hear Depeche Mode paying homage, head to Violator’s Clear.7. Set the Controls for the Coronary heart of the Solar (1968)The obvious signal that there was life after Barrett on A Saucerful of Secrets and techniques, Set the Controls … was lengthy, partly improvised, hypnotic (and an enormous affect on the nascent Krautrock scene), however resolutely not music to chill out and float downstream to: it’s too creepy and unsettling.6. Shine on You Loopy Diamond (Components 1-5) (1975)Pink Floyd are synonymous with intra-band rancour, however they as soon as labored completely as a sympatico unit. The prolonged instrumental intro of Shine on You Loopy Diamond is a masterpiece of scene setting: Wright’s keyboards and Gilmour’s mournful guitar completely repair the temper for the arrival of Waters’ bereft lyrics.5. Astronomy Domine (1967)Barrett’s psychedelic Pink Floyd at full energy: they sound uncooked and visceral, like a storage band from Mars. Barrett’s guitar taking part in is astonishingly creative, the lyrics spew out references to planets, comedian books and Shakespeare in a lysergic gush: it’s almost 60 years previous and it’s nonetheless extremely thrilling.4. Echoes (1971)The post-Barrett, pre-Darkish Aspect Floyd’s uncontested showstopper, Echoes was basically an array of musical fragments painstakingly pieced collectively, though you’d by no means know: from its icy intro to a triumphant finale, its 23 minutes circulate effortlessly. The guitar taking part in is lyrical and expressive, the downcast verses lovely, the ambient interlude creepy: it’s acquired the lot.3. Comfortably Numb (1979)It offered 30m copies, however The Wall nonetheless divides opinion: alienated masterpiece or unbearable monument to rock star solipsism? However everybody appears to agree on Comfortably Numb: its motion from wistful (however vaguely menacing) verses right into a blissful (however faintly unnerving) refrain is exhilarating, and the cathartic guitar solo is a surprise.2. Time (1973)It’s onerous to choose a spotlight from Darkish Aspect of the Moon, however Time is the track that packs the most important emotional punch. A mediation on ageing written by a person nonetheless in his 20s ought to really feel callow and speculative; as an alternative, the lyrics of Time change into extra impactful the older you get.1. Want You Have been Right here (1975)As easy and direct as 70s Pink Floyd acquired, which could clarify why it’s been coated by everybody from Sparklehorse and Thom Yorke to the metallic band Avenged Sevenfold and – sure! – Susan Boyle. Or maybe it’s as a result of, from its opening riff to its closing guitar-and-scat-vocal solo, it’s an unbelievable track. Waters’ lyrics are deeply private – addressed to Barrett, they first ponder whether or not he might need made a mistake in retreating from music, then collapse into sighing regret – however there’s an affecting universality to their sense of loss and remorse. There’s additionally a heat and empathy noticeably absent in Pink Floyd’s subsequent work.