1. Don't think I had ever heard Vegetable Man. Like almost all early PF, it has a lot of energy going for it, but that's about it. Shine On You Crazy Diamond, while not my favorite Floydian epic, is still great, especially when considered as one unit.
2. These two songs are so different, it's hard to compare them ! Also, they're rather... minor. I feel like I'm repeating myself with all these Syd tracks: they all have a certain charming exuberance, but they're also very messy. Cirrus Minor is nothing special either, but as I said earlier, I have a taste for the quieter, dreamier songs, so there you go.
3. To be fair to Point me at the Sky, that's probably a good thing to do before you Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun. Also it's a pretty cool one, though it feels very Beatles-derivative. But Controls is one of PF's most iconic songs for a reason.
4. A tough one. I opened this bracket by takling somewhat disparagingly about The Final Cut, but it really is because it suffers from the comparison to The Wall. I could say Not Now John feels like a reject from that album, because it does... but hey, The Wall is one of the greatest albums of all time, and Not Now John is still very strong. Then there's Bike, which I've mentioned a few times already as the example of a dissonant Syd song that actually works. Part of it is that it actually goes somewhere, and it doesn't feel entirely random. Listening to the two while writing this convinced me: Bike it is.
5. A song from their most overrated album vs one from their most underrated one !
It sounds like I'm about to make a controversial pick, but in truth I still rank Animals over Obscured by Clouds, and Pigs (Three Different Ones) is fighting with Sheep (that sounds weird) for the n°1 slot on there. The Gold It's in The? is good though, in a style that PF hasn't dabbled in that much.
6. Ugh. This bracket is tough. Flaming is great. It's probably Syd's best, lyrically speaking ? I'm still going to vote for The Thin Ice, but it hurts.
7. Hilarious to have these two paired against each other, since they're quite often paired as one single song. Easy Breathe, obviously, but Speak to Me is an essential intro to DSOTM... along with Breathe.
8. Cymbaline is a favorite of mine, but this is where the film version of The Wall starts to play a role (see also: The Trial). Even without that though, those opening riffs, and then Rick Wright coming in... so good. The choirs too, and the Roger Waters ranting... yeah I thought it was a hard choice but it really isn't: In the Flesh .