Good Vibrations: The Top 25 Psychedelic Rock Albums

Psychedelic music had simple yet complex beginnings: All you had to do to call yourself a psych-rock artist back in the mid-to-late 1960s was put a tab of LSD on your tongue, wait an hour, then crank up the amplifier and bang out some bluesy riffs on an electric guitar. The counterculture movement was sweeping across the United States and the United Kingdom, and the proliferation of potent hallucinogens, anti-war sentiments, and New Age ideals pried open rock bands’ minds to different dynamics and ways of thinking. 

Much of the psychedelic rock that came out during the peak years of 1967 to 1969 was steeped not just in chemical experimentation but also in American blues and folk traditions, which were reinterpreted with the aid of fuzz-box, wah-wah, and distortion, as well as analog synthesizers and other unique instruments. Early psych-rock also incorporated elements of Indian raga and Eastern mysticism, while hippie ideals manifested in other ways worldwide as bands in Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and elsewhere developed their own psychedelic sounds and art movements. Psychedelia was never about being put into a box, but today you could define it as music designed to open up the mental plane, challenge preconceived notions about art and society, and induce a trance-like state in the listener. Of course, good psychedelic music should also go well with cannabis, shrooms, and other plant medicines. 

READ: The Best Psychedelic Songs of All Time

Here are the 25 best albums to provide a trip through psychedelic music history, from 1966 up to the present day. Listen to the Spotify playlist we built to go along with this list for the full experience. 

The 13th Floor Elevators, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (1966)

This auspicious debut is said to be the first piece of music to call itself “psychedelic,” and the 13th Floor Elevators make their intentions clear with the album’s colorful cover art and cerebral liner notes, which talk about chemical aids, altered mental states, and the “quest for pure sanity.” Roky Erickson’s wild moans and Tommy Hall’s sputtering electric jug infuses the Austin, Texas band’s straight-ahead garage rock with an irresistible volatility, creating a soundtrack to inner breakthrough. 

Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow (1967)

Along with Jimi Hendrix’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” Surrealistic Pillow offers the archetypal soundtrack to ’60s Vietnam War documentaries and Lifetime channel hippie biopics. Luminaries of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury scene—where the hippie movement had its heart during the Summer of Love—Jefferson Airplane may sound a bit on the nose now with the blues-based, flower-power sound of hits “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit.” But deep cuts like the flute-adorned “Comin’ Back to Me” still resonate with a transcendent softness. 

Love, Forever Changes (1967)

Making a radical break from the naïveté of the wider hippie movement, Los Angeles’s Love and their visionary leader Arthur Lee sound alert and skeptical about the world around them with the philosophical observations and images of Cold War apocalypse that guide this psych-folk masterpiece. “Sitting on the hillside / Watching all the people die / I’ll feel much better on the other side / I’ll thumb a ride,” Lee sings in “The Red Telephone,” his voice full of graceful whimsy as the band ties things together with an ornate and utterly unexpected arrangement of harpsichord, orchestral strings, and “sha-la-la” vocals. It’s music for dancing in graveyards and watching the mushroom clouds go by.

Pink Floyd, Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)

These British legends have made numerous contributions to the canon, but Piper at the Gates of Dawn stands as arguably their most definitive psychedelic moment. The first of just two albums that feature co-founder Syd Barrett (who left the band a year after its release), Piper finds the London outfit blowing apart the rudimentary format of ’60s garage-rock to create an almost cinematic sound that incorporates jazzy piano interludes, a cappella animal cries, Eastern-sounding riffs, and head-trip lyrics: “Yippee, you can’t see me / But I can you!” Keeping it all anchored is the band’s impeccable sense of pacing and mood-building, with rushes of joy perfect for when you start peaking. 

The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

Coming right between Sgt. Peppers and the Lonely Hearts Club Band and the White Album, Magical Mystery Tour doesn’t get as much attention today compared to other albums from the Beatles’ late-’60s era. But you can’t go wrong with getting your trip kicked off with the album’s title track, a hard-driving romp punctuated by the sounds of screeching vehicles and anchored by a high-pitched, phase-shifted vocal refrain that evokes the off-kilter warp of a melted LP. “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “I Am the Walrus” of course also stand out among the Beatles’ most game-changing cuts of lysergic innovation. 

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Electric Ladyland (1968)

This sprawling double LP stands as a testament to the good things that can come as a result of rock ’n’ roll excess. For his final album with his Jimi Hendrix Experience bandmates Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, Hendrix welcomed in friends (including soon-to-be-ex Rolling Stone Brian Jones and members of Jefferson Airplane and Traffic) to create a party atmosphere during studio sessions as they tinkered with dozens of takes on individual tracks. The result included some iconic hits, namely the ridiculously catchy but overplayed “All Along the Watchtower.” But it’s more offbeat highlights—like the entirety of Side C—that truly make this album special, foretelling the type of no-boundaries creative release that would later become central to electronic music and hip-hop. 

Os Mutantes, Os Mutantes (1968)

Brazil’s Tropicália movement emerged in the late 1960s as a mind-expanding curriculum of music, art, and politics that brought a fresh outlook to Brazilian culture and provided a much-needed antidote to the repression of military dictatorship. For such a heady time, Os Mutantes offers a burst of avant-garde sunshine as the band shakes and grooves through fuzz-guitar samba workouts, dreamlike ballads, and found-sound experiments. While the nattily-dressed trio of Rita Lee, Sérgio Dias, and Arnaldo Baptista take quite a bit of influence from American and British rock, their delightful debut as Os Mutantes show a band that’s wild and adventurous on its own terms. 

The Zombies, Odessey and Oracle (1968)

The Zombies turn to bright melodies, baroque arrangements, and other esoteric flourishes to create the beguiling psych-pop of Odessey and Oracle. The album’s opener “Care of Cell 44” is so foot-tappingly catchy that you could easily miss the fact that it’s a love letter to someone in prison, while the haunting, five-part vocal harmonies and minimalist percussion of “Changes” turn the lyrics about changing seasons into a trance-like mantra. Released several months after the Zombies broke up, this cult favorite is similar to the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds in its intricacy, immediacy, and utter originality.  

Dr. John, Gris-Gris (1968)

“They call me Dr. John—known as the Night Tripper,” the gravel-voiced Mac Rebennack declares by way of introduction in the opening moments of this collection of hallucinatory swamp-blues. In his solo debut, the famed New Orleans keyboardist drifts through a set of loose-limbed jams whose complex rhythms and chanting vocals occupy an otherworld somewhere between New Orleans jazz, West African highlife, and Captain Beefheart’s avant-R&B. Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegun banished Gris-Gris to an obscure sublabel upon its initial release, but these days anyone who knows what’s up has spent at least one smoky evening with the Night Tripper. 

Funkadelic, Maggot Brain (1971)

An important era for guitar experimentation died with Jimi Hendrix’s passing in 1970, but George Clinton and his fellow acid-rock astronauts in Funkadelic took up the mantle a year later with the monumental Maggot Brain. They had already articulated an ethos for psychedelic fusions of rock and funk with their self-titled debut and 1970 follow-up, Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow. But the spirit of Hendrix really shows through on their third effort—especially i. the 10-plus minute title track, which showcases lead guitarist Eddie Hazel channeling thoughts of mortality in a heartfelt and expressive solo full of fuzz and wah effects. Although initial reviews were mixed, the album’s stark tone and foreboding cover art provide a satisfying exploration of psych’s cynical side. 

Can, Tago Mago (1971)

Recorded in a medieval German castle and assembled with the help of musique concrète-style tape splicing, Tago Mago defies simple categorization with its hypnosis-inducing rhythmic workouts and extended ventures into freeform weirdness. The Cologne-based kosmische musik legends draw on techniques taken from the worlds of free jazz and the avant-garde along with funk and rock, but they don’t sound pretentious or showy at all as they make an infinitely listenable double-LP perfect for bong hits and freaky yoga. 

Los Dug Dug’s, Los Dug Dug’s (1971)

Mexico had its own countercultural movement known as La Onda (“The Wave”) in the 1960s and ’70s, and Los Dug Dug’s stand out as torch-bearers for acid rock with the funky fuzz-guitar riffs and otherworldly, flute-adorned ballads of their debut album. Originally formed in Durango, the band spent years gigging in Tijuana and Mexico City before stepping into the recording studio for this, and their chops as a five-piece demolition squad are undeniable as they release tons of fiery energy even in their most Beatles-y pop moments.  

Todd Rundgren, A Wizard, A True Star (1973) 

This is what happens when a brilliant musical polymath gets tired of writing catchy hits and decides to go way off the deep end. Although he was hardly the first arist to break away from the norm during the disillusioning Nixon years, songwriter Todd Rundgren indulges with particular audacity on A Wizard, A True Star, serving up outrageous guitar solos, woozy blue-eyed soul, and brain-vacuuming studio effects while still making room for the toothy, AM-radio hooks that made him famous. An embarrassing flop when it first came out, A Wizard, A True Star has gone on to gain acclaim, especially among bedroom pop songwriters, for the potency of its hermit-like creative and chemical release. 

Grateful Dead, Cornell 5/8/77 (1977)

Any veteran Deadhead can tell you that the band’s best stuff was captured live rather than in a recording studio—and this bootleg-turned-official release of a concert at Cornell University’s Barton Hall from 1977 is regarded among fans and critics as one of the band’s peak performances. Recorded from the soundboard by faithful Dead engineer Betty Cantor-Jackson, the audio captures Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and the rest of the crew tapping into a sublime energy flow with freewheeling guitar solos, country good feelings, and moments of pure magic like the epic “Morning Dew.” Although it’s a live show, the sound quality is vivid and clear, making it that much more enjoyable of a listen. 

The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses (1989)

As the acid-house raves of the Second Summer of Love swept across the UK in the late 1980s, Manchester rockers the Stone Roses defined the “Madchester” sound and hinted at the future of Britpop with this glorious full-length debut. The 11 tracks—as well as the single “Fools Gold,” which was added to the U.S. release and later editions—channel the paisley-patterned good feelings of ’60s psych-pop with a gauzy sheen of reverb and chorus effects. But guiding it all is an audacious attitude and infectious sense of groove perfectly suited for PLUR-minded dancefloors. 

Spiritualized, Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (1997)

English songwriter Jason Pierce has spent decades crafting some of the greatest druggy music ever recorded—his first band, Spacemen 3, literally has a compilation titled Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs. But his third album with his band Spiritualized is his crowning achievement: Ladies and Gentlemen is a kaleidoscopic, 70-minute rock ‘n’ roll dreamscape of heartbreak, addiction, and pop-culture obsession. Spiritualized acts ostensibly as a four-piece rock unit on the album, but they’re joined at various points by a string quartet, a gospel choir, saxophones, accordion, Hammond organ, and pedal-steel guitar, creating a sound that is by turns blissfully subtle and ridiculously epic. 

The Flaming Lips, Zaireeka (1997)

Unlike a conventional release, Zaireeka consists of four discs (or streams of the discs) and requires four separate sound systems to listen to them properly. Each of the discs’ eight tracks are composed of separate musical components, and when you play them together simultaneously, they line up to create a surround-sound experience like no other. The album can then take different shapes as you swap out discs, move speakers around, or play the tracks slightly out of sync with each other. Zaireeka initially had some haters (a flippant Pitchfork writer gave it a 0-out-of-10 rating) and the Lips went on to gain wider acclaim with subsequent albums. But if the idea of psychedelia is to stretch boundaries and take the mind to new dimensions, then the Flaming Lips pulled it off here with soaring ambition. 

Boredoms, Vision Creation Newsun (1999)

This iconic Japanese band spent its early years cranking out provocative noise experiments on albums with alluring titles like Soul Discharge and Chocolate Synthesizer, but by the late 1990s frontman Yamantaka Eye and his cohorts were making a tonal shift towards Krautrock and hippie-nouveau psychedelia—a transformation that reaches its butterfly-like final transformation on the stunning Vision Creation Newsun. A New Agey feel comes to the fore in extended jams full of pounding tribal rhythms, meditative cymbal washes, cosmic guitar riffs, and folksy atmospheric textures. But their roots as incendiary iconoclasts still burst through in their most explosive moments of space-rock crescendo and self-destruction. 

Panda Bear, Person Pitch (2007) 

The late 2000s and early 2010s proved to be a fruitful period for psychedelic reawakening in American indie music, and Person Pitch set the benchmark for many releases to come. With his unassuming voice drenched in reverb and delay effects, Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox—better known as Panda Bear—harks back to the melancholic melodies of Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson while at the same time gazing forward to a 

horizon of new possibilities. Built with a sampler and loops in addition to guitar, highlights like the 12-minute “Bros” rewired the basic elements of pop songwriting for a generation of young DIY artists and opened listeners’ ears with radical warmth and joy.   

Santana, The Woodstock Experience (2009) 

This handy package—released as part of a 10-CD box set but also available on its own—includes Carlos Santana’s debut studio album along with live recordings from his band’s barnstorming Saturday-afternoon set at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Led by the Mexican-born guitarist of the same name, the San Francisco band was going up against much bigger names on a packed festival bill that fateful day in 1969, but they secured their place in rock history with a mescaline-fueled showcase of wailing distortion and Latin rhythm. Cue up their performance of “Soul Sacrifice” on YouTube and the look of delirious joy on drummer Michael Shrieve’s face says it all as they align their energies with the Woodstock audience. 

Flying Lotus, Cosmogramma (2010)

Thundercat’s bonkers bass lines and Rebekah Raff’s shimmering harp chords bring Flying Lotus’ singular brand of instrumental hip-hop to warped new dimensions on Cosmogramma. At a time when rock guitars were losing status in favor of drum machines and DJ decks, the forward-thinking beatmaker born Steven Ellison put Los Angeles’ flourishing, Low End Theory-centered beat scene on the map with this work of brazen creativity and indomitable wonder. He also made it cool again to be into vintage spiritual jazz and fusion. But really, Cosmogramma stands out for the way FlyLo uses whatever tools at his disposal to blast through all boundaries and make anything feel possible. 

Thee Oh Sees, Carrion Crawler/The Dream (2011)

Compared to the Haight-Ashbury sound of 40-plus years earlier, the Bay Area psych-punk scene of the early 2010s involved louder amps, weirder guitar effects, and—in the case of this hard-driving epic from John Dwyer’s long-running, frequently name-changing outfit—dual drummers. Echoing yelps and droney organs help bring out the hypnotic intensity of Carrion Crawler/The Dream, the second of two acclaimed albums that Thee Oh Sees released in 2011 and the best encapsulation of the band’s frenetic live show. Hold on tight for the sticky riffs and motorik pulse of “The Dream,” the album’s face-melting centerpiece. 

Tame Impala, Lonerism (2012)

Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker gives a psych lover pretty much everything they could ask for on Lonerism: There are Beatles-y vocals, muscular drum breaks, fuzz-encrusted guitar tone, pupil-dilating chord washes, and even a bonus track called “Led Zeppelin.” What elevates this album to something greater than the sum of its parts is its imaginative production and sheer sense of invention: Your ears get taken on a hyper-intense trip of ups and downs, dips and swerves, with no easy guesses on what wonders you’ll encounter next.  

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Nonagon Infinity (2016)

The best-named band in Melbourne has put out approximately a zillion releases since 2016, but they really solidified their status as a mythical force of nature with the heart-palpitating prog madness of Nonagon Infinity. The album starts off at a bracing speed and it doesn’t let up for 41 minutes of echo-rippling, harmonica-honking, wah-wahing, sci-fi rock ’n’ fucking roll. Each track blends seamlessly into the next—and then when it’s all over, the whole thing starts back up again. Indeed, the final track and the first track tied together, so that you can keep listening in a loop for all eternity so as long as your preferred streaming platform is set to automatic replay. 

Mdou Moctar, Afrique Victime (2022)

On Mdou Moctar’s debut with U.S. indie stalwart Matador Records, the West African Tuareg guitarist takes off with fleet-fingered guitar solos that sail above the galloping rhythms and chanting vocals with a soaring majesty that makes you think of the desert bird on the album’s cover. Moctar also makes time for mellow acoustic ballads, of course, but even those are imbued with a smoldering intensity capable of transporting body and mind. Like the American psych classics of the 1960s, Tuareg guitar music first emerged during a period of political rebellion, and Moctar brings his own spirit of liberation in the lyrics as he speaks his mind on African colonialism, gender politics, romance, and god.  

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