Pink Floyd-Ummagumma (1969)

Pink Floyd's fourth album, "Ummagumma", is the most enigmatic work they ever created, always considered a cult classic for the most discerning and knowledgeable fans of psychedelic and avant-garde music. Released as a double album, the first disc showcases the quartet's live prowess with brilliant, extended versions of tracks from their first three psychedelic and progressive rock albums. This first disc features the tour de force tracks "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" and "Careful with that axe, Eugene", the dark and epic "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", and the psychedelic mini-suite "A Saucerful of Secrets". However, on the second disc, each musician has their own space to unleash their musical curiosity, exploring ambitious and experimental territory. Of all the ideas presented, Roger Waters' stands out, delving into cutting-edge experimentation with recorded sounds and soothing impressions. Among the remaining tracks are more contrived pieces that seem designed to fill out the album's runtime, featuring dissonant experimentation and rhythms played randomly in an improvised manner. Ultimately, despite the second disc's limited accessibility, "Ummagumma" is a crucial historical document for the psychedelic and progressive genres, and a fundamental foundation for future experimental explorations in the world of music.

Pink Floyd-The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967)

After a long year performing on the London underground circuit, with memorable shows at clubs like the iconic UFO, Pink Floyd emerged as the most psychedelic and experimental band of the mid-sixties, with concerts brimming with multicolored lights, lysergic sounds, and a multitude of special effects. With several highly successful singles already released ("Arnold Lane" and "See Emily Play"), the band finally set about recording their first full-length album, resulting in "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", thus beginning their successful and legendary recording career. In this debut, the lineup of Syd Barrett (guitars and vocals), Richard Wright (keyboards and vocals), Nick Mason (drums and percussion), and Roger Waters (bass and vocals) left for posterity one of the most astonishing psychedelic albums ever made. On this debut, Syd Barrett takes center stage thanks to his erratic yet brilliant creativity, painting cosmic and stellar sonic canvases. Emblematic songs such as the spacey "Astronomy Domine", the semi-jazzy "Pow R. Toc H.", the experimental "Interstellar Overdrive", the nostalgic with folky elements "Matilda Mother", the hypnotic "Chapter 24" or the ominous "Scarecrow", make it clear that this is an album full of hidden allusions to the consumption of hallucinogens and the mental tortures of its leader Syd Barrett.

Pink Floyd-A Saucerful Of Secrets (1968)

Due to Syd Barrett's erratic and increasingly erratic behavior, the three remaining members of Pink Floyd decided to bolster the band by hiring a second guitarist, a position that would fall to David Gilmour, who would ultimately replace Barrett near the end of 1968. Thus, with Syd Barrett constantly in and out of recording studios, unable to stay sober even for a single night, the band recorded their second album, "A Saucerful of Secrets", in mid-1968 the only Pink Floyd album to feature five active members. These somewhat chaotic and confusing recording sessions are not reflected in the final result, which, for some mysterious reason, would become one of their most brilliant albums. On this occasion, given Barrett's lack of commitment, Roger Waters took center stage, composing most of the tracks on this album. Gilmour, for his part, contributes a more sophisticated, subtle guitar touch, while the instrumental arsenal of Richard Wright's psychedelic keyboards and Nick Mason's persistent percussion lead down more earthly musical paths than the previous, surrealistically cosmic "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn". Esoteric pieces like "Let There Be More Light", hypnotic canvases like "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", psychedelic intricatees like "Corporal Clegg", experimental avant-gardism like "A Saucerful of Secrets", and mental digressions with the improvised "Jugband Blues" (written by Syd Barrett), result in one of the masterpieces of 20th-century psychedelic-avant-garde rock.

Pink Floyd-Atom Heart Mother (1970)

For many this album was the beginning of the end of the psychedelic era of Pink Floyd, for others a transition album that was quite despised by fans, (and even by the band itself), and is that the absence of Syd Barrett still weighed heavily like a slab and partly undermined the ideas of the group members.
Even so, the group leaves us a huge suite, the one that gives the album its title and that becomes one of the philosopher's stones of progressive rock.
Special mention is the work to the engineering controls of a huge Alan Parsons that achieves a glorious sound, with all the instruments playing in their entirety.
In "Fat Old Sun" you could already sense where the band would go when David Gilmour composed, and in "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" we find the Pink Floyd who sounded a few years later with a superb piece, where Wright and Gilmour they are amazing, with a sublime sound, and that made it clear where the paths of the "new" Pink Floyd would go.
The album was a huge success in the United States and the United Kingdom as well as many other countries, achieving sales that far exceeded one million copies.

Pink Floyd-The Wall (1979)

"The Wall" is an album of enormous proportions, both in its realization, execution and conception, with pharaonic characteristics, an album that conveys a story through music, a monumental film and some superb and complex subsequent concerts.
Musically it was an ambitious project in the history of rock, created by a brilliant mind such as Roger Waters, with overwhelming results in sales and in favorable reviews, if Pink Floyd had already embroidered perfection with "The Dark Side of the Moon" with "The Wall" they had surpassed the threshold of final and final work.
A baroque, spectacular and convoluted album, a conceptual album that reaches absolute genius, with a luxurious production and a wealth of anthological texts.
The music perfectly complements what each song is recounting, which makes the listener be mesmerized and captivated in a thousand different ways. One of the greatest masterpieces of music in all its history and of rock in particular.

Pink Floyd-Wish You Were Here (1975)

In 1975 Pink Floyd released "Wish You Were Here", the ninth album chronologically and the one that would rise the fastest to number one on the charts on both sides of the Atantic, it would also be the first to have the collaboration of musicians outside the band as was the singer-songwriter Roy Harper.
Conceived as a conceptual work during its recording, several very significant events occurred, the first would be when Syd Barrett would appear unexpectedly while the band was in the middle of recording, something that was essential for Roger Waters to rethink the entire subsequent recording process.
Another fact was the difficulties that the new sound engineer Brian Humphries had when he did not know well the recording methods of Abbey Road Studios.
Before being published "Wish you Were Here" had behind it the ballast of a masterpiece like "The Dark Side Of The Moon", which partly overshadowed this album (at least at the beginning), also the fact that that Alan Parsons was not the sound engineer was taken with some doubts, however, the album does not lose an iota of freshness for it.
Musically this album brings textures and harmonies more typical of space rock than of more linear progressive rock and there are even approaches to jazz at very specific moments.
Highlighting any song in this monumental album is unnecessary since it is a work that must be heard in full in one sitting without defining or evaluating any cut over another.

Pink Floyd-The Final Cut (1983)

"The Final Cut" is the final touch of the career of the most classic Pink Floyd, culminating a career as successful as it is popular, which for many is the biggest rock band on the planet.
Conceived as a sequel to "The Wall" or also as Roger Waters 'first solo album, it is an introspective and to a certain extent conceptual album about the Second World War and the figure of Roger Waters' father, which deepens both themes, with all the songs composed by the bassist himself.
Unlike "The Wall" this is a more intimate work as a general tonic, with dense themes with a lot of drama.
Except for the vibrant "Not Now John", it contrasts the melodic and dark "Your Possible Past" or "The Final Cut".
From here, the careers of all its components went their separate ways, but David Gilmour and Nick Mason floated with the help of Rick Wright on several occasions the Pink Floyd brand for several works of enormous quality but far from their masterpieces of the 70s.

Pink Floyd-Meddle (1971)

"Meddle" was the beginning of the most characteristic sound of Pink Floyd, which would lead him to create works as fantastic as "The Dark Side Of The Moon" or "Wish You Were Here".
Published in the most important moment of the band who knew what this would mean for their future and that it would mean the transition point between psychedelic rock and progressive rock.
An album that contains some of his greatest achievements such as the epic "Echoes" or the psychedelic "One Of These Days", without forgetting the exquisite "Pillow Of Winds", the acoustic melodic "Fearless" or the blues "Seamus".
An album that is undoubtedly one of the jewels of rock music without question.

Pink Floyd-Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988)

"Delicate Sound of Thunder" was interpreted by many followers of the British institution as a provocation, a new challenge of the Gilmour / Mason side against his former partner Waters. Recall that in those years, the group had suffered a bitter fragmentation, after the departure of a Roger Waters convinced that, without him, the band would not get anywhere. Gilmour gave him noses, composed the remembered album of the beds, the excellent “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” in 1987, and organized a monumental tour, absolutely apotheosic and grandiloquent, at the height required by the legend of Pink Floyd, and a year Next, this masterful live double saw the light that allowed us to hear what the delicate sound of thunder was like.

A double anthological album that should not be missing in any collection rock fans.

Pink Floyd- Animals ( 1977)

After the album "Wish You Were Here", brimming with sweet, atmospheric, and ethereal passages, where Richard Wright's keyboards and synthesizers take center stage, came "Animals", a concept album based on George Orwell's "Animal's Farm", in which various groups in society are represented as animals. Dogs represent the law, pigs represent the leaders, and sheep represent the people. Throughout the album, Waters equates humans with each of these three animal species. Although Orwell's novel focuses on Stalinist communism, the album is a critique of the worst aspects of capitalism. With "Animals", Pink Floyd entered their third phase, that of "songwriter rock," where Roger Waters is the band's leader, a group where the lyrics matter as much as, or even more than, the music. "Animals" also represents a shift into a much darker territory than the previously explored, spacey themes that Pink Floyd had rarely touched upon. Whether this was a response to the punk movement or a reflection on English society at the time and the allegorical and sociopolitical/philosophical meaning that Waters was trying to convey, Pink Floyd would once again astonish the world, achieving another masterpiece after two previous albums that were equally impressive and absolute magnum opuses of contemporary music. Composed of three epic, somber, and mysterious tracks "Dogs", "Pigs (Three Different Ones)", and "Sheep" where energetic and heavy rock guitars take center stage, plus two acoustic ballads, "Pigs on the Wing, Part 1" and "Pigs on the Wing, Part 2", Pink Floyd would once again create a masterpiece, following two previous albums that were equally impressive and absolute magnum opuses of contemporary music.

Pink Floyd-Obscured By Clouds (1972)

Pink Floyd's fifth album is one of their most underrated and unknown records to the general public. Despite being recorded in early 1971 at the famous Château de Hérouville, it wasn't released until a year later. This was partly because it was actually the soundtrack for the French film "La Vallée", directed by Barbet Schroeder, thus coinciding with the film's release, and partly to avoid overlapping with the release of PF's fourth album, "Meddle", which, although recorded later, wouldn't be released until almost the end of 1971. Despite being considered another of PF's transitional albums, "Obscured by Clouds" is an excellent work that exudes unmistakable melodies with the band's characteristic sound, highlighting magnificent instrumentation and an interesting narrative. However, it departs somewhat from their usual sound, with a musical structure that moves away to some extent from the conceptual progressive rock of their earlier and later works. Here, Pink Floyd explore musical freedom through improvisation, while also incorporating less atmospheric and more conventional passages with a certain psychedelic tone. The album opens with the atmospheric instrumental title track, followed by the vibrant and equally instrumental rock song "When You're In", the relaxed "Burning Bridges", and the dense "The Gold It's In The..." which, along with "Childhood's End", represents the closest to Pink Floyd's usual sound. The rest of the album is more focused on the imagery of the aforementioned film, such as the strange "Absolutely Curtains", or the relaxed "Stay" and "Wot's...Uh The Deal", while the energetic "Free Four" adds a psychedelic touch. Unlike Pink Floyd's previous soundtrack, "More" from 1969, this one strangely opted for a more conventional and less dense and atmospheric song format, which represented a major departure from the band's more progressive and creative approach at that time, when they were experimenting and in the midst of a process of musical identification, something that was hinted at in the aforementioned "Meddle", or in the one before it, "Atom Heart Mother", and which would definitively explode in the following and monumental "The Dark Side Of The Moon".

Pink Floyd-The Division Bell (1994)

“The Division Bell” would be Pink Floyd's last studio album and arguably their best post-Waters era record. It's a work of massive guitars, highly complex, and attempts to emulate the style of their 1970s albums, but without the psychedelic undertones and the oppressive emotional themes of that period, and certainly without their experimental facets. Even so, it's a very atmospheric album, with more instrumentation than usual, where Rick Wright becomes an integral part of the band, his presence taking on the prominence it had in “The Wall”.

This would be the band's fourteenth album and the second without Roger Waters, and here we must pause and provide some background before continuing. After “The Final Cut”, Roger Waters unilaterally ended the Pink Floyd project at a massive press conference. However, the three remaining members disagreed and continued with the project.

Some time later, they returned with the album “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” (1987), a work sarcastically and implicitly directed at Waters. From this point on, Waters broke with EMI and CBS (his record labels for Europe and the United States) and initiated legal action to prevent his former bandmates from using the name and trademark "Pink Floyd". After nearly a year of back-and-forth statements from both sides, Waters relented and released himself from his contractual obligations, while Gilmour and Mason were allowed to continue with the band and its original name. By the time this album was released, significant tensions still existed between Waters, Gilmour, Mason, and Wright, and in a way, this album, among other things, revolves around that theme.

The main theme here focuses on communication, and this is the central focus, emphasizing the importance of communicating with others, and in a kind of subtle nod, specifically to Roger Waters's inability to communicate with the band members. According to David Gilmour, and to put it diplomatically, the album title refers to the bell used in the British Parliament during voting to signal the two parliamentary factions were divided. The album places the names of those two factions on Waters and the remaining members of Pink Floyd.

The concept sadly (and ironically) revolves around "Roger, you must contact us at the right time, and you must do it now," contradicting statements made by the former frontman, who always maintained that the other members refused to reach an amicable agreement. In many ways, the album sounds like a tribute to Waters and the almost biblical, war of words and legal battles he waged.

Musically, the album as a whole was truly magnificent, with a stunning sound and exquisite production, as one would expect from a band of Pink Floyd's stature. Standout tracks include the timeless "Cluster One" with its masterful atmosphere, the jazzy and expansive "Wearing the Inside Out", the bluesy progressive "Coming Back to Life", the rhythmic "Keep Talking", and the enormous and complex "High Hopes".

Pink Floyd-The Dark Side of The Moon (1973)

This is the album that forever cemented Pink Floyd's place in history and, incidentally, elevated the progressive rock genre to its essential status as the quintessential style of the early 1970s. "The Dark Side of the Moon" has been discussed and analyzed ad nauseam. Who doesn't know or hasn't heard of this absolute masterpiece of contemporary music? . Its legacy has transcended the boundaries of styles and trends, making it one of the ten greatest musical masterpieces of the 20th century. For this, the band entrusted themselves to the celestial bodies, and more specifically to the moon and its dark side. The album presents a celestial cell brimming with art on all sides, where experimentation and avant-garde elements find their place. It is a masterpiece of creation, capable of transmitting a universe of sensations and experiences, and one that manages to manipulate the moods of those who discover its music. 

Musically, it's brimming with textures, surprising passages of astonishing intensity, and a crystalline delicacy that simultaneously created a new conception of sound. An album that broke every possible record, many of which still stand, in addition to its astonishing sales, which place it among the best-selling albums of all time (over 50 million copies sold). It boasted numerous number one hits worldwide, spending many years on the charts, and was followed by a triumphant tour, spanning more than 14 consecutive months in fifty countries presenting the album. It garnered countless awards, including Best Album of the Year, Best Production, Best Cover Art, and Best Single ("Money"), and its four members were recognized as the best on their respective instruments. 

Furthermore, it was the first album in history to be recorded entirely in quadraphonic format. 

Conceptually structured, it's brimming with sound effects, from the opening track "Eclipse" to the epilogue "Speak To Me", including the overwhelming and rhythmic "Money", the superb "Time", the beautiful "Us and Them", and the evocative "Breathe". Ultimately, it's a fascinating journey through the story of a man condemned to madness. Behind the recording controls were some of the greatest engineers in history, such as Alan Parsons and Chris Thomas, in addition to Hipgnosis Studios, who were responsible for the futuristic design of its iconic cover.