Pink Floyd Albums
Pink Floyd came unto the scene with a strong sense of being on their debut record. They knew exactly what kind of band they wanted to be, and their ambitions are obvious form the get go. The band is a psych rock band with a capitol “psych” and their aspirations go deep beyond mere sound effects into some deeper meaning of the word. Lead Singer and primary songwriter Syd Barrett has a warped state of mind; he views the world as a sort of magical circus that he is stumbling through, never being able to find his footing.
After their debut album, Roger Waters became the lead songwriter and guitarist David Gilmour became the lead voice of the band, during mainly the 1970’s tenure and beyond the group became to go to band for a chilled out kind of progressive rock, or in a way rock music that had run the full course of hard and psychedelic sounds and all that was left was a stoned mess, devoid of emotion except for a few occasions of strange majesty. In this way, Floyd helped shape psych rock and progressive rock, often indulging in noise, drones, and soundscapes beyond most of their peers and with little purpose of entertaining the audience more entertaining themselves. They took some queues form The Kinks (the concept albums) and from The Who (the rock opera and bombast) and even though they came before them, they got more and more languid while contemporaries King Crimson became more jittery and nervous.
Band Members:
Syd Barrett (Lead vocals, guitar, 1964-68),
Roger Waters (bass, guitar, gong, trumpet, synthesizer, vocals, 1963-85),
Richard Wright (keyboards, organ, synthesizer, piano, Mellotron (1963-79, 1987-2008),
Nick Mason (drums, percussion, tapes, vocals)
David Gilmour (Lead Vocals, guitar, bass, piano, synthesizer (1968 - present)
1967
Piper at the Gates of Dawn - 97%
Pink Floyd came unto the scene with a strong sense of purpose on their debut record. They knew exactly what kind of band they wanted to be, and their ambitions are obvious from the get go. The band is a psych rock combo with a capitol “psych” and their aspirations go deep beyond mere sound effects into some deeper meaning of the word. Lead singer and primary songwriter Syd Barrett has a warped state of mind; he views the world as a sort of magical circus that he is stumbling through, never being able to find his footing. Songs on this record always have a sort of structure, but then that structure breaks down half way through until it finally finds a way out of the madhouse- see instrumentals “Pow R Toc H” that starts off harmless but really gets into some out-there sounds, and especially the epic length “Interstellar Overdrive”, which has a killer lead riff to boot and is one of the premiere examples of what a rock n roll instrumental could be in 1967. It is nearly ten minutes long and keeps your attention the whole way, showing off that the band behind the lead singer was capable of so much more. Many groups afterwards tired to pin their own version of “Interstellar Overdrive” and most of them don’t even come close; it stands on its own on the record as the monumental achievement regardless of how much you like the rest of it; it is driving and energetic at times while also dropping in tempo and being quite the acid trip.
But mainly on their debut, they had some killer singles and catchy melodies. “Lucifer Sam” is one of the darkest rides of early rock n roll, a bit jumpy with starts and stops until you memorize the structure, it’s chorus of “That cat is something I can’t explain” being a manifesto of sorts for Syd Barrett himself. “Matilda Mother” and “The Gnome” seem to come from nursery rhymes, stories that sort of make sense but are more disturbing than charming. “Chapter 24” and “Flaming” are more serious examples of this, beat poetry by an eccentric English dandy. “Bike” is perhaps the most unique of all these fancy tales, bringing a sort of hard rock edge to the psyche of a narrator who has lost his mind. “Astronomy Domine” is an unpredictable jamboree of sounds crammed together to make a song, some fit and some don’t, but it somehow comes off as cohesive. Bass Player Roger Waters has a shared songwriting credit on “Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk”, which shares a sense of playfulness with the songs around it. Often throughout the album you hear little creatures chirping noise at random, one of the many things that makes Piper at the Gates of Dawn stand out.
The question as always with Syd Barrett is how much of this is put on and playing a character and how much is imagined and accidental? Well, all I can say is this is Barrett at his most lucid; his subsequent work is much more damaged and unpredictable. Piper at the Gates of Dawn has a perfect mix of chaos, whimsicalness, frustration, and charm that many albums around the time tried to capture as well (it was recorded in the same studio at the same time as The Beatles’ Sargent Peppers and actually came to market first). It takes some getting used to, if you are expecting a straight up hard rock blues record with touches of strange noises, as was the flavor of the day….you are going to be disappointed. Many of these songs, especially on the second half are just little rambles with fun arrangements. But when meeting the record on its own terms, perhaps only “Scarecrow” comes off as a slightly weak track, it’s an amazingly consistent and mesmerizing record, it shows a band that is at the top of its craft even on their debut and to say it impacted rock n roll going forward is an understatement. They don’t so much invent psychedelic rock of the future as perfect what was already there around them.
Best Songs: Interstellar Overdrive, Lucifer Sam, Bike, Astronomy Domine, Matilda Mother
Sidenote: many editions of the American version of this album also featured “See Emily Play” as a lead single and lead track (replacing “Astronomy Domine”! why couldn’t it just replace “The Scarecrow”??). This song is a great one, featuring the band at its most normal and crowd pleasing, promising a crossover that never came (not in the way they intended anyways). In a way it fits on the record and in a way it is almost too normal for it. I prefer the original album order.
1968
A Saucerful of Secrets - 93%
The second album by the group adds in guitarist David Gilmour, who took over for lead vocals and guitar but often worked with Barrett and helped him stay as much of a presence as could be as the group respected him and really wanted Barrett to remain with the group. Not to sidetrack too much, but Barrett was a heavily user of LSD and was was later diagnosed with Schizophrenia and they just needed a presence in the band that could help with touring and playing while Barrett still helped write some songs in the background. In fact, all members of the band would have something to do with the songwriting and singing on different songs on this record, giving it a very unified feel. The insanity has mainly been tempered, as songs reached for more of a trance than anything (which would be the direction would stay in for the majority of their career.)
Roger Waters contributes the most to the songwriting here , three out of seven of the tracks (and the best ones) being written by him. “Set Controls for the Heart of the Sun” is dominated by his smooth bass lines and cosmic feelings, like trying to journey to the sun itself. “Let There Be More Light” begins as a driving rock tune with some psychedelic vibes, but soon slows down to be something else altogether, with whispery vocals and freak-out guitar and organ solos. Feeling like a left over from the debut record, the Nick Mason sung “Corporal Clegg” sticks out like a sore thumb at the end of side one but has grown on me with subsequent listens and is a nice change of pace. Featuring some amazing kazoo playing!
Keyboardist Richard Wright also has a nice moment with “Remember a Day” which sounds like a product of its time but is also perhaps the most instantly memorable song. “See Saw” definitely echoes Barrett’s story-like approach, but is not entirely successful and perhaps the albums only weak track. “Jugband Blues” is the only Syd Barrett composition, and it has a very tight structure despite feeling like a mad ramble; it is sort of ten songs in one. He dares to ask, “What exactly is a dream/ and what exactly is a joke?” Barrett does not care about tempo changes, rationality, tradition at all and he was quite the genius songwriter and it shows on this closing track, his leaving the group after this album was a huge loss and one can argue they should have changed the name of the group. He would have two solo albums in 1970 that expand on these themes.
Side Two of the album is a much more challenging affair, with title track “Saucerful of Secrets” judging a lot of weather you like the album or not. It is the most atypical Pink Floyd song yet, a movement in four parts and solely instrumental, my sister calls it the perfect soundtrack for a Halloween party and that fits. It starts off with some lingering organ lines, then adds some tribal percussion by Mason while other random alien sound effects permeate the background, and finally becomes a full-on drone with long held out chords that begin to merge and clash with each other culminating in an angelic sounding chorus of voices. Whether it blends in with the rest of the record or not, it stands on its own and shows the group is ready for more classical music scale compositions. Saucerful of secrets proves that even without the full participation of their previous lead songwriter Syd Barrett, the band can hold on its own for a full album and the record shows a group who can take on any kind of style.
Best Songs: Set Controls for the Heart of the Sun, Corporel Clegg, Jugband Blues
1969
Ummaguma - 80%
The third proper album showed off the live band Pink Floyd, which was definitely a sound to behold. Every song is stretched out to epic length and fan favorites are perfect for the new version of the band with Gilmour on lead guitar and vocals. “Careful with that Axe, Eugene” was a b-side from the prior year, notable for its epic screams and hard rock focus, both relatively new for the group. Other songs played live: “Astronomy Domine” from Piper at the Gates od Dawn, “Set Controls for the Heart of the Sun and “Saucerful of Secrets” from Saucerful of Secrets. None of these I would say are the definitive versions of the tracks, except “Careful with that Axe Eugune”.
Mainly, this albums original material is on the second record, and it’s the band’s foray into the tradition improvisational / avant garde scene. Whether that sounds like your thing or sounds like a bore, it is a pretty solid album and should not be overlooked. Each member of the group writes a song, an approach that can go badly or well. The key thing is this is not really the band working together as much, and much more than on Saucerful of Secrets, the band does not come off as a unified front. Still though, the music taken on its own terms is what matters in the end.
“Sysyphus” is Keyboardist Richard Wrights piece, broken up into four parts some of which are only a little over a minute long. It mostly works, as part one and three being the most put together and entertaining pieces. “Grandchester Meadows” is a Roger Waters composition that is very much in his chilled vain, more than ever actually. It has insects and birds making noises in the background with a nice little melody on top. His following song, “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and grooving…” the title is so long I can’t even see it all! Honestly this is probably my favorite song, with a real tribal feel like all of the animals form the previous started chanting and dancing together.
“The Narrow Way” is newer guitarist Gilmour’s acoustic improvisation, as it comes off as better than many others especially part two which is a nice slab of dark electric guitar. “The Grand Vizer’s Garden Party” was Drummer Nick Masons work, complete with a long drum solo that was fashionable around this time. Such solo’s don’t always hold up however, and this is probably the weakest song of the original compositions, though I have heard some people argue it’s the most successful experiment- to each their own.
Pink Floyd would never venture out into the void this far again, so it’s worth embracing that at least they tried it and succeeded pretty well. The band itself has disowned the album and I can see why- you don’t want to be known best for a series of improvisations when you have tried so hard on other works. Taking in their entire discography as a whole, this album is an interesting and pretty good album that proved to be very influential.
Best Songs: The Narrow Way Part Two, Special Species of Small Furry…., Sysyphus Part Three,
Sidenote: This album would be very influential on the Krautrock Scene in of the early 1970’s.
1970
Atom Heart Mother - 77%
This album paints the band in its most gentle form yet, very much a pastoral listen, with a lot of elements of Classical and Opera music. The title track, “Atom Heart Mother” is a 20 minute blister in to that world, a fully formed piece much like their Saucer but more subtle, more linked together, and less clunky. It takes up the entire side one of the album, on vinyl and is the main reason to get the album. It begins with an angelic choir over a repetitive keyboard, before exploding at the nine minute mark into a more complex, jazz influenced round of percussion and guitar soloing. By adding in brass and strings, the song keeps evolving even loosing its rhythm at one point and getting into a jam of utter chaos. It’s the best epic song the band ever created, and it stands at the top of creative progressive rock even to this day.
Unlike Saucerful of Secrets though, the other tracks around the center piece don’t really add up to complete listening experience. “If” is a Roger Water’s piece, very delicate and very easy to with one of his best melodies, and “Summer of 68” is a Wright composition recalling times of young love and the carefree parts of life with another person. Those two tracks do totally work, but the following two- the complete mess of the 7 minute “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” and Gilmour’s first real track to the band’s cannon (since ya know everyone has to write one!) “Fat Old Son” is not very good- and these songs feel like failed experiments. Still the lengthy title track and other two good songs edge this one out as a winner, even though I definitely never need to hear those last two songs again in my life. Pink Floyd is at an interesting turning point in their career, one where this is hardly called ‘rock music’ anymore, or better yet it fails to rock. Don’t expect anything like the band from their debut album and you will find something to enjoy.
Best Songs: Atom Heart Mother, Summer ’68, If
1971
Meedle - 72%
Meddle is a transitional record as most fellow critics will say, but it does mark a key point into the band’s evolution. gone are any attempts at traditional psychedelic music and hear a more complex attempt to join their contemporaries progressive rock bands. Opener ”One of These Days” which starts off like a racecar with pounding bass and distorted slide guitar is perhaps a key take on this, with Gilmour’s mastery of the guitar shining through. “A Pillow of Winds” is the only time I have ever heard the band have notes of country music, and this ballad mostly works as does Gilmour’s soothing, whispering vocals approach. Best of all is “Fearless”, a true rocking song with a killer riff (a take on an ascending scale) that establishes the band among the better crafters of catchy, progressive rock.
As soon as the album starts failing with the languid “San Tropez” and the extremely pointless “Seamus” (everyone’s least favorite PF song I believe) is the ending song, the epic length “Echoes”. The song has its defenders, but to me it does not entirely earn its length. The first seven to nine minutes or so are amazing progressive music and starts an amazing trip into an unknown universe, and it almost feels as if we are getting a slower version of the great “Interstellar Overdrive” from the debut, but it really is something else entirely. Then the song begins a slow drone, and completely stops in its tracks for about five minutes, before trying to regain some momentum with a back-and-forth guitar strum and some interesting percussion, but I cant help but feel like the ten minutes of the song could have been removed. It doesn’t match the organic, otherworldly building of “Atom Heart Mother” from the previous album though its definitely…..louder? Either way you swing it, some of Meddle works and some of it doesn’t, but it does set up the band for a more interesting future then the previous record did.
Best Songs: Fearless, One of These Does, most of Echoes
1973
Dark Side of the Moon - 85%
By far the band’s most popular album, and with good reason. Much like The Rolling Stones did with Beggar’s Banquet (1968), the band has re-defined their sound into something finite here. Listening to Pink Floyd’s records in order is very telling, as previously the band does not progress so much as jump around, try different things, and see what works. The new incarnation of the group took a couple albums to see what totally worked, and in this case ceding most of the songwriting duties to one person (Roger Waters) with a unified vision, finding a producer in tune with the best aspect of their sounds (Alan Parsons), and overlapping and overdubbing everything until they reach a kind of ‘sonic perfection’. Without a doubt, this is one of the best SOUNDING albums of all time. Listen to it in headphones and on vinyl, and it will take you to other places in your mind. The tracks fade in and out of each other no matter what tempo they are they speed up and slow down seamlessly the theme of the album is madness: things that drive us to madness and have someone close in your life that seems to struggle with this. Through tragedy, sometimes great things are born.
For 2/3’s of the record, the songwriting is simply amazing: ”Breathe” uses the newly established Pink Floyd sound to make a pleasant ballad that has a good backbeat behind it; “Money” is the hit single the band has yearned for its entire career and pretty groovy and makes great use of an odd time signature; “Us and Them” used reverbed vocals like no one had before, and even at tis eight minute length is perhaps the greatest song the 70’s PF had done to this point, taking the angelic backing choruses the band had previously deployed to amazing cathartic effects. Closing dual songs “Brain Damage/ Eclipse” is also one of the great album closers, taking the madness trip inside the mind of a Syd Barrett like character and transporting us to that word, while “Time” is a successful seven minute song that is a self-contained tale in its own world, a sort of manifesto for the album- a short instrumental prelude with a tribal drumming, then the sound bursts in with its own sort of slow motion majesty.
Then there are the three tracks that sort of work as filler between the great songs. “Great Gig in the Sky” sounds uncharacteristic at first, as it makes a moment of randomness and pure emotion in the singers voice, and “Any Color you like” is like a worse version of the song “Time” I have always felt the album did not need. Pink Floyd are not a band I look to for ‘soul music’; they are great with emotional moments for sure, but when they get into what might be considered soul or rhythm and blues it comes off a bit fake to me. On that other front is the instrumentals “On the Run”, which is mildly entertaining but kind of plays as ‘wow look what we can do in the studio’ more than a great song, despite Wright’s amazing keyboards and Mason’s steady percussion. So that’s kind of my take on it, 5 great songs that are among the best any band has done, and three that don’t work at all.
The playing on the album again is pretty much flawless, all members of the group are masters of their instruments and it’s the groups most unified sounding album- including saxophone player Dick Perry, background singers Lesley Duncan and Liza Strike. But again, I am all about consistency and my issue with an album viewed as one of the best ever is…well it just doesn’t have enough great songs. I have to come to reflect my feelings as just because I want it to be one of the best albums ever, doesn’t mean it is. However in its own right, it is still a great record and the songs that work the best are the longest ones so there is that. In the scheme of their discography, it is also the band’s most consistent listen since their first two albums. Dark Side of the Moon is the point where Pink Floyd finds its best sound after years of recovery after their original leader’s departure and it was their most financially successful record.
Best Songs: Us and Them, Brain Damage, Breathe, Money
second part is coming soon