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They made a legitimate claim to the classic rock throne in the 1970s, but Pink Floyd’s discography spanned decades. Many listeners misunderstood their biggest hit, and while the songs might be open to interpretation, the order of Pink Floyd’s albums is set and stone. 

The five Pink Floyd members created 15 studio albums

Aside from a few early concerts, Pink Floyd only operated as a quartet. Still, the shadow of Syd Barrett loomed over the band for years, even after they moved on without him.

Barrett put Pink Floyd on the map as the singer, primary songwriter, and lead guitarist. He and bandmates Roger Waters (bass), Richard Wright (keyboards), and Nick Mason (drums) established themselves as the flagship band for psychedelic underground London in 1967. By the end of the year, Barrett was already on the path toward his post-Floyd life.

His mental disintegration — likely attributed to an underlying mental illness and copious LSD consumption — left him unwilling or unable to maintain his music career. He played songs in the wrong key, sang the wrong words, and changed the arrangements on the fly. The band, hoping to salvage success from their early hit songs, recruited David Gilmour to play guitar while Barrett wildly improvised.

Eventually, Pink Floyd moved on without Barrett. Gilmour, Mason, Waters, and Wright continued without the band’s founder starting in early 1968. Eventually, that second quartet gave the world some of the best albums (and greatest album covers) of all time. Let’s look at Pink Floyd’s albums in order.

(Note: We’re counting only studio albums, so we’re not including compilations, collections of outtakes, or bootlegs. Albums with two release dates are displayed England followed by United States).

1. ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’

  • Release date: Aug. 5, 1967; Oct. 21, 1967
  • 3 notable songs: “Astronomy Domine,” “Interstellar Overdrive,” “Bike”
  • What to know: The band recorded their debut at Abbey Road Studios, just across the hall from The Beatles as they made Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

2. ‘A Saucerful of Secrets’

  • Release date: June 29, 1968; July 27, 1968
  • 3 notable songs: “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun,” “Saucerful of Secrets,” “Jugband Blues”
  • What to know: Barrett’s last appearance on a Pink Floyd album came via “Jugband Blues,” a sad and painfully confessional tune that contained the heartbreaking line, “And I’m wondering who could be writing this song.”

3. ‘More’

  • Release date: July 27, 1969; Aug. 9, 1969
  • 3 notable songs: “Crying Song,” “Green Is the Colour,” “Ibiza Bar”
  • What to know: Pink Floyd created this soundtrack album to the movie of the same name in just over a week, and it contained a range of styles in its 45 minutes.

4. ‘Ummagumma’

  • Release date: Oct. 25, 1969; Nov. 8, 1969
  • Notable songs: “Astronomy Domine,” “Careful With That Axe, Eugene,” “The Narrow Way Pt. 1”
  • What to know: Each band member — Gilmour, Mason, Waters, and Wright — wrote their own songs individually to fill one LP. The other LP collected live songs.

5. ‘Atom Heart Mother’

  • Release date: Oct. 2, 1970, Oct. 10, 1970
  • 3 notable songs: “Atom Heart Mother,” “Summer ‘68,” “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast”
  • What to know: The album debuted at No. 1 in England without producing a charting single; it peaked at No. 55 on the Billboard charts.

6. ‘Meddle’

  • Release date: Nov. 11, 1971; Oct. 30, 1971
  • 3 notable songs: “One of These Days,” “Fearless,” “Echoes”
  • What to know: The sidelong epic “Echoes” was Floyd’s independent soundtrack to the trippy final montage in the movie 2001: A Space Oddity. Director Stanley Kubrick shot down their request to put a song on that soundtrack, and the band rescinded by not letting him use their music for one of his other films.

7. ‘Obscured by Clouds’

  • Release date: June 3, 1972; June 17, 1972
  • 3 notable songs: “Wot’s … Uh the Deal,” “Childhood’s End,” “Free Four”
  • What to know: Another soundtrack album (for the movie La Vallée), the song “Childhood’s End” gave fans a glimpse of the music that made The Dark Side of the Moon a massive success. 

8. ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’

  • Release date: March 1, 1973; March 10, 1973
  • 3 notable songs: “Time,” “Us and Them,” “Brain Damage”
  • What to know: Pink Floyd nearly used a spoken Paul McCartney contribution before scrapping it, but The Beatles’ music makes a nearly-hidden cameo in the album’s waning moments. “Money,” which was inspired by Booker T. & the M.G.’s, was Pink Floyd’s most successful Billboard single (it peaked at No. 15) before “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” in 1980. The Dark Side of the Moon spent an unfathomable 1,541 weeks (more than 29 years) on the charts in the U.S. (981) and England (560).

9. ‘Wish You Were Here’

  • Release date: Sept. 15, 1975; Sept. 13, 1975
  • 3 notable songs: “Wish You Were Here,” “Have a Cigar,” “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”
  • What to know: Barrett serendipitously showed up at the studio as Pink Floyd recorded the album that focused heavily on his mental deterioration and departure from the band. The flaming cover model accidentally lit his mustache on fire during the photo shoot.

10. ‘Animals’

  • Release date: Jan. 23, 1977; Feb. 2. 1977
  • 3 notable songs: “Dogs,” “Pigs, “Sheep”
  • What to know: The inflatable pig shown floating over a coal-fired power plant on the cover came loose and drifted away. What might be Pink Floyd’s heaviest album took inspiration from the George Orwell book Animal Farm. 

11. ‘The Wall’

  • Release date: Nov. 30, 1979; Dec. 9, 1979
  • 3 notable songs: “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” “Hey You,” “Comfortably Numb”
  • What to know: Water and Gilmour had a conflict over which rhythm part worked best on “Comfortably Numb.” In a rare democratic moment, they settled their dispute by using both in separate sections, per the bassist. “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” was Pink Floyd’s only No. 1 single in England or the United States.

12. ‘The Final Cut’

  • Release date: March 21, 1983; April 2, 1983
  • 3 notable songs: “The Hero’s Return,” “Paranoid Eyes,” “Not Now John”
  • What to know: Essentially the first Waters solo record — the back cover read, “By Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd.” The band consisted of Gilmour, Mason, and Waters as the bassist fired keyboard player Wright while making The Wall.

13. ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’

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  • Release date: Sept. 8, 1987
  • 3 notable songs: “Learning to Fly,” “On the Turning Away,” “Sorrow”
  • What to know: Gilmour, Mason, and Wright regrouped as Pink Floyd two years after a bitter separation with Waters. A Momentary Lapse of Reason peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard charts and reached the same position in England (per the Official Charts Company). 

14. ‘The Division Bell’

  • Release date: March 30, 1994; April 4, 1994
  • 3 notable songs: “What Do You Want From Me,” “Marooned,” “High Hopes”
  • What to know: The last Pink Floyd studio album the band’s members saw released (Wright died in 2008) was a strong collection that included “Coming Back to Life,” one of Floyd’s underrated deep cuts. 

15. ‘The Endless River’

  • Release date: Nov. 10, 2014
  • 3 notable songs: “Skins,” “Anisina,” “Allons-y (1)”
  • What to know: The band combed the archives and released this more ambient collection of outtakes from The Division Bell 20 years later.

Pink Floyd released several live albums and compilations

We didn’t include them on our list of Pink Floyd’s studio albums, but the band released several official live albums and compilations over the years.

Live albums: 

  • Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988)
  • Pulse (1995)
  • Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81 (2000)
  • Live at Knebworth 1990 (2021)
  • The Dark Side of the Moon Live at Wembley 1974 (2023).

Compilations: 

  • The Best of the Pink Floyd (1970) (also known as Masters of Rock, released in 1974)
  • Relics (1971)
  • A Nice Pair (1973) (combining The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets in one package)
  • A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1981)
  • Works (1983)
  • Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001)
  • The Best of Pink Floyd: A Foot in the Door (2011
  • The Early Years 1967–1972: Cre/ation (2016)
  • The Later Years 1987–2019 (2019)

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