Dark Side of the Moon vs. The Wall

DSotM

Wish You Were Here is my favourite because of Shine On and Welcome To the Machine and Have a Cigar, but DSOTM is the better album- the songs are really stronlyl defined and have no uncertain or indefinite points in them. It's an album that you have to listen to the whole thing at the same time or the songs feel somewhow incomplete and out of place.

WYWH is better than both.

 

Both Kick Ass in my opinion but I have to go with Dark side because the wall only has gems (comforatably numb and good-bye blue sky) and primarily is Rodger Walters moaning about his childhood which continutes into The Final cut (an album I beileve for people who thought the wall was to short) whilst Dark Side is a complete gem.

Lucifer Sam wrote: Dark Side of the Moon is often described as the #1 Floyd classic and I understand that it is honourable if some record stays in Billboard Chart for 714 weeks and drops only after the rules have been changed. But for me, the classic Floyd album is The Wall. The songs are better and the lyrics are based on drugs, dramatic childhood and troubles in relationships. It's more Waters-based than Waters/Gilmour-based, and for me, Roger Waters is mr. Pink Floyd. The Wall is something that I would have wanted to do, but that f***ing Waters had already done it... So, what do you think, folks?

  You "would have wanted to do" the Wall?  Ha!

The Wall is a great album, but it widely agreed that it is mostly a Waters solo album, with some bright spots from Gilmour.  If that's what floats your boat, fine.  But the Wall is decidely less proggy than earlier Floyd albums, and you are unlikely to get a lot of support for Wall>Moon on this Prog forum.

Not to detract from the Wall, which is indeed great.  But DSotM was one of the most innovative albums of all time, while the Wall was just excellent but not particularly innovative (yes, it is tortured soul great lyrics at their best, but is it really that different from much earlier rock operas, like the Who's "Tommy?"  Not really). 

Music and Art historians generally assess a work not by it's overall "quality" in a vacuum, but by it's quality in comparison to what had gone before and what was  happening at the time.  For example, you look at certain paintings and say "Meh, it's fine, but not all that great".  But then you look at them in their context and realize that they were innovative geniuses who were totally unique. 

By this standard DSotM was one of the most innovative, influential and unique albums of all time--up there with the likes of Sgt. Pepper's and Never Mind the Bollocks for albums that changed the course of history.  So in my mind DSotM is hands-down the winner.

Dark Side of the Moon is my favourite: great athmospheres, excellent lyrics; every song song is a piece of art... The Wall it's maybe one of the most poor, bored and overrated albums that I know...

Dark Side of the Moon. It's much shorter, but it has more.

A real pleasure as a whole.

DSM is great, but I feel too overrated. The Wall for me.

I prefer DSOTM by a slight margin... but I'd rank these two as Floyd's #3 and #4 albums anyway.

'Dark Side Of The Moon', 'The Wall' can't stand up against this album...