The Dark Side of the Moon

There’s two ways that one can go about reviewing this album - the easy way or the hard way.

The easy way to review it would be to just say, “It’s Dark Side of the Moon.” That’s it. This album continues to garner accolades. It shows up on “Top Albums of All Time” articles from various publications. The individual songs and the whole have been covered multiple times (and yes, that includes the shitty Roger Waters solo de-make). Even if some people might prefer Animals or Wish You Were Here, Dark Side usually gets brought up when discussing the best albums of Pink Floyd’s discography. You could point to all that and get away with it.

The hard way to review it is to sit down, listen in full with a fresh mind, and think critically about how this album works in relation to you the listener. For me, I know I just listened to this album a couple of months ago for the solar eclipse in Vermont, plus I watched a making of documentary about Dark Side last week. Regardless, I wanted to listen again in full and see if I can figure out why it works for me.

What I can say right off the bat is how impeccable tracks flow from one to another. Whether it’s “Breathe (in the Air)” building up tempo to “On the Run”, or “Any Colour You Like” with the guitar bend at the end moving towards “Brain Damage” followed by “Eclipse”, the transitions are well executed. There’s even wonderful segues in the tracks themselves, such as the cashier sounds leading into the bass line for “Money”, or “Time” providing a neat callback to “Breathe (in the Air)” at the end. Hell, even the intro track “Speak to Me” serves as a pretty good overture.

Every band member and session member perform exceptionally well on this record. My personal highlights would have to be Dick Parry’s saxophone solos on “Money” and “Us and Them”, as well as Clare Torry’s vocals on “The Great Gig in the Sky”.

Lyrically, Roger Waters was able to craft a meaningful reflection on life as we are each day drawn closer to the end of our time. Is it a bit melodramatic? Maybe, yet it also can be viewed as a call to pursue something greater in our lives while we still can.

Overall, I’m glad to have revisited Dark Side and thought more about how I view this album. At the end of the day, that’s the best we can do on this site, ain’t it?

I showed my album of the day to my wife and she said 'oh it's a day off then?' But no. Why let a chance to listen to this album again in its entirety go to waste?

This is not my favourite Pink Floyd album. I don't think every note is perfect and I even think some of the songs don't work for me. BUT. This is masterfully recorded, brilliantly conceived, and lovely to listen to.

There's not a moment during my listen that I thought to bring this down from a solid 5 stars.

masterpiece, maybe slightly overrated but still a masterpiece.

I mean, it's just SO good isn't it

What's there left to say about this old thing? I like to imagine how it would have felt living through the release of this in 1973, and I think it would have felt truly monumental. They took the rock music formula to grandiose new heights, creating something epic and conceptual, without overstepping the line into pastiche.

If we were to play Over/Under/Properly rated I would still say that DSotM is very slightly overrated. Let's face it, some of the tracks that build atmosphere are ones you would never listen to outside of the album experience, even if they do help make it one of the most cohesive albums of all time.

Fave Tracks: Breathe, Time, The Great Gig in the Sky, Us and Them

4.7/5

I'm willing to bet that this was one of the first albums that the author put on the list - it's a legendary album for a reason, and it wasn't just the cover that made it one of the biggest selling albums of all time. Brilliant record.

impeccable

I really gave this a proper go - wouldn’t it be nice to like Pink Floyd? They’ve got loads of material to enjoy etc… but fuck me it is so boring. There’s so many bits where if I was in the room I’d say ‘hey guys… maybe let’s take this bit out. no one wants to hear alarms ringing. this other bit is repetitive and pointless’ etc. Boomers were so easily impressed. Was hoping for some sweet guitar solos but nope, there’s like half a one. Boring shit. Probably deserves a 2 from me but deserves more to have its average brought down.

Brain damage fucks me up. I hate it. But it is so good.

Well, Its my second Pink Floyd album after The Wall and that album is The Dark Side Of The Moon. And i will definitely say, This album is quite a bit better than The Wall. Everything about this album feels more progressive and unique than The Wall was. I'm not saying that The Wall didn't have its progressive and unique moments because it did, I just feel this album has more of them. I also found the songs here to be quite a bit more memorable here (especially when you consider that there is less of them). It is not perfect, some of the song transitions could have been better, but beyond that, This album really is a great album and is currently my favorite Pink Floyd album.
Best Song: Any Colour You Like
Worst Song: Speak To Me

Come on, you know it's a perfect score.

Legendary album for a reason.

Have tried several times over the years to get into this and never succeeded, this was definitely the most productive listen though - still can't see the best album ever claims but starting to understand the appeal

The defining album of the Album Era. That cover. The long long chart run - 736 nonconsecutive weeks (from 17 March 1973 to 16 July 1988) including a run of 593 weeks. Nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. My own reflection listening again after many years:
- Still perfect.
- Owes its existence to Rick Wright and Nick Mason.
- The band is firing on all cylinders.
- Perfectly balanced between the head and the heart.
- An exquisitely beautiful work of art.
- Ironically, the start of the Roger Waters Corporation Business Interest Ltd. Money, indeed.
- There is a throughline from CAN to this to Talk Talk's "Spirit of Eden" to late 90s Radiohead.
- Still powerful and really great to listen to, front to back.

I always have the Time for this one. You don’t have to pay me Money to listen to it.

This is one of those albums that everyone has some sort of impression of, it's impossible to not have encountered it in some form. It's frankly an incredible record for it's time and place in terms of musicianship and production. I think it's pretty tough to objectively argue against it being 5 stars.

My family has always hated Pink Floyd for just being "noise with no substance," and after hearing Wish You Were Here (the album) I thought they were crazy. However, I'm wondering if they only ever heard this album, because this feels a lot less special. Songs seem to drag and have long introductions for little reason, and while the song topics are intriguing, its hard to take them seriously when you remember that basically the whole plot of the album is "sympathy for the ultra famous musicians," or at least that's what I took away from it. Obviously Syd Barrett is excluded here, but it just feels a bit too much like the band is tooting their own horn here. Its more nuanced than that, but it doesn't feel like it. I also feel that the guest singer on a few of the tracks is extremely cheesy, and ruins the experiences she's on. Its not ethereal to hear her singing, it's jarring.

Otherwise, you know why this album is good. Great instrumentals, iconic status to the point of everyone knowing the album cover, in which only a couple bands have achieved that, and there are good tracks here, such as Time and Money, it just feels too self-indulgent to be anything revolutionary for me, and in comparison to some of their work before and after this, I don't fully understand why this is THE Pink Floyd album.

Dreamy, trippy, perfectly synced up to your life.

Inventive, cleverly engineered. Roger ruins it with his dreary drawl.

Almost good prog