THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

This is the emblematic album for Pink Floyd's entrance into the stylization and refurbishment of their psychedelic rock standard, in this way, leaning a bit closer to the paradigm of art-in-rock that settles and affirms the core ideology of prog rock. Looking through various bootlegs previous to this studio effort's release but with the whole musical concept already written and presented to audiences, Pink Floyd was still convincingly focused on its blues-infected, spacey-oriented psychedelic art-rock, and even the earlier versions of the 'On the Run' section was basically a heavily lysergic bluesy jam that precisely echoed the Floydian aspect of most krautrock bands (Amon Duul II or Agitation Free) - really, that's how that sounds to me. Anyway, once the concept was translated into the studio environment, this piece's definitive version was reinstated as a cosmic multi-synthesizer journey of loops and layers on VCS3, plus multiple sounds effects eventually leading to the final crash. This mention is meant to indicate how strong were the band members' convictions to redefine its own progression and not repeat the formulas of "Meddle" or "Obscured by Clouds": with "Meddle", the band had reached a certain creative peak, and during the time that the band was writing the second soundtrack of its career (the first being "More"), the urge to renovate the Floydian rock was in the air. The pulsating heartbeat-like bass drumming by Mason that conforms 'Speak to Me' (those conversations, that helicopter, that manic weed-induced laughter, a pure classic album intro) gets things started for the introspective mood of 'Breathe', whose concept will be further explored and augmented by the more cynical manifestation of moral disappointment in the majestic 'Time'. The installment of the synthesized 'On the Run' serves as a proper intermission between the introspection and the cynicism. Once the last sung lines of 'Time' state a portrait of sad, resigned calmness, the stage is clear for 'The Great Gig in the Sky': led by the piano and ornamented by a soaring slide guitar and a dynamic set of organ harmonies, it is Clare Torry's vocalizations emulating an energetic jazz horn section that steal the limelight, even adding an actual creative input despite the fact that she had only been hired to sing some improvised backing vocals according to the piano chords progressions. Her impromptu decision to do something more impressive has meant a lot to the world of prog rock and the crowds of prog lovers through the years. cheers Clare! The album's last section starts with the catchy 'Money' (half-jazzy, half-bluesy in its basic rock scheme) and the moving 'Us and Them': guest sax player Dick Parry brings pertinent colors to both tracks, especially the latter. The sequence of tracks 8-10 brings the album the epic finale it deserves. The constraint instrumental explorations comprised in 'Any Colour You Like' exemplify perfectly a transitional symbolization between the current PF and the 69-71 one: the synth leads are awesomely evocative, while Gilmour gives us some more of his trademark style. 'Brain Damage' has a mood very connected to the aforesaid instrumental, and as fine as it is, I wish it had included some guitar lead shining in the spotlight (a documentary shows that Gilmour had a few good ides for it, but they didn't make it to the album). No complaints at all about the reflective coda 'Eclipse', which completes the album's concept and sonic strategy marvelously. While I don't find this album as accomplished as "Animals" (my all-time Floyd item), "Dark Side of the Moon" must be considered as a prog masterpiece. The best tribute that PF could pay to the good work done up to the "Meddle" album was to look beyond it.. and in this album, the band really did it.

[I dedicate this review to my good Floydian friend Marcos S. N.]