{"id":218697,"date":"2025-09-11T17:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T17:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/218697\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T17:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T17:20:10","slug":"and-if-your-head-explodes-pink-floyds-20-best-songs-ranked-pink-floyd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/218697\/","title":{"rendered":"And if your head explodes: Pink Floyd\u2019s 20 best songs \u2013 ranked! | Pink Floyd"},"content":{"rendered":"

20. The Gunner\u2019s Dream (1983)<\/p>\n

Low on memorable tunes, big on racked, strangulated lead vocals, possessed of a worldview that makes every other Pink Floyd<\/a> album look like a gushing font of Pollyanna-ish optimism, The Final Cut is a slog. But The Gunner\u2019s Dream cuts through the gloom, thanks to a heartbreaking, fragile melody.<\/p>\n

19. Wot\u2019s \u2026 Uh the Deal? (1972)<\/p>\n

Overshadowed by the albums that preceded and followed it, Obscured by Clouds might be the most underrated release in Pink Floyd\u2019s catalogue: it boasts fantastic instrumental experiments, musical signposts to The Dark Side of the Moon and, in Wot\u2019s \u2026 Uh the Deal?, a beautifully careworn, Beatles-y ballad undersold by its daft title.<\/p>\n

18. Grantchester Meadows (1969)In the pink \u2026 Nick Mason, Dave Gilmour, Rick Wright and Roger Waters in 1968. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The studio half of Ummagumma is a mess \u2013 a band audibly searching for direction without success \u2013 but it contains one unequivocal triumph: Roger Waters\u2019 evocation of the parkland on the banks of the River Cam, its pastoral calm spiked with a curious sense of menace, as if something nasty is lurking in the undergrowth.<\/p>\n

17. Cymbaline (1969)<\/p>\n

The More soundtrack throws up everything from proto-heavy metal and mock-flamenco to bongo solos. But Cymbaline \u2013 soaring choruses, Rick Wright-heavy coda \u2013 is both splendid and oddly prescient: \u201cApprehension creeping like a tube train up your spine\u201d sounds like a Dark Side of the Moon lyric that arrived four years too early.<\/p>\n

16. Louder Than Words (2014)<\/p>\n

The final track on The Endless River, the final Pink Floyd studio album is, by some distance, the best song of their post-Waters era: it\u2019s elegiac and gorgeous, and Polly Sampson\u2019s lyrics touchingly suggest that the band\u2019s music will ultimately drown out the members\u2019 vitriolic public rifts. Brilliantly, a few years after it came out, they started slagging each other again: plus \u00e7a change.<\/p>\n

15. Fat Old Sun (1970)<\/p>\n

The choral experiments of Atom Heart Mother\u2019s lengthy title track might have attracted the most attention, but its highlight was tucked away on side two, a sighing, utterly lovely slice of very, very English late August melancholy that sounded like country rock by way of Parker\u2019s Piece<\/a>.<\/p>\n

14. Run Like Hell (1979)<\/p>\n

Rocking out was never really Pink Floyd\u2019s forte \u2013 see 1969\u2019s hopelessly leaden The Nile Song for proof \u2013 but Run Like Hell is the exception that proves the rule: powerfully claustrophobic and paranoid, driven by a relentless disco-facing beat and David Gilmour\u2019s echoing guitar (inspired by the cellos on the Beach Boys\u2019 Good Vibrations).<\/p>\n

13. Brain Damage\/Eclipse (1973)Pink Floyd play the Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland, June 1973. Photograph: Smith Collection\/Gado\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Despite his departure in 1968, Barrett seems to haunt Dark Side of the Moon\u2019s concluding medley. The eerie, nursery rhyme-like verses of Brain Damage sound distinctly Barrett-esque; the lyrics allude to his decline. The song is also oddly equivocal: Eclipse\u2019s epic climax is undercut by the Abbey Road studios doorman Gerry O\u2019Driscoll grumbling \u201cthere is no dark side of the moon, really\u201d.<\/p>\n

12. Dogs (1977)<\/p>\n

Animals is a tough but potent listen: its relentlessly bleak, contemptuous tone is as much an expression of mid-70s malaise and frustration as punk was. Dogs embodies the album\u2019s grim mood \u2013 screeching synths disrupt the quieter sections, the lyrics are a tirade of misanthropy and hopelessness \u2013 and its glowering power: Gilmour\u2019s guitar solos are particularly blazing.<\/p>\n

A 40ft-long inflatable pig suspended between two of the chimneys at Battersea power station, London, during a photoshoot for the cover of Animals, 6 November 1976. Photograph: Keystone\/Getty Images11. Jugband Blues (1968)<\/p>\n

The original Pink Floyd\u2019s last stand, a dark coda to the summer of love, and the sound of LSD\u2019s psychological wreckage washing up in rock for the first time. Barrett delivers a depiction of his own mental disintegration in a chillingly dead-eyed voice, a Salvation Army band erupts into free-form mayhem: it\u2019s both disturbing and extraordinary.<\/p>\n

10. Us and Them (1973)<\/p>\n

Based on a Wright piece rejected from the soundtrack of Zabriskie Point for being \u201ctoo sad\u201d, the tone of Us and Them is utterly defeated: the chorus feels like someone trying to rouse themselves into action before sinking back into a crestfallen torpor. But it\u2019s also exceptionally beautiful, making dejection exquisite.<\/p>\n

9. See Emily Play (1967)<\/p>\n

People who saw the original iteration of Pink Floyd live often claim their studio recordings were too poppy to do them justice. But that scarcely matters when the pop songs were as original and creative as See Emily Play \u2013 the psychedelic experience crammed into three fabulous minutes, a definitive summer of love artefact.<\/p>\n

8. One of These Days (1971)<\/p>\n

After a few tentative years, Pink Floyd 2.0 finally found their footing on Meddle, something the band members clearly realised: built around Waters\u2019 echo-laden bass, there\u2019s a thrillingly brawny, confident swagger to opener One of These Days. If you want to hear Depeche Mode paying homage, head to Violator\u2019s Clean<\/a>.<\/p>\n

7. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (1968)<\/p>\n

The most obvious sign that there was life after Barrett on A Saucerful of Secrets, Set the Controls \u2026 was long, partly improvised, hypnotic (and a huge influence on the nascent Krautrock scene), but resolutely not music to relax and float downstream to: it\u2019s too creepy and unsettling.<\/p>\n

6. Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5) (1975)<\/p>\n

Pink Floyd are synonymous with intra-band rancour, but they once worked perfectly as a sympatico unit. The lengthy instrumental intro of Shine on You Crazy Diamond is a masterpiece of scene setting: Wright\u2019s keyboards and Gilmour\u2019s mournful guitar perfectly fix the mood for the arrival of Waters\u2019 bereft lyrics.<\/p>\n

5. Astronomy Domine (1967)<\/p>\n

Barrett\u2019s psychedelic Pink Floyd at full power: they sound raw and visceral, like a garage band from Mars. Barrett\u2019s guitar playing is astonishingly inventive, the lyrics spew out references to planets, comic books and Shakespeare in a lysergic gush: it\u2019s nearly 60 years old and it\u2019s still incredibly exciting.<\/p>\n

4. Echoes (1971)<\/p>\n

The post-Barrett, pre-Dark Side Floyd\u2019s uncontested showstopper, Echoes was essentially an array of musical fragments painstakingly pieced together, although you\u2019d never know: from its icy intro to a triumphant finale, its 23 minutes flow effortlessly. The guitar playing is lyrical and expressive, the downcast verses beautiful, the ambient interlude creepy: it\u2019s got the lot.<\/p>\n

3. Comfortably Numb (1979)<\/p>\n

It sold 30m copies, but The Wall still divides opinion: alienated masterpiece or insufferable monument to rock star solipsism? But everyone seems to agree on Comfortably Numb: its movement from wistful (but vaguely menacing) verses into a blissful (but faintly unnerving) chorus is exhilarating, and the cathartic guitar solo is a wonder.<\/p>\n

2. Time (1973)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to pick a highlight from Dark Side of the Moon, but Time is the song that packs the biggest emotional punch. A mediation meditation on ageing written by a man still in his 20s should feel callow and speculative; instead, the lyrics of Time become more impactful the older you get.<\/p>\n

1. Wish You Were Here (1975)<\/p>\n

As simple and direct as 70s Pink Floyd got, which might explain why it\u2019s been covered by everyone from Sparklehorse and Thom Yorke to the metal band Avenged Sevenfold and \u2013 yes! \u2013 Susan Boyle. Or perhaps it\u2019s because, from its opening riff to its closing guitar-and-scat-vocal solo, it\u2019s an incredible song. Waters\u2019 lyrics are deeply personal \u2013 addressed to Barrett, they first ponder whether he might have made a mistake in retreating from music, then collapse into sighing remorse \u2013 but there\u2019s an affecting universality to their sense of loss and regret. There\u2019s also a warmth and empathy noticeably absent in Pink Floyd\u2019s subsequent work.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"20. The Gunner\u2019s Dream (1983) Low on memorable tunes, big on racked, strangulated lead vocals, possessed of a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":218698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,975,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-218697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115186815992936642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}