What's the "Darkest" and "Happiest" Pink Floyd albums?

[Jimi Dean Barrett]

The NME recently had one of their lists. This time it was "50 Darkest Albums".
Sadly, no PF was included*. I'll be back with the full list later, but it got me thinking:

What is the darkest and happiest Pink Floyd records?

Some would say TFC but I can hear hope in that record. I have to go looking and need breathing equipment and wetsuits, but it's in there! Even the doomsday of "Two Suns In The Sunset" is quite warm and intimate.
I'd say The Wall was their darkest point. It's still an amazing listen, but it's not exactly "Bring Me Sunshine"?

On the other side of the coin, it's a tie between PATGOD and AHM for their happiest album.
I'm tempted to go for AHM as the experimental part (Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast) is fuzzy and charming as opposed to the blind thrashing (but still charming) about on Umma Gumma.

But then there's PATGOD? It has a song about a Gnome who looks at the sky and river! That's pretty happy. And it finishes on Bike.

So ok then, The Wall for me is Pink Floyd at their darkest and PATGOD is them in happier times.
Anyone got a different take on this?

*=Probably because Pink Floyd are out of favour again, and the NME writers are closer to PF's upbringing than they'd rather admit?


The list in full:

50. The XX - XX
49. Pulp - This Is Hardcore
48. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
47. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
46. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
45. Editors - The Back Room
44. Suicide - Suicide
43. PIL - Metal Box
42. Billie Holiday - Lady Sings The Blues
41. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See A Darkness
40. Smog - The Doctor Came At Dawn
39. Glasvegas - Glasvegas
38. Neutral Milk Hotel - In An Aeroplane Over The Sea
37. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
36. Low - Things We Lost In The Fire
35. Radiohead - OK Computer
34. Lou Reed - Berlin
33. Nina Nastasia - The Blackened Air
32. Husker Du - Candy Apple Grey
31. Big Star - Third/Sister Lovers
30. Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear
29. Tricky - Pre-Millennium Tension
28. Arab Strap - Elephant Shoe
27. Slint - Spiderland
26. Black Flag - My War
25. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
24. Swans - White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity
23. Sunn O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions
22. Joy Division - Closer
21. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Your Funeral...My Trial
20. The Psychedelic Furs - Talk Talk Talk
19. Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate
18. Depeche Mode - Violator
17. Bowie - Heroes
16. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
15. Wire - 154
14. Scott Walker - The Drift
13. Joni Mitchell - Blue
12. Morrissey - Vauxhall and I
11. Portishead - Dummy
10. Kanye West - 8O8S and Heartbreak
9. Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around
8. Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
7. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
6. The Cure - Pornography
5. Nico - Desertshore
4. The Smiths - Meat Is Murder
3. Nirvana - In Utero
2. Spiritualized - Let It Come Down
1. Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

The Wall would well fit in that list!

[danielcaux]

Atom Heart Mother is without a doubt the happier album for me. There's some kind of hidden menace I always sense in the PATGOD songs, its childhood recollections manage to be sunny but a little nightmarish at the same time; it's a strange mood the one evoked by that record; it does feel like childhood, but more like when you were sick and falling asleep at night as a child. Take for example Matilda Mother and all those feverish arabian nights organ lines, or Astronomie Domine's dark "stars are dangerous" vibe, "Lucifer" Sam tritones and witches, the musical overload and delirium tremens of the protagonist of Thy Stethoscope, the mind trip of Interstellar Overdrive and the overall "flying over the cuckoo's nest" feel of the whole B side, with all those strange gnomes, magic books, lonely scarecrows and manic laughing bike riders with rooms full of tunes. Perhaps that's why the Madcap Laughs sounds to me like a natural evolution from PATGOD own darkness, and not that much of the starking opposite that some people feel it is.

Atom also has its share of lyrical darkness (especially on If an Summer 68) but apart from the soul searching melancholic slide guitar solos in the title track the music is quite sunny and pastoral, you can almost smell the grass and feel the warm sunlight in your skin when listening to those tunes.

Darkest record ..right now I'm thinking either Animals or Wish You Were Here.

[my breakfast.]

Here are the minimal surprises.

48. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head Shitty pop version of post-rock.

46. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights Joy Division clone.
45. Editors - The Back Room Joy Division clone.
42. Billie Holiday - Lady Sings The Blues The one CD in any hipster's jazz collection. Colour me diverse.
38. Neutral Milk Hotel - In An Aeroplane Over The Sea Overrated hipster band.
37. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath Dark for 1970 maybe.
35. Radiohead - OK Computer Insert Radiohead album here.
34. Lou Reed - Berlin Artrock classic, no hipster can be without.
24. Swans - White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity Cue random Swans album.
23. Sunn O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions Cue random Sunn 0))) album, its not like you actually listen to it.
22. Joy Division - Closer Joy Division. Why the clones at .46 and .45 then?
21. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds... Cue random Nick Cave album.
14. Scott Walker - The Drift Cue random Scott Walker album from the last bunch he made, its not like you actually listen to it.
10. Kanye West - 8O8S and Heartbreak Cue random black artist's album, got to keep the random diversity bent going.
9. Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around Hipster icon even though he fought against that sort of shit.
7. Nick Drake - Pink Moon Hipster icon even though he couldn't perform live and is massively over-rated.
4. The Smiths - Meat Is Murder Cue random Smiths album.
3. Nirvana - In Utero The Nirvana album your friends won't mock you for listening to, because nobody actually likes it.

My blow by blow account of shitty unoriginal music journalism.

[Hudini]

I bet this list was made by someone who didn't even listen to a large number of the albums that are actually on the list. I, for one, could list at least five albums that would have easily made a "darkest albums" list instead of a some featured ones...

[cwta eugene]

The Happiest:

Meddle

Apart from a vow to one day "cut you into little pieces", which isn't so happy, you have a guy finding contentment in lying with his wife, rising above the criticism of others, enjoying a drink of champagne, and learning how to help those he once saw as merely strangers.

The Darkest:

Animals


Some obvious omissions from that list:

Beck-Sea Change
Eels- End Times

[mastaflatch]

that list lacks Van Der Graaf's Pawn Hearts or Godbluff among others.
also, add that Vemod album by Anekdoten.

[Enish]

Happest: Atom Heart Mother

Darkest: A three-way tie between Animals, The Wall, and The Final Cut

[czgibson]

The Wall is wonderfully dark, so much so that I struggle to listen to it all the way through in one sitting even though I love it. Piper is the cheeriest one despite its occasional sinister shadows.

What a strange list from the NME. Lists are always contentious, of course, but there are clear signs of someone not really trying in this one. It looks in a lot of cases like they've thought: "May as well have a Fall album, what's the first one that comes to mind?" or "Got to have some Morrissey, any of his albums'll do".

Good shout by mastaflatch on Pawn Hearts being left out. White Light / White Heat from the Velvets and Fun House by the Stooges could also have been in there. Weird that there's not much metal either. When it comes to darkness, I think we can safely assume that the metal fraternity have got it covered.

[Flying pig437]

The NME recently had one of their lists. This time it was "50 Darkest Albums".
Sadly, no PF was included*. I'll be back with the full list later, but it got me thinking:

What is the darkest and happiest Pink Floyd records?

Some would say TFC but I can hear hope in that record. I have to go looking and need breathing equipment and wetsuits, but it's in there! Even the doomsday of "Two Suns In The Sunset" is quite warm and intimate.
I'd say The Wall was their darkest point. It's still an amazing listen, but it's not exactly "Bring Me Sunshine"?

On the other side of the coin, it's a tie between PATGOD and AHM for their happiest album.
I'm tempted to go for AHM as the experimental part (Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast) is fuzzy and charming as opposed to the blind thrashing (but still charming) about on Umma Gumma.

But then there's PATGOD? It has a song about a Gnome who looks at the sky and river! That's pretty happy. And it finishes on Bike.

So ok then, The Wall for me is Pink Floyd at their darkest and PATGOD is them in happier times.
Anyone got a different take on this?

*=Probably because Pink Floyd are out of favour again, and the NME writers are closer to PF's upbringing than they'd rather admit?


The list in full:

50. The XX - XX
49. Pulp - This Is Hardcore
48. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
47. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
46. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
45. Editors - The Back Room
44. Suicide - Suicide
43. PIL - Metal Box
42. Billie Holiday - Lady Sings The Blues
41. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See A Darkness
40. Smog - The Doctor Came At Dawn
39. Glasvegas - Glasvegas
38. Neutral Milk Hotel - In An Aeroplane Over The Sea
37. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
36. Low - Things We Lost In The Fire
35. Radiohead - OK Computer
34. Lou Reed - Berlin
33. Nina Nastasia - The Blackened Air
32. Husker Du - Candy Apple Grey
31. Big Star - Third/Sister Lovers
30. Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear
29. Tricky - Pre-Millennium Tension
28. Arab Strap - Elephant Shoe
27. Slint - Spiderland
26. Black Flag - My War
25. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
24. Swans - White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity
23. Sunn O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions
22. Joy Division - Closer
21. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Your Funeral...My Trial
20. The Psychedelic Furs - Talk Talk Talk
19. Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate
18. Depeche Mode - Violator
17. Bowie - Heroes
16. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
15. Wire - 154
14. Scott Walker - The Drift
13. Joni Mitchell - Blue
12. Morrissey - Vauxhall and I
11. Portishead - Dummy
10. Kanye West - 8O8S and Heartbreak
9. Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around
8. Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
7. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
6. The Cure - Pornography
5. Nico - Desertshore
4. The Smiths - Meat Is Murder
3. Nirvana - In Utero
2. Spiritualized - Let It Come Down
1. Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

The Wall would well fit in that list!

I've seen a list like this before. I think it was in Q. Big star-Sister lovers/3rd was #1. Yeah The wall should be in there as it's a massive downer That's why I love it. Strange thing is it was only the other day I was reading that Bowie deliberately made 'heroes' as an attempt to be more upbeat after Low so maybe they've got the Bowie one wrong. There's a few more dark Fall albums than TNSG too. In fact that's one of their most fun albums esp. towards the end where it gets playful.

[czgibson]

Strange thing is it was only the other day I was reading that Bowie deliberately made 'heroes' as an attempt to be more upbeat after Low so maybe they've got the Bowie one wrong. There's a few more dark Fall albums than TNSG too. In fact that's one of their most fun albums esp. towards the end where it gets playful.

You're right about Bowie and I agree on the Fall. For dark Fall albums there's always Dragnet, Totale's Turns or the brutal Hex Enduction Hour; it's mystifying that they've chosen pretty much the poppiest Fall album there is. It's a great one, too, of course.

Similar thing with Morrissey - Vauxhall & I is one album where he sounds really confident and like he's almost starting to enjoy life!

[progo]

I just have to vote for SoS as the happiest album. When it's philosophical, when celebral. When just naively happy, like one in love.

The Wall, of course, will be the darkest. It gets darker and darker as it progesses, and what happens in the end? As dark as it was without fascist fantasies.

[Enish]

The Wall, of course, will be the darkest. It gets darker and darker as it progesses, and what happens in the end?

It starts all over again.

"Is this where..." *go to track 1* "...we came in?"

Poor Pink suffers a fate worse than death.

[henno]

happiest: More (the fun they had making that album comes through so clearly)


darkest: final cut (war, betrayal, loss, death, terrorism, tyranny, isolation, repression, .... ending in a nuclear holocaust.. 'nuff said)

[bigV]

Is there such a thing as a "happy" Pink Floyd album? That's almost a contradiction in terms.

Darkest - "the final cut" by far. Halfway through the album the protagonist almost slashes his wrists. The album itself ends with nuclear holocaust... how much more depressing can you get?

Yeah, it's one of my favourites.

V.

[snifferdog]

Happiest: Meddle. I thought about Atom Heart Mother but Summer 68 is a bit melancholic. More is good fun too but lacks a singing dog.

Darkest: The Final Cut. By the time it got made, everyone in Pink Floyd was miserable, Roger had gone all political and there was no prospect of a duet with a singing dog