Pink Floyd - Greatest Hits (2013)

Pink Floyd pioneered an elastic, echoing, mind-bending sound that evokes the chasms of space. Celestial concerns surfaced early in the band's career, with their 1967 debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn containing the epic instrumental "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Astronomy Domine," a psychedelic masterwork sung by their early leader, Syd Barrett. That initial album and its accompanying singles were groundbreaking psychedelic works, pairing astral voyages with deep explorations of British eccentricity. Floyd continued to pursue this mix after Barrett's premature departure in 1968, with the group spending five years wandering through experiments as they charted the outer reaches of their limitless sound. Bassist Roger Waters emerged as the group's chief songwriter, developing a deep fascination with mundane matters of ego, mind, memory, and heart, touching upon madness, alienation, narcissism, and society. These obsessions came into sharp relief on Dark Side of the Moon, an album that became a perennial favorite, with its sculpted widescreen sweep attracting new audiences decades after its 1973 release. After its unprecedented success, Waters acted as the group's de facto leader in the 1970s, conceiving such epics as Wish You Were Here and The Wall. He departed acrimoniously after the 1983 release of The Final Cut, leaving guitarist David Gilmour -- who joined the group as Barrett's replacement -- to step to the forefront on 1987's A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason, and keyboardist Rick Wright kept Floyd afloat through the middle of the '90s, taking the band off the road after the successful international tour supporting the international 1994 hit The Division Bell. The subsequent decades were filled with feuds between Floyd and Waters interrupted by the occasional reunion, such as their appearance at 2005's Live 8, as well as The Endless River, a 2014 album assembled by Gilmour and Mason as a partial tribute to Wright, who died in 2008. The Endless River played upon Floyd's sonic trademarks: a wide, expansive sound that was instantly recognizable as their own, yet was adopted by all manner of bands, from guitar-worshiping metalheads to freaky, hippie, ambient electronic duos. Unlike almost any of their peers, Pink Floyd played to both sides of the aisle: they were rooted in the blues, but their hearts belonged to the future, a dichotomy that made them a quintessentially modern 20th century band.