THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

[Unrelated side note] Looking through my own list of reviews this evening I noticed two things. 1) I've barely reviewed any Pink Floyd and 2) I have very few five star reviews. This is likely for the same reason -- these albums are predictable to review. So here we go, time to tear off the band-aid and get it over with. Everything has already been said about this album... so I'll try to add /something/

Dark Side of the Moon has become one of those albums that is so much the epitome of something that it becomes almost cliche. Being one of prog's highest selling albums and even staying on the billboard charts for a ridiculously long time there's no wonder that this is the album that most people know the band and indeed, the whole genre of prog rock by. This could also be the reason for the flak that's directed at it, many people thinking that it's too commercial or that Pink Floyd sold out. While others still may simply be frustrated that an album so highly regarded simply isn't their taste.

Such was almost the case for me. I'll never forget the first time I heard this album. After a Nightwish and Gamma Ray listening spree I decided to give this album a spin. My reason - I was tired of the band's I had brought with me on my trip to Sweden (to instruct hockey off all things) and I wanted something else. So, sitting on a foam mattress in Fredrick Norena's (yes -- I am referring to the NHL Blue Jacket's goaltender) attic in a city called Linkoping, I nabbed my brother's copy of this ''legendary'' album and threw it into my cd player which had about enough juice in it to spin one more album.

What the...? What was this...?

The metal head in me was immediately torn in two. I liked this music a lot... and I mean a LOT. But it simply wasn't my thing at the time and I almost denied liking it... until the next day when I felt the overwhelming urge to listen to it... and so I did... and soon I needed my daily dose of Dark Side just to get me through the day.

So what do they put in there? Nicotine? Crack??

Something. That's for sure.

Anyways, my liking for this album was not any kind of coincidence. The music on Dark Side Of The Moon is fantastic. From the opening riff of Breathe strait through to the closing moments to Eclipse this is an album that epitomizes everything that Pink Floyd does, if in a more accessible (commercial) way. While the tracks are much shorter and there's no 22-minute Echoes on here the music none the less runs together quite well to form one giant composition in itself. A concept album from start to finish, Dark Side Of The Moon is all about death, evolving the themes originally put forth on Obscured By Clouds on the track Free Four.

While at the time I was somewhat used to shorter tracks and at first tried to take in each song individually (something not easily done with this album) there are a number of songs that still work well as separate entities. BREATHE on it's own is a spaced out wonder-track that turns one's mind into mush at the sheer sound of it. TIME is a great rocker that will deafen you the first time around when you turn up your record player before the bells chime because you can't hear it (guilty). Likely the rockiest song that Floyd has done, this one's great. It also happens to reprise BREATHE on it. How very progressive of them! MONEY is another song that stands out on its own, but most people know this because its most common appearance is as a single on radio stations and teenager's iPods world-round.

Of course, everyone knows that the strength of this album does not lie in it's individual tracks. It's the whole that matters.

And it's well linked. Every song is connected to every other though intro-outro tracks like ON THE RUN and ANY COLOUR YOU LIKE or even GREAT GIG IN THE SKY. As mentioned before, the metal head in me before liked the individual tracks, but the prog-head that I am now discovered that Time does, in fact, reprise Breathe and therefore all of side one could be seen as one side-long track! Money becomes it's own entity and the rest of side two becomes combined (in my twisted mind anyways). Now that would be interesting. Who knows if that would have been as successful as the album as it was released?

Anyways, the point of that whole blurb was simply to state that while constructed out of shorter songs the album is still great as a whole. Dark, moody and incredibly well performed there is absolutely nothing else to say about this album that hasn't been said before.

5 stars. This album certainly deserves it for it's impact on the prog world (for better or worse as some may claim), its impact on the commercial world and simply in it's replay value. This is essential and really if you're reading this and haven't heard the album I beseech thee to go out and buy this album now. Everyone else already knows what I'm talking about.

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