Pink Floyd fans have called The Dark Side of the Moon the “best album of all time,” and yet maintain it is not the band’s best work.
The odd juxtaposition was explained by dedicated fans of the band, who took to the band’s Reddit page and argued the album as one of the best in history, but not the best in the band’s discography. A post to the subreddit saw a “change my mind” meme edited to read: “The Dark Side of the Moon is the best album ever but not the best Pink Floyd album ever.” The user who posted the image added: “The best album ever. Sort of.”
Surprisingly, some in the comments agreed with the assessment that the band behind the best album of all time had better albums. One user wrote: “I think The Dark Side of the Moon is kind of a rite-of-passage, something that just about everyone will and probably should experience, something transcendent, which can often put them on a path toward the rest of the Floyd discography.”
Others agreed with this assessment and dubbed it the “most accessible” album in the Pink Floyd discography. They wrote: “It’s the most accessible I can definitely get behind this.” A third added: “Yeah I got hooked to the band after I listened to The Dark Side of the Moon.”
Some users were comfortable with the “paradox” created by saying The Dark Side of the Moon is the best album of all time, while noting personal preference had a lot to do with which Pink Floyd album was ranked as their very best. They wrote: “I can acknowledge that The Dark Side of the Moon is the best album ever while still claiming that my personal favourite is Wish You Were Here. Yes it’s a paradox but one I will happily live with.”
Another added: “It makes me angry that this makes sense.” Some took praise for The Dark Side of the Moon a step further and argued it also featured the “best composition of music” in history. They wrote: “I have come to terms with the fact that Money is the best composition of music that has ever existed. I’ve had numerous favorite Pink Floyd songs but David’s solo in Money cannot be touched. It’s cliche or whatever but it is what it is.”
Others agreed, with one adding: “The Final Cut is my favourite album but The Dark Side of the Moon is the greatest album of all time and I don’t know of anything will pass it within my life time.” Not everyone said it was the best of all time, with one even suggesting the album was “overrated”.
They wrote: “I think The Dark Side of the Moon is quite overrated, Animals, Wish You Were Here and Echoes for me top it.” One user replied: “As a whole, it can be a little overrated (unless you’re tripping lol) but Time is the best song ever created in all of history and Breathe is up there too.”
Another added: “I love the hell out of Pink Floyd, and don’t get me wrong, there are times I’m in a The Dark Side of the Moon mood, but three of their albums are clearly better to me. I don’t know if I would say it’s overrated, but all three albums they made after deserve at least as much credit, especially Animals.
“It should easily be regarded as an all-time great album, but it never comes anywhere near greatest album of all time lists. Is it even on The Rolling Stone’s Top 500? I’d say maybe The Wall gets the credit it deserves but I’ve seen plenty of Pink Floyd fans say that album to them is their most overrated. I think it’s just right. Wish You Were Here gets some credit but still deserves more.”
Piper at the gates of dawn is by far the best Pink Floyd album. And Their Satanic Majesties Request is by far the best Rolling Stones album. Happy to have helped. Ta ta.
Nope, if you surveyed all Floyd fans & Stones fans (the ones old enough to have a good knowledge of all r & r) will overwhelmingly select DSOTM & Sticky Fingers for the Stones…I promise you!
I like animals better
How are you doing Bernard
Obscured by Clouds for me, bizarre I know but I love “childhoods end” and “stay”
Wish you were here is my favourite Pink Floyd album and my favourite album of any band. I’m paradox-free!
I would like to thank roger waters for being the brains behind all of the best floyd albums, and also for Amused to death the best Floyd album they didn’t make.
Indeed, whatever you think of RW, he was the brains & creative force behind it all; DG & the rest are/were great guys but Waters had the creative spark, as is borne-out by PF w/RW & w/o him.
Sorry.
.he’s too into himself
Au contraire, if you can forgive his inane & tasteless razzing of DG on Twitter, after the breakup of PF & the release of “Momentary Lapse of Reason,” he has come around to be one of the best spokesppl for the Palestinians before it was fashionable, his unflinching criticism of the murderous, hegemonic Israeli government is spot-on & second to none!
I think Dark Side of the Moon is the greatest album of all time (while the Beatles are the greatest rock band of all time). I think “Money” is one of the greatest rock songs of all time and is underrated. The unique 7/4 time signature pulsed through Roger Water’s uber deep bass line, Dick Perry’s super funky, jazzy one-minute long saxophone solo, and David Gilmour’s unprecedented, searing, electrifying, transcendently crystalline two-minute guitar solo are three reasons why “Money” is a great artistic achievement. Dark Side of the Moon, in my opinion, is the most wholly unified concept album ever.
Hear, hear!!
Ditto all above, no technical music knowledge but PF has given me 60 + years of enjoyment. Saw 4 times, Animals, Wall, etc. GOAT… Now I’ll go watch some Floyd videos …..
Why do we need to choose the ‘best’. Many of their albums and songs are simply astounding and perfect. The rest are ‘just’ provoking and interesting. We should simply thank Pink Floyd for their masterpieces.
I just love the sound of Pink Floyd everything they have ever done together or individually FULL STOP
Division Bell is right up there to for me.
Just a great album to sit back and listen to.
Dark Side of the Moon is their best album.
Animals is their most underrated anbum.
The Wall is their most overrated album.
“Money” is great for all the reasons already mentioned.
“Us and Them” is important.
“Great Gig in the Sky” has about the coolest vocals ever recorded by anyone (Terry Clarke I think?)
“St. Tropez” is a great “that was cool” moment.
“Seamus” is a great “huh?” moment.
Just some thoughts
The dual bass lines, build up, and story behind One of These Days and Meddle as a whole is incredible. And not one mention of Echoes? Hell half of the song was sampled/stolen to use for the Phantom of the Opera. I love all of Pink Floyd. I have every vinyl og and remasters. Not a bad album in the lot. But if you have never heard David Gilmour’s solo of Comfortably Numb on the Pulse album you need to go on you tube right now lol.
San Tropez and Seamus? I would support Meddle as their best album. My fave is Piper but in the post Syd era … Meddle. Most Floyd fans I know say Animals is their favorite. But …for those days you’re in the mood for Echoes, Meddle is the best Floyd.
Claire Torrey. Great gig
The greatest song of all time is the Pink Floyd song that chronicles the Birth of Humanity and its progress …it’s Reach, Scope & Genius and ( hopefully) ultimate Success by the unlocking of the Full Human Potential that lies within us all.
Epic and grander in Scope than almost anything else ,this song ( which also shares the same name as the Album) requires multiple plays over time before it’s genius and full meaning is revealed.I challenge everyone to hear and see for themselves…but it will not reveal itself immediately…
The Song has no words …yet it says more than any song you will ever hear. You just need to listen to it …and the more you do …the more you will hear and see.
The Song ?
Atom Heart Mother.
The ultimate Song of us all and of Nature and Nurture in our becoming … being …Human Beings that we will ultimately become to be .
I couldn’t agree more. Atomheart Mother and Umma Gumma are real Pink Floyd albums. You’ve got to be an Old Timer to really understand what they were doing. It didn’t hurt to have seen and heard them on psychedelics.
Pink Floyd The Wall indefinitely gave The Dark Side Of The Moon a run for it’s money… and they made a lot of money.
I don’t disagree with anyone here but I have always had a strong predilection for the newer albums as well.
Shine is probably my No.1 favorite song of all time with Dogs a close 2nd. But The Division Bell, Endless River, and even Momentary Lapse are all great albums start to finish and RW had no part in any of them. I love David’s guitar style but Ricks keyboards are also at the heart of what makes Floyd Floyd.
That being said, I agree with DSOTM being overall fantastic as well as one of the most commercially successful albums of all times and love it through and through. However, when I’m in the mood to listen to some Pink, it’s one of the least likely albums I would pull from the shelf.
While DSOTM is clearly Floyd’s most cohesive and well-produced (even though most of their albums are the pinnacle of musical production), and The Wall is a masterpiece of a semi-autobiographical rock opera meets vibrant social commentary of post WWII society, my personal favorite album is 1971’s Meddle. The reason for this is that it captures the band at a point just before DSOTM when they were as collaborative but also still making true stand alone singles like Fearless that weren’t tied to a concept, and experimental pieces like Echoes that were actually concepts in and of themselves. WYWH is great but it loses focus in outer space. It contains a great (possibly their greatest) stand alone single in the title track. Animals has some of Gilmour’s most melodic guitar passages, but isn’t really a full album. It’s 4 songs and 15 minutes of sound effects. It was vehicle for Water’s political ranting, and a conceptual rip off of Orwell’s Animal Farm. PATGOD is a different band, but yet still stands as one of the greatest psychedelic albums of all time and a testament to the tortured genius of Syd. The articles premise is correct. All in all DSOTM is Pink Floyd’s best album even if us Floyd aficionados like to dig deeper. More/AtomHeart/Obscured all have great moments. So does Division Bell. But come on guys…The Final Cut is total garbage, one song When the Tigers Broke Free that should’ve been on the Wall can’t save it.
I think Division Bell is right up there…And I think Animals actually sucks!!!!
The Wall is on my top-ten list of all albums. I think Another Brick got played to death, and can make the album feel overrated, but I don’t agree. DSOTM is obviously great as well, as are many of the other albums being mentioned, imo. I find Wish You Were Here, Animals, and Meddle to be very much underrated.
The people saying Piper are correct. Meddle for the post Barrett era.
After Wish You Were Here out was all Waters take over of the band. I thought The Wall was trite, Animals was fairly decent and The Final Cut embarrasing.I loved everything before the wall i won’t pick the perfect blood album but don’t forget zabrinski”s point.