What's the best Pink Floyd Album [to start with]

Status
Not open for further replies.
O

Oli

Registered User
I have some extra credit on my iTunes account, and I was thinking about getting a Pink Floyd Album. My dad listened to them a lot when I was a kid, and I've always liked them, but I don't have anything by them.

I think the obvious choices would be The Wall, or Dark Side of the Moon. But I've heard stuff from Wish You Were Here and others and they're really good too. So what would be a good starter to get the ball rolling?
 
Dark Side of the Moon is probably their most accessible one but Animals is an all-time fav.
 
Kenak said:
The Wall, but it's a lot to go through. Wish You Were Here is much more short and sweet.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's kind of discouraging me from the Wall at the moment. I'm sure a bit later I'll enjoy digging into it, but for now one of their briefer albums seems more appealing.
 
51FKs%2BhIylL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


Its the one I started with.

Welcome to the Machine
 
Yeah, if you don't have any Pink Floyd record you should start with Dark Side and WYWH.

My all time fave PF is Meddle...
 
Pink Floyd's discography segments into four time periods, based on the band's membership and who the lead songwriters were. Each of these periods sounds remarkably different from one another.

The first is Syd Barret's - the band released one album under Syd, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn." It's very good and accessible. Personally, I would start here and move through the discography chronologically. The band's sound evolves with time and it's very interesting to listen to this progression.

The second segment is after Syd leaves and David Gilmour joins. Songwriting is shared democratically for the albums A Saucerful of Secrets, Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother. These albums aren't as accessible and you may want to initially skip them over. Then come Meddle, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals. These four albums are the bands best work.

The third segment is under the leadership of Roger Waters. This marks, in my opinion, the start of the bands slow but steady demise. The Wall isn't as strong as the above four albums. The Final Cut is the second Waters album and it's quite bad, at this point he had really broken the band with an iron fist.

The fourth segment follows Waters' departure and is led by Gilmour. His first effort, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, is pretty damn awful but the band's follow-up and final album, The Division Bell, is their strongest since Animals (imo).

Don't rush the albums! Savour the beauty
 
wish you were here is the best starter.

animals is the best album.

BigNastyCurve said:
No Momentary Lapse of Reason?

It's what the stoners listened to when I was an undergrad.
Click to expand...

pink floyd, not bad solo projects
 
God+ Tier:
Dark Side of the Moon
Wish You Were Here
Animals
The Wall

These are to me the most easy to get into and most replayable (as in, I've listened to them a gajillion times and they are equally as awesome as the first time, and only improve on subsequent listens)

God Tier:
Atom Heart Mother
Ummagumma
Meddle
Obscured By Clouds

These are just as brilliant as the God Tier era, but the nature of the songs doesn't lend them to replaying quite as often. Meddle is my favorite album of these and the song Echoes on it is God+ Tier on its own, however.

Meh-Good Tier:
Saucerful of Secrets
Piper at the Gates
Final Cut
Momentary Lapse
Division Bell

Psychedelic Floyd is not bad. It is good. The problem for me is that if I am in the mood for some Floyd, I'd rather play some God or Top Tier stuff than anything else and so I find myself not going back to the Syd stuff too often. Astronomy Domine, Interstellar Overdrive, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, Saucerful of Secrets, and See Emily Play are GREAT tracks, though.

Post-Wall, Post-Waters Floyd has never gotten on with me. The magic was clearly gone and the music suffered greatly for it. I like Momentary Lapse of Reason the most I guess, and Learning to Fly is my favorite Floyd track Post-Waters.

In my opinion you can't go wrong with any Pink Floyd. I'd say that if you can only get one album, pick from the God+ Tier and prepare to get addicted to the greatest rock music ever recorded.
 
Dies Iræ said:
P His first effort, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, is pretty damn awful (imo).
Click to expand...
I Strongly disagree with this. "Learning to Fly" , "One Slip" and "On the Turning Away" are fantastic songs.
 
Wish You Were Here

and Obscured by Clouds is an underrated gem, some of the band's best work and you can see it as precursor to where they went in Dark Side of the Moon.
 
tough to say since almost every album is different from each other. Listening to 1 Pink Floyd album won't give you enough to go off of or what to expect on a different album.

Wish You Were Here and Meddle are probably my favorites.
I like Dark Side of the Moon, but only one playthrough. I can't listen to that album on repeat probably because of the stupid constant airplay it gets on the radio. The Wall is a masterpiece, but is a lot to digest. I'm starting to appreciate Momentary Lapse of Reason again for it's extremely 80's rock/pop sound.

Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon, or Meddle would probably be your safest bet.

Jaffaboy said:
Meddle.jpg


Meddle. Or at least just get Echoes.
Click to expand...

The track Echoes is worth the album alone. Goddamn perfection.

On another related note, David Gilmour's first album is fucking beautiful if you like the 70's era Pink Floyd sound.

cover_11071462010.jpg


a must buy for any Pink Floyd fan.
 
Glad to see Obscured By Clouds get some mentions. It gets overlooked way too often. That said I would go through DSotM, Animals, WYWH, and The Wall first before going back to OBC and Meddle...and by Meddle I mostly mean the song "Echoes" which is godly.

If the older stuff is too weird, make sure you at least give a fair shake to certain songs, like Fat Old Sun. It's sublime.
 
I don't see it getting much love, but I really like Division Bell. I nearly teared up when I listened to a live version of High Hopes for the first time while climbing the tower in Shadow of the Colossus, then fell right at the final crescendo. There's been precious few songs that had taken me on a journey like that.
 
MadraptorMan said:
Glad to see Obscured By Clouds get some mentions. It gets overlooked way too often. That said I would go through DSotM, Animals, WYWH, and The Wall first before going back to OBC and Meddle...and by Meddle I mostly mean the song "Echoes" which is godly.

If the older stuff is too weird, make sure you at least give a fair shake to certain songs, like Fat Old Sun. It's sublime.
Click to expand...
Even my hatred of most of Atom Heart Mother can't deny the fact that Fat Old Sun and Summer '68 are pretty fantastic tracks and stand up easily to the more popular tracks in their catalog. And yes, OBC is definitely the sleeper VIP of their 70s work.

I guess I'll cast my vote in for WYWH.
 
starting from dark side is a good bet.. avoid anything after the final cut

pre-dark side is my favorite floyd era, specifically piper
 
I'd say:

1. Dark Side of the Moon
2. Wish You Where Here
3. Animals
4. Meddle
5. The Wall

By then you'll either love them and want to listen to all of the other albums or you'll hate them and move on.
 
Dwayne said:
Piper, but only the tracks that Syd Barrett wrote, the others are terrible.
Click to expand...
So, you like everything but Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk?

That's a pretty damn great batting average if you ask me.
 
Animals is my favorite (Dogs is my favorite song of all time), but I'd start with Dark Side or Wish You Were Here.

Fuck The Wall. Listen to Meddle before The Wall. The Wall is just too much to put up with these days for me. There are some really great songs (I mean, I hate The Wall, but you can't argue against Comfortably Numb) but most of it is just Roger Waters wanking himself off. Fuck that.
 
Skiptastic said:
Fuck The Wall. Listen to Meddle before The Wall. The Wall is just too much to put up with these days for me. There are some really great songs (I mean, I hate The Wall, but you can't argue against Comfortably Numb) but most of it is just Roger Waters wanking himself off. Fuck that.
Click to expand...
How can you hate The Wall? Even if it is just a collection of Waters wanking himself off, it is some fucking GODLIKE wanking. Young Lust is the shit. That said, I almost never just listen to The Wall. I almost always put the movie on and watch/listen to that. :P

Echoes of Pink is an awesome handle, btw.
 
Satyamdas said:
How can you hate The Wall? Even if it is just a collection of Waters wanking himself off, it is some fucking GODLIKE wanking. Young Lust is the shit. That said, I almost never just listen to The Wall. I almost always put the movie on and watch/listen to that. :P

Echoes of Pink is an awesome handle, btw.
Click to expand...
The Wall runs straight into the side of a building in broad daylight once One of My Turns ends and it doesn't really recover until Comfortably Numb shows up; even Hey You could stand to be shorter overall.
 
Go chronologically from Dark Side of the Moon up to The Final Cut. That's what most consider to be their golden era (most people don't include The Final Cut, if you're a Waters fan by then pick it up for sure). Then you can go back and get albums like Meddle, Piper, and Roger's solo albums (The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking is absolutely brilliant, don't let anyone tell you differently.
 
Satyamdas said:
How can you hate The Wall? Even if it is just a collection of Waters wanking himself off, it is some fucking GODLIKE wanking. Young Lust is the shit. That said, I almost never just listen to The Wall. I almost always put the movie on and watch/listen to that. :P

Echoes of Pink is an awesome handle, btw.
Click to expand...

Young Lust is one of the songs I'm not really into off that album. I like CN, Mother, Hey You, Goodbye Blue Sky, Run Like Hell...wait, maybe I don't hate that album lol. (Actually, the rest of it is pretty much shit, so maybe I do.)

My anger is less about actually hating the album and pretty much just hating everything it stands for. I feel like it was a serious drop off after the previous three albums, ended up pretty much killing the band, and it gets so much more love in the mainstream over Animals and WYWH (though WYWH is getting up there recently). So yeah, fuck the Wall.
 
I don't think Animals ever had a chance at being universally loved; it's too bleak and depressing for most people. The Wall is hardly roses and candies either, but it's definitely a lot more radio friendly.
 
There are some great songs on The Wall and the first disk flows well. The second disk is just terrible pacing except for 3 songs starting with Comfortably Numb.
 
Ridley327 said:
I don't think Animals ever had a chance at being universally loved; it's too bleak and depressing for most people. The Wall is hardly roses and candies either, but it's definitely a lot more radio friendly.
Click to expand...

Bleak and depressing didn't help, but all the songs are 10+ minutes (no, I don't count the open and outro). It had no chance of radio play. But good god, Animals is so fucking good.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Pink Floyd Sells IT's Music Rights to SONY for $400 Million
34
2K
TheDreadBaron replied
What is the best animes for adults
2 3
102
5K
rubik's dude replied
Where to start with Gundam
2
78
4K
NecrosaroIII replied
what is the best fanservice free animes for adults
37
1K
-Minsc- replied
Southwest will start charging for Bags
9
559
Hari Seldon replied
Top Bottom