I realized that I hadn’t written one of these columns in a while and Pink Floyd seems like a logical choice. It’s actually one of the harder ones to do since I really think they have been a model of consistency regardless of who is in the band. Many of these are interchangeable but the top choices are in stone.
15. More
14. Ummagumma
13. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
These three are all very different albums but all are fairly interchangeable for me. None of them are albums that I ever seek out to listen to.
12. Obscured by Clouds
11. A Saucerful of Secrets
These two are both on the same level for me. If “Sauceful” was more consistent, I think it would place higher. “Obscured” can jump a slot or two but it’s just not an album that grabs me.
10.The Final Cut
While many people call this a Roger Waters solo album, I don’t think it’s that far off from “The Wall” in that regard. The problem is that the songs aren’t as strong and none of them jump out at you.
9. Atom Heart Mother
This album is much better than I think people realize. It’s got some really odd stuff on it but I think it all works.
8. The Endless River
7. Meddle
6. The Wall
These three are also all very different but again I could change the order on these three very easily. “Meddle” would be higher but “Seamus” annoys the hell out of me. “The Wall” does have filler on it, I think.
5. A Momentary Lapse of Reason
4. The Division Bell
These two albums I like basically the same. It proved that Waters wasn’t needed. This band always survived regardless of who led things.
3. Animals
2. The Dark Side of the Moon
1. Wish You Were Here
My top three are set in stone. They are easily my favorite albums by them and “Wish You Were Here” has always been my favorite from the moment I heard it. Flawless.
So that’s my list, now you can tell me how wrong I am! Let me know how you rank these albums.
Rob's Music Planet 
I agree with your top 6 Rob and would not change the order. Wish You Were Here is an album that carries some fantastic memories for me, of a trip to Frankfurt as a 17 year old (I spent the last of my Deutschmarks on it) and we (the German friend I was staying with) listened to it almost continuously until I came home. I like A Saucer Full of Secrets and The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (they were rereleased as A Nice Pair double album in the UK) better than a lot of the others and would move them up to 7th and 8th. I would put The Endless River and Ummagumma lower – can’t get on with either of them!
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So, do you dislike The Piper completely? Every single song from that record? My #1 matches your #1, and I also like Waters-less albums very much (except for the Endless River, which is so lame from my point of view that I’m unable to get past the first three tracks)
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No I like Piper, just not completely. I’ve never been much into real psych rock.
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1. Dark Side of the Moon
2. The Wall
3. Meddle
4. Wish You Were Here
5. Obscured By Clouds
6. Animals
7. Atom Heart Mother
8. The Final Cut
8. Saucerful of Secrets
9. Piper at the Gates of Dawn
10. More
11. Umma Gumma
Wow. I love so much from all of these albums
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I prefer David Gilmour’s guitar playing over Roger’s lyric power, even though I like the David-lead PF albums a lot, I feel they’re more David solo than PF albums.
Although The Final Cut was Roger’s baby, what little David contributed added incredible emotion to the album that wasn’t present in The Wall. Don’t get me wrong, the music in The Wall is powerful. It just doesn’t match the overwhelming emotion I feel listening to The Final Cut.
Along the same lines, Roger’s latest album could have used more guitar–it’s not as emotionally powerful as Amused To Death without it.
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I know what you mean. They can exist fine without each other but they always bring out the best in each other.
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Good list ProgmanRob, always interesting to see how other people rank The Pink Floyd albums and what is high and low on their list. Everyone has their own acceptance of their albums and songs. Not gonna tell you how wrong you are either because it’s how they speak to you. I myself have a different variation on that list of course and I find every album has its place in my psyche for when I need or want it. People can argue and debate over this as much as the chicken or the egg right? But I have always found a common thread amongst Floyd fans. There are those who are hardcore to the top three that you have listed as their favs and Go To albums and then there are the fans like me who reserve a huge space in our minds for the earlier albums to really absorb them because they had more experimentalism to them especially live if you ever listen to the bootleg albums. So l guess my list would look something like this from least grabbed album to highest…..;
15. The Endless River
14. The Division Bell
13. A Momentary Lapse of Reason
12. The Final Cut
11. The Wall
10. Darkside of the Moon
09. Wish You Were here
08. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
07. Ummagumma
06. Atom Heart Mother
05 Meddle
04. Animals
03 Obscured By Clouds
02. Sdtrk to More
01. A Saucerful of Secrets
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I like the list. I have the same top-three, but in a slightly different order with Animals at the top. Agree that Seamus breaks up what is otherwise a perfect record in Meddle. Obscured by Clouds and More are interesting ones since they were both commissioned as movie soundtracks and More sounds like it with lots of incidental music. The only stuff I really care about from More I have on Relics, but I think Obscured by Clouds works pretty well on its own. But Animals is a record I never get tired of and can play repeatedly beginning to end and anticipate every note.
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Without a doubt, my favourite PF album is Wish You Were Here. I freaking love that album. It’s one of my favourite albums of all time. Every track is a classic.
Hot on its heels is Animals. Animals has always been in my top five, but only cemented its number two position after the recent remasters. There was not that noticeable a difference in the Discovery series of remasters for every album, but the difference between my old Animals cd and the Discovery remaster was like night and day. The huge (Trumpian huge) jump in sound quality ensured that Animals would no longer float about the top five, but would now reside permanently at number two.
I’m rounding out my top three with The Wall today, but that could change on any other day. I do really love The Wall, though – possibly because it was the first PF music I knew, and the first PF album I bought.
I’m going to give the nod to A Momentary Lapse of Reason for number four. The second PF album I bought. Learning To Fly quickly became my favourite song, when it was released, and the volume would go up every time it was played on the radio (which was often).
Meddle completes my top five, with only the one dud track – and I’m not willing to lower my overall love of this album for that one track.
Yes, I realise that DSOTM is not in my top five, but it’s about to get worse. It’s not my number six pick, either. I’m going to give that to Obscured By Clouds – a particularly atypical Pink Floyd release, sandwiched between two more typical masterpieces, and overlooked and underrated subsequently. But darn it, I really like this album! Yes, more than DSOTM!
Speaking of which, number seven is DSOTM. I do like this album, don’t get me wrong. It’s merely a sign of the overall quality of the band, that an album so continuously highly venerated is not, for me, their best.
If it were not for the variance in quality of Atom Heart Mother, I’d give it the nod over The Division Bell. So due to consistency of the whole, over greatness of the parts, The Division Bell gets number eight, and Atom Heart Mother gets number nine.
Perhaps hyocritically, More rounds out the top ten rather than The Final Cut, due to greatness of the parts, over consistency of the whole.
So The Final Cut is my number eleven – which is strange, given that The Wall is my number three, and TFC really is (sonically and thematically) The Wall, Part Two. Yet, it is just too samey. (I don’t think that’s actually a word, but I’m sure anyone who has heard TFC knows what I’m talking about.) Again, similar to DSOTM, this is a really good album. I do really like it. But there’re just not enough magic moments to elevate this further. So much else that Pink Floyd has done is so much better.
The tail-end of my list is pretty much of a muchness. For the sake of ranking, I’ll say Saucer, then Piper, then UmmaGumma – but all three are fairly interchangeable for me.
Yes, The Endless River is not part of my rankings. No, that’s not because I don’t consider it a proper Pink Floyd album. It’s simply that I don’t own it, and have not yet heard it. (I don’t intend to listen to it, until I buy it, and I will eventually get around to buying it.)
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1. Wish You Were Here – so ahead of it’s time. Still is.
2. The Dark Side of the Moon
3. The Division Bell
4. Animals
4. The Final Cut
5. The Wall
6. A Momentary Lapse of Reason
7. Obscured by Clouds
8. Meddle
9. The Endless River
10. More.
I never listen to the other albums
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It hurts my heart to see The Wall at number 6 but sliding it up to numero uno is the only thing I would do differently here. Really close to mine.
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Different strokes for different folks. I first heard The Wall when my sister bought it for me as a birthday present. I was blown away by it. But it’s just not an album I listen to much anymore. The concept is brilliant, the lyrics are brilliant and the production is superb but I always return to WYWH. That one makes what little hair I have left stand on end. Every single time I listen to it. A timeless masterpiece.
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Um, A momentary Lapse of Reason is by far their worst album. A list with it ranking higher than last is a wrong list.
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Or it’s just an opinion same as yours.
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Could you be anymore ridiculous, Anthony? Unless, perhaps, what you meant to say was “a list with it ranking higher than last is not one I agree with.”
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For me:
1 – Piper (I love Roger and Glmour, but for me Piper is the best rock album)
2 – Dark side
3 – The wall
4 – Wish you were here
5 – animals
6 – Meddle
7 – Division
8 – Atom
9 – Saucerful
10 – Final cut
11 – Obscured by clouds
12 – Umagumma (only studio)
13 – More
14 – A momentary lapse
15 – Endless river
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