Guides/A Riffiter guide
Where to start with Pink Floyd
Psychedelic pioneers turned architects of the stadium-sized concept album, in six records.
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965, pioneers of progressive and psychedelic rock whose albums have sold more than 250 million copies. This guide ranks six essential records, from the era-defining The Dark Side of the Moon back to their early Syd Barrett psychedelia.
Pink Floyd built cathedrals out of rock music: long, immersive albums meant to be heard whole, in the dark, loud. They're one of the best-selling and most influential bands in history, but their catalogue splits into distinct eras that can confuse a newcomer.
This path runs from their imperial 1970s peak (the run of albums that made them legends) back toward their stranger psychedelic beginnings. Start at the top and work outward.
- 1
The Dark Side of the Moon
★ 4.7 · 9—The obvious and correct starting point. A seamless forty-three-minute meditation on time, money, madness and death, it spent over nine hundred weeks on the US charts. Put on headphones and don't skip a track.
- 2
Wish You Were Here
★ 4.3 · 6—Warmer and more direct than its predecessor, built around a heartbroken tribute to founding member Syd Barrett. The title track is the band's most beloved song, and the whole album is their most human.
- 3
Animals
★ 4.2 · 3—Darker and angrier, three long tracks that turn society into a farmyard of dogs, pigs and sheep. The band at their most caustic, and a favourite of serious fans.
- 4
The Wall
★ 4.8 · 6—Their rock opera: a double album about isolation and the walls we build, later a film and a legendary stage show. Home to "Comfortably Numb" and "Another Brick in the Wall." Ambitious, theatrical, and best heard front to back.
- 5
Meddle
★ 3.0 · 2—The bridge between the early experiments and the classic era, anchored by the side-long "Echoes", twenty-three minutes that contain the whole future of the band.
- 6
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Be the first to rate—Where it began. Led by Syd Barrett, their debut is pure English psychedelia, whimsical, strange, and a world away from the stadium epics to come. Save it for last, then hear how far they travelled.
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