Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon

I think that Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd is one of the best albums that has ever been released in history. I put it in the Top 10.

Led Zepplin - always to the point and undoubtedly an excellent runner-up to Floyd in all ways. Unfortunately Plant does not make the band on his own. Considering DSOM and wish you were here were composed, compiled and arranged by a comparatively small group with very restricted instruments in 1973 etc, I must go for Pink Floyd.

Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon has been my all time, utmost favorite music album. For listening and for total enjoyment. I has everything and if anyone doesn't enjoy Floyd then they aren't really into Classic Rock

Read "themanwhogotaway"'s review of this for a comprehensive view of all that is good about the Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon album.

I know plenty of people who don't dig anything older than 1995, or who can't stand rock music, but I don't know anyone who doesn't think this album is a belter. No other album can transcend time and, er, taste so effectively. That is why this is a must-buy. It's something everyone can agree on, which doesn't happen very often!

I would offer Time and Us and Them as two of the best tracks ever written, but also Brain Damage and Eclipse as probably the best crescendo for an album ever devised. Very operatic in many senses, but the mood it generates is something you simply don't get with other music... The fact that this remains so relevant today as ever indicates why this is a classic album. It also captures Pink Floyd at a point when, largely, they were still functioning as a unit and not as individuals, and they are all credited with having a hand in the creative process (very magnanimous of Roger, I'm sure).

But don't take it all too seriously, as I think whatever point they were trying to make was being made to create the mood, rather than being the central point of the album. Don't over analyse Waters' lyrics, it won't help. As the man says "There is no dark side of the moon really; as a matter of fact, it's all dark."

The Pink Floyd Dark Side of The Moon album ROCKS!

Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon - There is no doubt: Dark Side of the Moon is the rare album the value of which time could never make obsolete. Pink Floyd labored, sweated, struggled, and thought very creatively to produce an album (and CD) that will always live on. The album and artwork are powerful, relevant to the struggles people have in life throughout time, and incredibly entertaining, to say the least. Look at the proof: even though the band wrote the music and lyrics in 1972 and early 1973, it still sells very well decades later!

The music is stunning; there are guitar solos, background singers, biting social commentaries about the rat race and money, and lyrics that are so simply written yet capable of saying something about us all and the band's sadness over Syd Barrett's drug problems. (Syd Barrett was a Pink Floyd band member who had left by this point.)

The album begins with a man's voice talking about being mad (as in crazy) and ends with a man's voice saying how the moon is completely dark, which reflects the band's pessimistic commentary on life. This man's negativity also reflects Syd Barrett's troublesome drug addiction.

Between that beginning and end there's a song set that blows your mind -- and you don't have to be a kid experimenting with drugs in the 1970s to agree with this! In fact, there's so much excellent and unique material I don't know where to begin! "Money" is perhaps my favorite song; there's an excellent saxophone solo there and the greed we can all succumb to is lamented but with music that makes you want to listen to the song to enjoy it over and over again. "Us And Them" is a song that decries the evils of war; at the time it could well have referred to the then current Vietnam War but this sad ballad can describe any conflict. The song "Breathe" laments the stress of life.

There are also excellent sound effects on this album (now, of course, here on CD). There are sounds of footsteps, for example, and airplanes for added effect in the song "On The Run." The song "Time" begins with "the chimes," as one friend of mine once said; you hear the sounds of bells ringing to emphasize the passage of time.

Not only is this music so damn good you'll NEVER want to put this CD away, there's much more as well: you get terrific pictures of the band members in both color and black and white. The full lyrics and credits are provided which is always a nice plus. The artwork on the insert is excellent as well. Then of course there's the infamous cover art of the triangle doubling as a prism turning white light into a rainbow.

I don't think there's any reason why a rock and roll fan should hesitate to buy this CD! Indeed, Dark Side of the Moon was on the charts ("Billboard's") for an astounding fourteen years which I highly doubt too many, if any, other albums can claim. But this CD, treasure it as you can only truly treasure a very few CDs, and play it and enjoy it for many years to come! Introduce it to newcomers, too, so they can experience an incredible CD!

Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon - Oooh I liked Dark Side Of the Moon when I was 18. It was so slick and mysterious. You see at the time I was into bands like Queen that had poncey "melody" *shudder* and Iron Maiden who were just brainless Neanderthals. It was high time I listened to some REAL music. The Floyd. Yeah. Totally legendary. And Dark Side is their magnum opus. The pinnacle of intelligent rock. One of the defining moments in the history of popular music. The atmospheric hearbeats, the mellow, spacey guitar runs of Breathe. What a fantastic start. I'm truly listening to the sound of deepest space here. And the repeated electronic loop of On The Run, with its mysterious spoken passages. What is it? It sounds like a woman speaking over a PA system about flights to Rome. I can see the sheer GENIUS of that! And The great Gig In the Sky with its soulful wailings. Money too, the more mainstream track with Waters in fine vitriolic form about how corrupt the music business is! It's all about making money! Oh no! I'm with Roger in feeling outrage too! And it's so obvious that The "Dark Side of the Moon" is a clever metaphor for madness. And even the cover fits pefectly. A prism. The prism means both madness and the dark side of the moon. It's all so obvious! Pink Floyd really know how to churn out some clever stuff!

That's all great. But that's what I thought when I was 18. Hearing it more dispassionately 16 years later I don't think there's much good music on The Dark Side Of The Moon. The guitar run on Breathe is so mundane. The electronic loop on On The Run? You could do better these days on a music-making software program. The singing on Great Gig In the Sky has no form or melody to it. I can just imagine Waters saying to the session singer "Right make it loud and soulful, but none of this *melody* bullsh*t. That's for commercial bands" And Us And Them to me sounds like something you might hear on Sesame Street circa 1971. Us....us...us....and...them....them....them... .None of the members are exceptional at what they do. Waters isn't the best singer, Gilmour isn't the best guitarist, Mason isn't the best drummer... you get the idea. In fact virtually nothing on Dark Side is MUSICALLY very good. For me Time and Brain Damage are stll quite good songs. So a band wrote some good songs, Whoopee. I could list a hundred bands who have written "good" songs. Dark Side Of The Moon ( and Pink Floyd in general) is mainly about EFFECT. The overall effect, the "sound landscape", is what makes it a noteworthy album. Some might find this reason to laud it. I don't particularly. And really, what's the dark side of the moon got to do with madness? The ideas which seem to obvious to impressionable 18 year olds don't really hold any water (no pun intended) to closer inspection. Dark Side to me is a clever album in that it can make you believe you're hearing a masterpiece, but really it is to pop music what Star Wars is to movies. Lots of cool efects to suspend disbelief, but not much else beyond that.

These days I don't take Pink Floyd seriously. I've outgrown Pink Floyd in the same way that I've outgrown watching The A Team. One entertained me at age 13, the other at age 18. In my opinion, Pink Floyd appeal to a specific age group roughtly 16-25 or so. Their themes of mystery, madness and whining about how life sucks when you've got a mountain of cash no longer appeal to me now, and there isn't really much good music backing it up. Most Pink Floyd bores me to tears now. Trying to find the substance behind the aural chicanery of their albums is like chasing a rainbow. Some might find this a worhtwhile pursuit. I don't. These days I actually prefer Iron Maiden and Queen to pretentious Pink Floyd. Things have turned full circle indeed. But I don't hate Pink Floyd now either. And really, people like Beethoven, Wiliam Byrd and Bach have written stuff better than any pop/rock group, and in much greater quantities than the most prolific band. The best pop music is something to entertain you. Some rave about "The greatest musical achievment in recorded history" when speaking about Dark Side Of The Moon. I can listen to arty pop music and enjoy it, but I don't take it all that seriously, unlike most Floyd fans. If you're the type who thinks Picasso was a genius then Pink Floyd are for you. Because while Picasso's paintings can draw attention for being odd, at the end of the day his paintings are from a technical point of view absolute garbage. I won't go so far in saying the same for Pink Foyd, but really the main appeal lies in the presentation, not the music itself. Similarly people like to eat caviar because it has such highbrow and classy connotations. But really it's just fish eggs. Prententiousness is seemingly part of the human condition.

I can cautiously recommend Dark Side Of the Moon to the listener, because it does have some worth, even if nothing more than a museum piece of popular culture. But I don't think that it's because the MUSIC is great. Some - and I mean SOME - Pink Floyd is quite good music IMO, but I need a lot of patience to find it amongst the overgrown sonic weeds of their albums. When people apply genius status to Pink Floyd it just makes me smile.

Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon is one of the greatest albums I have ever heard, unlike other people my age, I listen to a lot of varieties of music such as Slayer, CKY, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, White Stripes, Grateful Dead, and Rage Against the Machine, Gilmour does some really cool solos.