Is Dark Side of The Moon Overrated?

Braka wrote: If there's one PF album which I do consider overrated it's definitely The Wall. Compared with the other three albums from their classic period, I find it for the most part realtively musically unadventurous and straightforward. Most of the songs just have a few chords, often with the figure of Waters' one-note bass-line rumbling or plodding through them, ala 'One of these days'. And the concept? I know that by the late 70's Roger literally wanted to spit in the audience's faces, but I find it hard to generalise his problems into something more broadly meaningful to me. It's still a good album, IMO, but I don't understand why people rate it above Dark side.

Not sure if others feel the same way about `The Wall', but there's definitely a kind of....teenage rebellion/teenage angst/angry teenage boy/rites-of-passage thing about it. I don't know...I remember when I was going through high school so many kids thought it was dark, tortured, hardcore, and really edgy. Hell, I even probably thought that for a little moment!

These days (I'm just over forty), I'll happily still play `Animals', `DSotM', `WYWH', `More' and the early psych stuff etc over and over, but `The Wall'....maybe once every few years now, and there's definitely parts of it that make me cringe now! It's an amazing concept, has plenty of drama and big moments, but it's also histrionic, unbelievably self-indulgent and lacks the subtlety of many of the albums before it, and it also sounds like a completely different band to the albums before it.

I think it's overrated.  I love Time but don't really care much for anything else on there.  And even Time I never actually choose to listen to.  I generally feel that way about WYWH, Animals and the Wall as well.  Part of the problem was they got so overplayed that they lost all excitement for me before I could decide on my own if there was something to be excited about.  I enjoy a lot of sad music but like a bit of light with the dark.  Like my brother (who generally liked Floyd) said so well, albeit tongue in cheek, when referring to the depressive aspect, "No good can come from listening to them"

Well geez, you may as well say U2 or the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin or whoever was bigger than Yes which of course they were. If we are talking prog rock then you have to stick with the prog years so counting Genesis' eighties output as a way to point them as bigger doesn't really count. Yes were bigger than Genesis as a prog band. As for Jethro Tull how much of their albums were prog? You have to count the prog content. If we look at them as prog bands we might not even put PF in there but even if we do they would still be number one while number two would be Yes, followed by ELP then maybe JT then Genesis. That document might have the final say about over all album sales(then agains might not)but if we are talking about prog content within the band and how big each band is as a prog band then that's a different story. 

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - March 20 2018 at 14:40

^I sort of agree with Tango to the point that the chord sequences are so plain and tension is constantly relased so quickly that I can barely get any musical value out of it, though I can kind of appreciate how smooth they managed to make the whole thing sound.

ReactioninG wrote: Not overrated. Truly a phenomenal album. I think the overrated one in their classic catalogue is actually Wish You Were Here. It's very good, but not quite as good as DSOTM, Animals, or the Wall.

SteveG wrote: Braka wrote: If this hasn't already been said, just for the record, it's perfectly possible for an album to be overrated and still be a masterpiece. And i wouldn't take any notice of NME, who were cynical jerks and became unbearable once new wave arrived. As for Rolling Stone, every time Bob Dylan puts out an album of himself gargling they call it the best thing he's done since Highway 61. Personally I think 'Dark Side' is clearly the best Floyd album. It would take forever to go through each album and try to analyse why, but I just think it's the album where they defined and perfected their sound in the same moment. Waters has more or less indicated that they may as well have broken up after it, and Gilmour even admitted he may have been right. If there's one PF album which I do consider overrated it's definitely The Wall. Compared with the other three albums from their classic period, I find it for the most part realtively musically unadventurous and straightforward. Most of the songs just have a few chords, often with the figure of Waters' one-note bass-line rumbling or plodding through them, ala 'One of these days'. And the concept? I know that by the late 70's Roger literally wanted to spit in the audience's faces, but I find it hard to generalise his problems into something more broadly meaningful to me. It's still a good album, IMO, but I don't understand why people rate it above Dark side. Best post in this thread!

Cheers. I was rather expecting to have everyone jump on me ;)

micky wrote: ReactioninG wrote: Not overrated. Truly a phenomenal album. I think the overrated one in their classic catalogue is actually Wish You Were Here. It's very good, but not quite as good as DSOTM, Animals, or the Wall. that is the reason why these overrated discussions are usually trash... it has NOTHING to do with tastes. It has everything to do with understanding rock(prog) music and its evoluation. No one in their right mind would ever say that WYWH or Animals were on the same level as DSOTM. One might enjoy them more.. and that is cool. More power to those that do.. but to express the opinion they are as great of albums does not mark the albums as overrated.. it just marks those who have that opinion as ignorant and unable to evaluate music.. only parrot what they like and don't like.

Really have to agree you guys fully! This thread would make much more sense, if the tittle had been: "I don´t like DSoTM. Anyone else who don´t like it?" I really hope no-one starts anymore these "Is this classic album overrated"-threads. If do, I don´t think I don´t waste my time anymore on those.

HackettFan wrote: SteveG wrote: ^ A good question from HF, as usual. I can only guess that aside from it's commercial breakthrough, DSotM established a type of PF musical formula and theatrical musings that extended over into their following albums. First off, Thank you. Second why would we not extend the same qualities to Meddle?

I feel that with Meddle, particular with Echos, Floyd was still perfecting their musical formula. And aside from Echos, the songs on Meddle are just not as strong musically as well as lyrically to those on DSotM. As others have said, its all about subjective opinions. So your view is as valid as mine.

^ Good points Steve.....to me Meddle was to a large degree a transition album between the old and the newer Floyd (not related to Barrett...). I think WYWH and Animals are as good on a production and playing level...but I simply like the songs better on DSOTM.

Edited by dr wu23 - March 21 2018 at 10:47

Interesting comments.  I much prefer The Wall to DSotM.  I'd personally say yes, DSotM is overrated.  It just never, ever blew me away - it's good, of course, but WYWH, The Wall, Animals, heck, even Final Cut I consider better than DSotM.  I realize I'm probably in the minority here, but oh well.