Is Dark Side of The Moon Overrated?

^I am afraid they can´t do that. Do as I do and copy your post before push Post reply-button.

overrated indeed---but still good---lot's of easy listening on it which could explain its worldwide popularity---it became this magical record---a good title didn't hurt---and a worldwide phenomenon where if you didn't;t buy it and listen to it---you weren't normal or cool. I didn't care about being normal but I did want to be cool so I bought it

Not overrated in the slightest.
This album, in my opinion, has it all. It is extremely special and unique, especially for the time it was made...1973? Are you kidding?! It is amazing.

Alan Parsons deserves to be commended for his tape splicing and sound samples.
That f**king sh*t takes days man!!

NO.

Underrated

BrufordFreak wrote: Frenetic Zetetic wrote: The one redeeming factor for me is that it at least segues people into more progressive music, that might otherwise have not shifted that way. Entry level progressive rock IMHO. It's impossible for me to see this album as anything other than what mall kids ages 15-19 think they should be showing people they listen to. This^, as it was for me. I do, however, uphold two significant things DSoTM achieved for me that were relatively groundbreaking and have stood the test of time: the pristine sound engineering and the way songs all bleed one into the next giving it a seemless flow-through feel that I had not felt before (especially Side One and the second 2/3 of Side Two.) Also, some of the song sounds were, for me, quite revolutionary: the "On the Run" running, explosion, and dragon toms sequence; Clare Torrey's vocalise on "Great Gig" and the synthesizer-guitar interplay on "Any Colour You Like." Plus, that spoken quote at the end of "Eclipse" is immortal. The fact that this album holds the all-time record for the most weeks spent in the Billboard album charts in the US illustrates your point above: that this album sucked a lot of teenagers into the prog scene; it acted as a gateway drug for many future prog lovers (as did many more watered down, more accessible early releases like In The Court of The Crimson King, Third, In the Land of Pink and Grey, Demons and Wizards, Per un amico, and Crime of The Century. I find it hard to imagine prog virgins getting sucked into an addiction by Zappa, Nucleus, Matching Mole, Banco, or Close to the Edge.

I do think DSOTM had a well-deserved reputation for quality recording. Whenever people spent oo goodles of money on a seriously high quality stereo system, I think they could generally think of no better way to test it out or christen it than with a newly purchased Dark Side of the Moon album. And who wants a DSOTM album with a scratch. Best to just buy a new one.

^

The Dark Elf wrote: No, it is not "overrated" -- I don't really see how anyone could make the claim. It is universally lauded as one of the greatest albums of all-time by critics, and evidently the general public feels the same, having kept it on the bestseller charts from 1973 to 1988, and it has returned to the charts every time it was re-released in a different format.  In addition, it is one of the few albums where lovers of disparate forms of music generally agree on its excellence. Long after "prog" had its fifteen minutes of fame in the 70s, DSotM retained its value, and the album remains in the collections of hard-rockers, metal-heads, psychedelia-lovers, punks and progolydytes. Even the album cover is iconic, perhaps the most recognizable design this side of the Rolling Stone's lips and tongue. The prism design is omnipresent throughout the world. Frenetic Zetetic wrote: <span style=": rgb248, 248, 252;">The songwriting seems to be intentionally written in a diluted way. It feels incomplete, even on repeated listens. I feel like I'm dealing with the Wal Mart special of PF albums. </span> <span style="line-height: 16.5455px;"> </span> It would seem you lack context in regards to the composition. A provisional title of the album was early on Dark Side of the Moon: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics, and each song deals with an aspect of madness, and the album itself is one of the best "concepts" ever released. The album itself is seamless, one song floating into another, and as far as you considering the songs as somehow "incomplete", as a composer and lyricist, I have no idea what you are getting at.  DSotM is complete as far as I'm concerned, and it is the reason we even still speak of Pink Floyd in such expansive terms -- their fame rests on this album, no matter if you get an erection for later albums like WYWH or Animals. The Floyd albums previous to DSotM are generally meandering and often pointless digressions into psych trippiness. Their releases up to this point are hit-and-miss for the most part. Even a genuinely good album like Meddle has obvious head-scratching filler (for every "Echoes" or "One of These Days", there is a "Seamus" or "San Tropez").  But DSotM is the most cohesive of Floyd albums, and the great Wish You Were Here (whether you like it more or not) is really a continuation of DSotM's conceptualization, seamlessness and compositional style. One does not exist without the other, both from an historical or writing/composing perspective. <div style="line-height: 16.5455px;"> <div style="line-height: 16.5455px;"> Frenetic Zetetic wrote: I don't care for DSoTM due to the tech advances. They are there, no denying. It's the songs themselves that don't gel with me.<div style="line-height: 16.5455px;"> <div style="line-height: 16.5455px;">Recording tech is irrelevant to the the songwriting, and vice versa for me. Again, your lack of context is particularly devoid of any rational perspective. What makes an album "great" in many instances is not only the composition (which I would insist for this album is superb), but also both the aural and visual presentation. When there is a list of great rock albums, we also refer to the the album art (which I mentioned before as iconic), and "how" the album sounded. sh*tty sounding albums, poor production quality and lack of detail is often derided here on ProgArchives when reviewing albums -- because sound matters to us. I remember listening to DSotM in 1973  and was astounded at the quality of the sound from the first play. The moment you heard it, you knew it was special -- and, well...different. Perhaps listeners from a different generation with their ears attuned to digitized marginalization and noise-defeating technologies simply do not comprehend how amazing the sound was (I still recall the alarm clock going off in "Time" -- what a trip). But the sound quality and being able to hear bells, ticking, various road noises, etc. would be just a novelty and soon dismissed if it weren't for how the songs themselves mattered in that time period. The songs themselves struck a "chord" to the listeners of that era. They captured the sentiment of the time (which is relatable to the ongoing popularity of Sabbath -- people literally lived Sabbath back in the day). So, you wore out your orignal vinyl record, fried your 8-track, tried to sync it to The Wizard of Oz and failed, unraveled your cassette, sold your laser disc version at a garage sale when you got it on CD, bought a gold CD, got a remaster, and maybe even bought it SACD or MSFL vinyl. Because it sounds that good.

I was going to write a lengthy tome on just how silly the premise of the question was, until I saw this, which just about says it all quite eloquently.

DSOTM will live as a piece long after we have all shuffled off of this mortal coil. It captured the zeitgeist of the time perfectly.

Compared to other prog albums? Yes. I look at it this way. Dark side of the moon is certified 15 million platinum(RIAA)(as of 1998)but now has sold more like 22 million at least. Close to the edge according to the RIAA has only gone platinum(one time) as of 1998 and Selling England only gold(again according to the RIAA and as of 1990). Does DSOTM deserve to have sold 15 times as many(if not more)albums as Close to the Edge? I don't think so. In prog circles all are about equal though in terms of influence and popularity so it's only when you step outside ofstrictly prog circles where CTTE and SEBTP are relatively unknown. So over all yeah it's over rated especially when compared to other prog albums like I said(and not just the two examples I gave).

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - March 18 2018 at 13:48