Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon

Anyone who gives this cd anything less than 5 stars is an idiot and your village does'nt want you back. This music collection is so unique that it has held it's popularity from generation to generation. (The only true test of greatness). This particular example of creative prog rock puts Pink Floyd up there in rarified air with all the heavyweights, like Mozart,Beethoven,and Tchaikovsky. Great music is intellectual , and that is why some people don't get it. The majority of people are looking for a cd chocked full of little 4 minute ditties because they have the attention span of a knat. Dark Side Of The Moon is meant to be enjoyed over an expanded period of time. You put DSOTM on and you light some incense, dim the lights, and then you do something that really takes dicipline, YOU LISTEN! Even after reading this some people won't get it, because they are afraid to leave the shallow end of the pool. So go ahead and continue to drink budweiser, watch t.v., listen to country music, and vote republican. Those of us with a brain will continue to enjoy Pink Floyd's best work- Dark Side Of The Moon!!!!

Dark Side of the Moon has just about all "favorites" on it. You will not tire of listening to classic Pink Floyd. The insert along is worth the money with all the lyrics, pictures of Floyd back when, and who sings on each song and of course all the lyrics were written by Roger Waters. Great CD.

My favorite album ever. The only album I know of that I wouldn't change a single thing. Perfect in every way.

SNORE. I can't believe some of you dorky stoners trapped in the '70s have the nerve to call this album a "masterpiece" or "one of the best albums of all-time"! LOL, MUSIC NERDS! You people can't be serious. They didn't even get any MTV or BET airplay. Therefore, they automatically are horrible. I suggest you listen to a great album like "St.Anger" by Metallica or "Lost Highway" by Bon Jovi if you want a taste of what real music should sound like.

Now I'm new to Rock, I've always heard of the hype. Pink Floyd was a perfect start, in fact the Dark side of the Moon was the best introduction to the genre and the band.

when I first popped this into my car I was expecting to be blown away after all the positive reviews from this website, I wasn't. The reason was that my car's speakers were cr*p. And this band in particular NEEDS the best audio system you can afford. So in my car I wasn't able to here stereo effects which this album heavily relies on. So ignorantly I put the cd away disappointed.

The second time I heard the album was on my MP3 device with a pair of sennheiser CX-300's which sound decent enough.
I heard the whole album and I was overwhelmed.

Where was I from this band all this time?

I was imagining a live concert in front of me while listening to the music. I can only imagine the euphoria of attending such performance, live.
I new what the fuss was all about.
In fact I was really disappointed at the rating of this album which is currently 4.5 stars from about 1400 reviews.

This album instantly became on the top of the list of the best I've heard with no hesitation.

How could it not be?

All other music seems just noise to me now.

For years the music of this album has been living in my head, playing on and on. As a lunatic, many times I faced the new moon and I could clearly see its dark face changing into a cristal prism with a colourful brush of refracted light. And I could listen to the voice of a women shaping a great gig in the sky. So I breath in the air and I have no other need than listening to the music coming from the spheres. And to feel its vibration fulfilling everything under the sun, until the sun was eclipsed by the moon.

This is one of the best records ever made and when you buy it in the best quality possible like this 180g Vinyl, you won't be disappointed. Very clean sound, no noises, clicks or pops, and the warm sound that only vinyl can deliver.

Don't miss it!!!

a classic everybody should have...


maybe the more east "understandable" cd of the pink floyd, but still amazing...

TELL ME, how is it possible for someone to know the words to every song of an album they HATE?!
I'll admit that I like. It reminds me of a time when I was too young to ever think of the past.

M A S T E R P I E C E !!

Dark Side of the Moon is Pink Floyd's most famous album, and one of the most famous albums of all time. It sold like hot cakes when it came out, and continued to sell well for several years afterwards. This was odd, because Pink Floyd were obscure until that point. Their singles did not chart, and they were not famous on a personal level. They gigged a lot, but they didn't appear on television and they rarely appeared in the newspapers. Imagine if The Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" had gone multi-multi platinum, selling millions, and that it was still in the charts today; that's how odd it must have seemed back in 1973, 1974, 1975 etc, when Dark Side of the Moon was out. Nonetheless the album had broad appeal. Mums and Dads could enjoy the thoughtful lyrics and tasteful melodies; hi-fi fans could listen to it on headphones, for the sound effects; sex-people enjoyed the melancholic feel and moderate tempo; thoughtful student types could use the cover as a means of decanting drugs. About the only people who didn't like the record were punk rockers, who hated it for being slow and grandiose. Everything about Pink Floyd is the antithesis of punk. Despite years of improvised free-form gigging, they had a reputation for being unspontaneous and calculated, proudly so. Dark Side of the Moon does not freak out. It is precisely the rock album you'd expect from a bunch of former architectural students, and there is no margarine on the guillotine.

It is a surprisingly sensible record, given that it came from a former psychedelic former space-rock band during the height of prog rock's mainstream acceptance. The songs are slow, but generally they don't go on too long. There is a bit of soloing on the second side of the record, but not too much, and it isn't flashy. The lyrics make sense. They are sometimes trite, but they make sense. I reckon the band had got tired with self-indulgent noodling on Atom Heart Mother and Ummagumma, two albums that were full of likeable but half-baked nonsense. There's no nonsense on Dark Side of the Moon. It's a set of songs with short, pointed titles; a weird mix of John Lennon's stark minimalism crossed with state-of-the-art production. On a sonic level it doesn't sound too dated nowadays. The drums sound dead and flumpy, but apart from that there's nothing that really screams of 1973. In fact, "On the Run" is conceptually a dead ringer for an acid house techno rave stomper circa 1989, with a drum loop (taped, rather than sampled), plus synth squiggles.

Dark Side of the Moon was written and performed by a group of clever, down-to-earth people whose brains were not clouded by hippy idealism or religion. It deals with weighty issues, but they are definite, concrete issues that face real people, and the band's lyrics are pointed and sensible rather than vaguely-worded platitudes. That alone separates Pink Floyd from most other popular bands, in any genre. See, most bands that have something Big and Important to say about Life and Death tend not to have the means to focus and articulate their thoughts; either that, or they didn't really have anything Big and Important to say after all. Dark Side of the Moon is all about life and death and madness and everything in between, but it never feels insufferably pretentious or smug. I never feel an urge to slap David Gilmour, whereas conversely I always want to slap Jon Anderson. And Peter Hammill. And Robert Fripp. Sometimes I want to slap Roger Waters, but not because of Dark Side of the Moon.

"Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines" is a silly line, because it rhymes and has the word "naught" in it, but it's a profound line as well. I reckon that most people can relate to it, because most people are useless failures who have achieved nothing much with their lives. I reckon that everybody who has written a review of Dark Side of the Moon without being paid for it can relate doubly, because if you're good at something, and someone wants what you have, they will pay for it. If you don't have anything that people want, you have to give it away. And sometimes you can't even give it away.

"Waiting for someone or something to show you the way". I reckon Pink Floyd was mocking the audience with those lines. In 1973 Pink Floyd had achieved more than most people; they had achieved more than I had achieved by 1973. They did not wait for someone or something to show them they way. They got into gear and worked hard to get what they got, to get where they got to. I think the lesson of "Time" is that your life will slip away unless you take charge of your life, unless you finish what you start. Ignore the starting gun, and run your own race. Who or what is your master?

You are saddled and ridden, like a horse. Society has put a saddle on you, and rides you. You must throw your rider, before he turns you into glue.

My personal opinion is that the album is clever, but it feels bit flat. It is the kind of album to think about and write about rather than rock out to; it doesn't work on a visceral level, it's like a think to admire rather than a blast beat manifesto. Meddle and Wish You Were Here have more variety, and are more tuneful; Animals and The Wall are louder and rockier and more bitter and angry; the other albums are basically from a different band. I admit that I cannot recall Obscured by Clouds, which is often praised as a modest prototype of Dark Side; I heard it once, long ago, and I have forgotten everything about it.

As I write these words, I am bewitched by the thought of eggs. I am hungry for eggs, warm eggs, boiled eggs. I want them so much. Later on I will make the dream real.

This is such an incredible work. It is almost like an opera. Just well thought through, the musicianship is of the highest level and the creativity is amazing. Note, that while many people do, you do not have to get stoned to listen and fully enjoy this album!:)
It is an album that you turn on and just sit back and listen to. A main event for the first time listener.

Honestly, what could I say about this album that hasn't already been said in thousands of rock and roll essays, books, word of mouth, etc, etc, etc? This is one of the few albums I can listen to that has absolutly NO FILLER, I've memorized the songs, and I can hear something new everytime I hear it. Powerful isn't the right word to describe this album. Revolutionary is the word. First off, the music is absolutly fantastic. Even listening to earlier Floyd albums, I would've never predicted that they would come up with something so thought-provoking, so soulful, and so powerful as this. Whether it's the floating feel of Breathe, the dark funk of Time and Money, the acid-soaked jazz of Us and Them, or the powerful anthems of Brain Damage and Eclipse, the music is excellent. Gone are the free-form noisy jams of the past, replaced by a deeper understanding of melody and resonance. Also, some great additions are a backing soul group, and a saxaphone player to give the music some extra depth and diversity. Could the band honestly make a song like Money, with a 7/8 time signature and sax solos a few years back without Syd? Most likely not. Second, the lyrics are spellbinding. There's some powerful one-liners that really hit home with the listener, especially in tracks such as Time (How on earth David Gilmour could still sing the lines "The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older/Shorter of breath and one day closer to death" while he's 65 and not feel suicidal is beyond me.) and Us and Them. They lyrics are three-dimensional, almost fourth-dimensional in their abstract way. Finally, no previous album boasted such an immaculate production or such a huge load of special effects. Beating hearts, wild laughter, maniac phrases, airplanes exploading, money ringing, clocks ticking, all of this to emphasize madness. And it works! It really, really works. It sounds like a man slowly going insane. From this point on, Pink Floyd became the giant Space Rock band that they would be infamous for. It would only be a few more years until it backfired on them.

In my freshman year of high school, 1996, I had to listen to Dark Side of the Moon while watching Fritz Lang's silent masterpiece Metropolis because my world history teacher thought it fit with the movie perfectly. While I was watching the movie, I tried to correlate the album with the movie and I couldn't. Instead I was annoyed and wish I could watch the silent movie the way it was intended. Let me tell you right now, Metropolis WAS NOT what Roger Waters had in mind when he wrote the songs for Dark Side of the Moon. Dark Side of the Moon is one of those albums that could grow on you if you gave it a chance. Thing is, I am not one of the listeners who is willing to buy it and let it grow on me, since I prefer faster music. However, just because I prefer faster music, does not mean I am close-minded. For example, I think Massive Attack's slow album Mezzanine is one of the greatest albums of all time. About a year after hearing Dark Side of the Moon in my world history class I decided to give it a second chance. I listened to the album in my room, by myself, and I felt detached emotionally. This is very challenging music and the commercial appeal of the album is one of rock's great ironies. There's a lot to admire about Dark Side of the Moon: the lyrics are thoughtful, the vocals are melodic and emotional, the instrumentation is complex, and the production is stellar. The sound effects were pioneering at the time; it's hard to imagine Kraftwerk, Gary Neuman, and electronica's offspring without Dark Side of the Moon. However, there's a difference between admiration and enjoyment. The overall tone of the album is very pessimistic. Dark Side of the Moon is a gloomy experience. It is not the kind of album to put you in a good mood. It is a work of art, maybe profound even, but for music listeners such as myself, sometimes that is just not good enough. B-

I've always liked Pink Floyd, but I owned only "The Wall." I bought "The Dark Side of Moon" to remind myself of the earlier sounds, many of which made it into "The Wall," but some of which are just unique, like the creative instrumentals in "On the Run" and "Time" and the great use of a female vocalist in "The Great Gig in the Sky." And "Money" is probably the earliest memory I have of Pink Floyd on the radio when I was a preteen!

No matter how many times I hear this album, I continue to be amazed. Anyone that says this album is overrated needs to have their head checked. Amazing.

There are over a thousand reviews for this album and it's tough to find anything new to say about it. It's a great album of enjoyable music, probably Pink Floyd's most well-rounded recording and one that has held up strongly over the past 35 years. "Time", "Brain Damage", "Us and Them", "The Great Gig" - these are all classics. Perhaps the only real drawback is that we've all heard each a million times; they can't help being overplayed.

My only additional comment is that, despite being lumped in with other popular Pink Floyd albums of the mid- and late 1970s, it is stylistically more similar to the early 1970s albums Atom Heart Mother, Meddle and Obscured by Clouds. The key difference from earlier albums is the presence of Roger Waters's dark, cynical lyrics (though the extreme bitterness of later efforts isn't here yet). But the music, just as on those earlier albums, is a full collaboration between four band members - not the effort of one man, with a few companions filling in as session musicians. That would change on subsequent albums, and in my opinion not for the better.

If I were to be allowed five albums for the rest of my life, this would be at the top of the list. Just had to replace a missing album, and actually, as cheap as this was I think I'll keep buying CDs from Amazon. This one can never leave my collection, and if it does I'll have a replacement faster than you can say Pink Floyd.

There's a reason this album seems to consistently win "Best Rock Album of All Time" on many reviews I've seen. Besides the classics you've probably heard so many times, like "Time", "Money", and "Us and Them", there are long, very dreamy, instrumental passages, and many sound effects, such as those you hear at the beginning of "Money" and "Time". It is an album with an almost hypnotic quality. It is definitely one not to be missed by any rock fan.

There is a reason that any modern band with progressive, space rock elements is referred to as the "Pink Floyd" of its respective genre. Pink Floyd is a very important figure in rock history, and anyone who claims to be a fan of music should hear this album at least once.

I think Meddle is a better album, but this is the album that everyone will remember Pink Floyd by. And it's better than most bands will ever put out so it's hard to fault it. Anyone who likes rock probably ought to add this to their collection. There is a reason why this is one of the top selling albums of ALL TIME. It is a monument of rock - almost anything Floyd was ever involved with was.

I have always loved this album... I was sitting in a coffee shop with one headphone in and one out. And the part on 'the dark side of the moon' when the luner laughs, LOL, I actually turned around to see if someone had laughed behind me... It was hilarious, I giggle about that every time I hear that song...

This record is so boring, like most of Pink Floyd's work. All the songs are very s-l-o-w, they make me wanna sleep. Look at the reviews below: everyone seems to be trying to write a novel or a thesis about it. By the second paragraph i'm already yawning. Can't people be objective? I guess too much Pink Floyd gets you that way.

I find Dark Side Of The Moon overrated, but that has more to do with what people say about it than anything else. After all, this is one of the most popular albums in the history of mankind, a mega-bestseller whose sound, look, and feel have become instantly recognizable. It's a cultural icon, and one that resonates with the tastes of anybody who's been born in the past seventy years. This is the kind of thing that can help teenagers bond with their parents; when I first set off on the path to intractable music nerdom, one of the first things I did was raid my dad's collection for this and a few other 70s touchstones (I also got my hands on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and Paul Simon's Graceland, and yes, I know that that last one is from 1986). Anyway, my point in all this is that no album can live up to that amount of hype and expectation.

Best to approach it blindfolded, then. Forget the accolades. Forget what thirty-five years of pop cultural diffusion have done to your perceptions. Forget everything that your stupid stoner friends have told you. Just tell `em to shut their brownie holes so that you can concentrate on the record itself. Listen to those songs, to the lush and eerie ether of "Breathe," to the funky cynicism of "Money," the mounting paranoia of "Brain Damage." Listen to the splintered, fragmented beauty that cuts through "The Great Gig In The Sky," the quiet apocalypse of "Eclipse." If you can keep context from ruining your good time, you might see why everybody's always raving about it. Give her a spin.

I had this album when it 1st came out 35 yrs ago - damn near wore it out,
but ended up losing it when our basement flooded some years ago. Since then I have owned the Audio cassette and the CD versions but neither compared to the sound of the Dark Side of the Moon on vynl. There was just a seminal sound of the early vynl version that reached into my head
or maybe it was just the weed back then, anyways, I now own it on vynl again and it's just as good now as it ever was.

The verý best of the so called Progressive Rock, a style of music to enjoy in relaxation and searching deep inside the soul. High vibration music!!! Has been a very important step in the musical growing knowledge of people in the world and represents a basic and trascendet period of life for many generations.

By far one of the greatest rock albums of all time. It stayed on the charts for over 15 years and has sold over 25 million copies alone. What is it about this album so many people like? Its different it has a sound all its own. Songs like, Us and Them, Time, Breathe etc. You couldnt find on any other album and still sound the same. Pink Floyd have there own sound entirely. This album even today still remains a classic and should be owned by everyone
5/5 stars
also check out piper at the gates of dawn great album there too SYD BARRETT

Simply said, one of the greatest CD's by one of the greatest band's ever put together.

This is not a rock album. This is a sad,maudlin effort that has enjoyed the benefit of mass hypnosis. It's not really bad, but, it was just a group of young people trying to tell us about life that they hadn't experienced yet. It sounds mostly like teenage angst. I'm sure the halucinogens they were using had stunted their emotional growth and made them think they were being profound. Either that or they knew what they were doing and the jokes on us.

This is Pink Floyd's best album, not my favorite...but their best album. Musically it is the best album of the 20th century. It is their 7th Studio Recording Album and is great. Every Rock 'n roll fan that doesn't have this has something wrong with them.

The c.d came very quickly and there were no scratches at all on both the c.d and case. Thanks a lot!

This right here is proof that the Greater Being loves the people of this earth. This record, back in 1973, was the ultimate musical treat, and still, today this record is the ultimate musical treat. First, however, there is nothing I can say that hasn't been said about this album. It already is a well known fact that this is the masterpiece of all music. Let me just tell the people who don't like this album, that they obviously don't know anyhthing at all about music. Alot of the time, you have to be a musician to fully appreciate the genius of this album. For those of you who are confused about the "moments of silence" in the album, that is what makes the timing, that is what gives it it's atmosphere. One last thing, if you have not heard this, you really have not lived yet.

How does one go about topping an album like Dark Side of the Moon? Talk about stress when going into the studio for the next major release. While I love their subsequent works - especially Animals, The Wall, and The Final Cut (though this last one can be an emotionally difficult listen) - if Pink Floyd had called it quits right after DSotM, they would still be legends in my opinion. This album is just so good on so many levels. "Breathe", "Time", "The Great Gig In The Sky"...from opening heartbeat all the way through to the last bar of "Eclipse", it's simply an amazing musical experience.

Part of what sets this one out for me is that everyone seems to be present and accounted for. There's no hint of the Gilmour and Waters sumo shove-fest, but rather a moment when the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. It shows in the composition and the delivery.

Given that there's over 1,300 reviews, I won't be able to add much to the conversation here. Suffice it to say that this album been a constant in my library since age 16 and has rarely sat idle over the years. For an album to transcend generation and maintain a strong following from 1973 to 2008 (35 years and counting!) should be a clear sign of how special it truly is.

Hippies, the end of the Vietnam War, the break-up of the Beatles, Frank Lucas, drugs, etc. What do these events have in common? They were around at the time of one of the greatest albums ever released (you can probably guess what that is.) Pink Floyd's third album, Dark Side of the Moon is a very dark, strange, and awesome piece of pyschedelic music and music in general. When you listen to it, it feels like Pink Floyd is telling a story about the world and its troubles (hence the track "Money") and albums like that are why they are so remembered by millions of fans and people. Before I bought this, I only believed it was just some rock band like Rush (I didn't get into music at the time.) Then I bought Dark Side of the Moon on Itunes and when I heard it for the first time, I thought it was something I should have listened too a long time ago. Now, the sound quality is actually pretty good considering this album is almost 40-years old. The tracks itself are catchy and memorable (almost on a daily basis you'll utter some lyrics from one of the songs, if not vocalizing to "Great Gig in the Sky".) If you are new to Pink Floyd, this would be a good start.

Classic,timeless,Pink floyd's best.These are a few of the phrases often used to describe this album.I will go a step farther and say this is the best album of all time.This is a complete piece of music about life,time,and eventually death.Its sad,emotional,inspirational,and everything in between.Gilmour's guitar and voice and water's lyrics and concepts,together they are magic.I'll listen to this until the very end.

This Pink Floyd album is definitely a masterpiece and is certainly one of their very best albums. All of the songs are great and I love David Gilmour's voice and his guitar playing! It's always great to hear and is timeless, indeed. A must for anyone that wants explore the history of rock and prog-rock.

35 years old??? Yes, this album just turned 35 years of
age and is still timeless (actually 'Time' is on this album).
First released in 1973, this album has become a staple of most
rock radio stations ever since.
Billboard magazine ranked this album in it's Top 100 for l5
years...a feat almost without equal. Maybe it is the success of
this album that made following Pink Floyd albums pale in comparison.
If you are new to Pink Floyd, this is the one album to have. Pour
yourself a toddie, turn the lights down a click, and hit the 'play'
button on the stereo....and enjoy!!

What can I possibly say about this album that hasn't already been said? Roger Waters definitely finds his voice on this one, and the album has an incredible flow to it. Many of the tracks are staples on classic rock radio, and to that end it is overplayed and perhaps a bit overrated. But so many of these songs are classics, in every sense, it's difficult to give it less than stellar marks.

What more can be said after winning Album of the year twelve years in a row. There is no comparison to Waters Barrett and Gilmore. Forty years of non stop creativity and still going strong.

This is probably the best album of all time. Any rock lover should own this!! And at this price, get two!!

What more is there to say than what has already been said by countless reviewers. From the opening heartbeat of Speak To Me, through the radio hit Money, to the closing beats of Eclipse, this is a perfect album. Moody, haunting, and well-done.

One thing to note about the black cover edition. There are newer releases, the so called "re-mastered" editions. Keep in mind these are re-masters of 30 year old digital tapes. Unless you have the SCAD players, avoid them. The older CD versions are closer to the true quality. I know, I have two editions on vinyl. The older CD editions are closer the the vinyl.

Does it get any better than this? NO. This is pure genius. Pink Floyd's best. If you don't have this and I can't see why someone would not BUY IT!!! In my top ten.

Boy, if there's one more thing we need it's another review for Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. 1500 reviews clearly isn't enough to make my decison whether or not to purchase it. I'm kidding of course, but I do feel the need to throw in my two cents anyhow seeing as this is such an essential album. Dark Side is arguably the most commercial album from Pink Floyd, but I won't let the fact that it has become mainstream alter my opinion of it. There has been about a zillion editions of this album, classic rock stations play it to death, it's been made into t-shirts, posters, you name it. But all those things are just indications of the power contained within this recording.

Whether you like this type of music or not, this album is just an amazing listen from Breathe to Eclipse. I would also recommend listening to this album start to finish because I feel that it's the album as a whole that shines, instead of a few standout tracks. The sound here is a lot less jammy and a lot more composition oriented, but tracks like "Money", "Time", and "Brain Damage/Eclipse" show that this is a good thing.

But what can I say that hasn't already been said about Dark Side of the Moon? It's just a amazing album, everyone should own a copy, end of story. I'd say the album has earned its hype.

I am guessing that just about everyone who is a fan of progressive rock owns this album. It is truly one of the classics of the genre and really one of the classic rock albums of all time. I have heard this album so many times over the years, that I rarely pull it out anymore, but every time I do, I am reminded of just what a masterpiece this was and still is. The album is pretty much flawless from start to finish. The music, lyrics, it all works in spades and for it's time the sound effects and sonic quality of the album was way ahead of it's time. "Dark Side" is an all time classic that has stood the test of time since it's release 35 years ago (has it really been that long?). A great album by a great band.

I purchased the original album (vinyl in those days). Not only are each of the songs strong on a stand alone basis, but all together and as sequenced they make for an experience like no other. No album I can recall has the power, impact, and meaning (real or perceived) as DSM. This is one a few remarkably special albums that never get old. It feels fresh each and every time you listen.

This is a "must have" album for anyone that listens to music. In 100 years, people will think of this as classical music in a league with Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart.

FYI: I literally wore out the first album and had to buy a second. The second was ready for replacement. By then CD's were becoming popular, and I purchased one thinking it would last forever. Sadly, this is not the case. As far as I can tell MP3 files don't scratch or wear out.

I've read the reviews posted prior (even the long winded ones...lol) and will tell you they are 150% correct. I'll keep it short and sweet. Buy this album. If you want a new experience, buy this album. If you never heard Pink Floyd before and are interested in hearing them, buy this album. If you are a fan of Rock n' Roll, buy this album. If you like music of any sort and any type, buy this album. Jeez louise... if you have a pulse, buy this album.

It is not just music, it is an experience - where it takes you and what you get out of it is entirely up to you. That's not hippie talk, it's just the reality. It is a masterpiece.

Most important: If this is your first time hearing Pink Floyd and or Dark Side do it correctly. Make sure you have about 40 minutes of time to just sit back and listen, because I highly recommend your first exposure to the album is straight through the first track to the last. I would almost say it's imperative...but with all the 'real' things to worry about in life an album is low on the pole. But you get my point.

You will not be disappointed. There's a reason it's sold about 50 million copies and spent 700+ weeks (almost 15 years) straight on the Billboard Top 100.

Remember...optimism is free. Happy 420.

Before I start the review, I do love this album it's great. "Time" is perfect, "Money" is another great song. But this is nowhere near the greatest album ever, nowhere near Pink Floyd's best album either, still essential. Their are four great songs ("Time", "Money, "Brain Damage", & "Eclipse"), two good songs ("Breathe" & "Us And Them), and three pointless filler instrumentals that make the album much worse. This is the real dropping point for me are the instrumentals, They suck real bad, "Any Colour You Like" is alright because it isn't spacey with back up girls singing. It's like Jimi Hendrix.

Luis Mejia (son) - If any person would like to enter into the most pure concepts of music, boundary-breaker objects/emotions the human being has created, or start building references from start points of music genres throughout eras, The Dark Side Of The Moon would definitively be a point of transition. Pink Floyd had already created unique music in their previous albums, specially Meddle, but this is their top masterpiece, defining an era in music. A commercial success, selling more than 40 million copies, and the longest place in billboards in history, it surely contains commercial, listener-friendly compositions, short songs with no pretentious sounds or unusual melodies, and a pure and simple structure which simply divided the world, being impressive with its concept of simple human progresses and surroundings; time, money, people, breathing, and insanity, just to mention few. The Dark Side Of The Moon is a key album into defining the peak of space rock, the revival of psychedelic rock into modern settings, the point were blues is taken into a higher prospective, the point were progressive rock can't be called pretentious but remarkable nor snooze cultural but sincere and direct, and the unique characteristic where music fits with the listener and musicians in the most pure way; not their most complex neither their most cultural one, but the most pure.

Each piece is also perfectly put together but it can also sound perfect spliting them into separate songs, "Speak To Me/Breathe" is just hipnotic, starting with a heart beating, it gets through with some soulful guitar lines and relaxing vocals, "On The Run" and "Any Colour You Like" are both key transitioning instrumentals that may define the electronica genre, provided by tape effects (not mellotrons), "Time" gets a more common and softbeat feeling but it kicks-off with the introducing clocks and alarms, which may have introduced the music concréte style into Pink Floyd music. "The Great Gig In The Sky" is a timeless classic, not too much of a song but more of a vocal proof reference to any kind of music, consisting of subtle screams from a woman (Clare Torry), which eventually leads to Pink Floyd using a women's chorus in their performances. "Money" is maybe their most famous song, dealing with materialism in society (which gets funny seeing this album's sales!), its the most explosive piece in the album, with a signature guitar solo from Guilmour that can stay in your head for days. "Us And Them" is the most serene but still serious piece in the album (just the mood the album needed), it has its potent moments but its calm atmosphere is just beautiful. "Brain Damage" sounds with more common textures but it deals with its theme of the human mind (and insanity...) in avery adequate way. Finally, "Eclipse" is the conclusion of the piece, its a very good end because it ends with emotion and a quirky hope, as "the sun is eclipsed by the moon".

The musicianship is more like an atmospheric beauty that surrounds each play, although there are a lot of their albums wich feature better playing of instruments, this is just nice, specially because of the tape effects; all lyrics are by Waters, and the compositions are worked out with the band members working in each piece (not just Waters...). The material comes with great artworks, lyrics and credits, not as the LP but great anyway, the sound is loud and adequate too. So, I could never conclude such a masterpiece in the way I'm expecting so I'll just recommend you to regard it as a human achievement instead of just a music album.

This is still my favorite Pink Floyd album followed by Wish You Were Here and The Wall. However I never cared for Clare Torry's "Vocals" on "The Great Gig In the Sky" and "Us and Them" is little too slow.

One of the reasons I love this album is because unlike many other Pink Floyd albums there are no songs over ten minutes. Another is the use of sound effects such as chiming clocks, cash registers, maniacal laughter, and heartbeats. Added to this is their brilliant use of synthesizers. The Dark Side of the Moon also features great lyrics all written by Roger Waters.

This is truly the first (and arguably the last) of Pink Floyd's great albums. After Dark Side they had other good albums such as Wish You Were Here,the Wall, and the Divison Bell, but I think they don't come close to Dark Side of the Moon.

Pink Floyd's ninth album entitled Dark Side of the Moon was released in March of 1973.
There is a good reason why this album has held up for 32 years, it's because the songs deal with problems that one goes through in life and the production was many years ahead of its time.
This was the first album that ever touched me in the heart, I used to go to sleep listening to Dark Side when I was a baby because lullabies wouldn't work half the time so when all else failed, my mother would put Dark Side of the Moon on the turntable and it did the trick.
Consequently, thanks to my mother, I became a die-hard Floyd fanatic, which I still am today.
Dark Side of the Moon started out life as a piece called Eclipse but became Dark Side of the Moon after the band Medicine Head's album with the title Dark Side of the Moon flopped.
This album saw bass player/singer/lyricist Roger Waters write all of the lyrics for the first time. Guitarist/singer David Gilmour's vocals and guitar solos dominate throughout the album as does keyboard player Rick Wright's keyboard work and harmony vocals. Dark Side of the Moon has survived the test of time like no other album ever made before or since.
As everyone knows, the album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London between June of 1972 and January of 1973 with the band producing and Alan Parsons (whom would go on to be a succesful producer in his own right) engineering the album with Chris Thomas (whom had worked with The Beatles and became a producer in his own right with acts like The Pretenders, Roxy Music, The Sex Pistols, Pete Townshend and INXS as examples) handling the mixing.
All of the songs dealt with different topics that one experiences in life like "Time" (with clock noises and about racing against or managing time) and "Us and Them" (a song about the perils of war and is still relevant today. Note: the music of Us and Them was originally intended for the 1970 film Zabriske Point during the riot scenes and was called The Violent Sequence but director Antonioni rejected it in favor of another Careful With That Axe Eugene entitled Come In Number 51 but was luckily resurrected for DSotM's best track).
Instrumentals like "Speak to Me" (featuring voices that are dominant throughout the album and with a heartbeat that was done on drummer Nick Mason's bass drum which opens and closes the disc), "On the Run" (which was originally a guitar jam entitled The Travel Sequence changed into this eight note Synthi-A VCS3 synthesizer pattern complete with tape effects and guitar noises), "The Great Gig in the Sky" (was originally called The Religious Sequence before it changed into this instrumental about death and dying and featured the excellent vocal phrasings of Clare Torry) and "Any Colour You Like" (which was originally called Scat during the preliminary stages of the album) are excellent as well.
The other tracks on DSotM are classics. "Breathe" (was originally written during the recording of Roger Waters' first solo project The Body with different lyrics and music save the Breathe in the Air refrain), "Money" (which eventually became Pink Floyd's first American Top 20 hit and one of the few singles released with a 7/4 time signature and was about the pleasures and negatives that money brought) and the closing one-two punch of "Brain Damage" (a song referencing to original Floyd leader Syd Barrett and absent friends) and "Eclipse" (which sums up the album) wrap up this classic of an album.
The album became the group's first #1 album in America where it may have stayed for a week but its stayed on the charts for nearly an accumulated 1,400 plus weeks (741 weeks from 1973-88 and many more now from 1991-today where it still remains).
Plus, Dark Side of the Moon is now the third largest selling album worldwide with some 34 million copies sold (including nearly 19 million here in the US).
This album is a must in anyone's record collection and the remastering on this 1995 issue is good courtesy of Doug Sax and James Guthrie done back in 1992 for the Pink Floyd box Shine On.

No one can deny the power of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." Released in 1973, virtually every generation of music fans has discovered its awesome power. So what really makes this album so great? Each song is beautifully composed and executed in a way that very few albums of any genre or generation are.

1) Speak To Me/Breathe-5/5. "Speak To Me" is a sound collage intro put together by drummer Nick Mason. It does exactly what an intro to an album should, set the atmosphere and mood. "Breathe" is a slow tempo song with fantastic lyrics and beautifully played music. The vocal duet between Richard Wright and David Gilmour elevate this song to a different level.
2) On the Run-4/5. This is another sound collage with a background tape loop of synthesizer notes. Many sound effects are played over the top of it to give an ethereal feel. Not very good on its own, but fits in with the mood of the album well.
3) Time-5/5. This song starts out with several clocks going off all at once and moves into a tick-tock tempo of drums and guitar. Then, out of nowhere it moves into a heavy rocker with one of Gimour's best vocals ever and one of his best solos ever. The lyrics are some of Water's best. One of the best songs here.
4) The Great Gig In the Sky-5/5. An absolutely beautiful piano driven ballad written by Richard Wright. Essentially an instrumental, it does have a beautiful, soulful, female vocal, with no lyrics being sung. It is absolutely astounding and very moving.
5) Money-5/5. The most well known song on the album. It was a single hit from the album, but doesn't really sound like one. It has an odd time signature played out in the bass line, before breaking into an all-out driving rock song in the middle. The lyrics are pretty good and the vocals by Gilmour are great, but the main focus here is on the music and musicianship.
6) Us and Them-5/5. Another keyboard driven ballad from Richard Wright. Absolutely beautiful performances all around, particularly Wright's keyboards and Gilmour's otherworldly vocals. One of the best on the album.
7) Any Colour You Like-4/5. Another instrumental composed by Wright and Gilmour, and as you would expect, it is driven by the keyboards and great guitar work. Very well executed and fits perfectly within the album's structure.
8) Brain Damage-4/5. This one probably has the best lyrics on it. The vocals aren't the best here, but the music and choral background elevate this one to being great. Slow tempo, keyboard and guitar driven.
9) Eclipse-5/5. A phenomenal way to close the album. Loud and bombastic, the lyrics sum up the whole concept of the album. The vocals are minimal and plain, but the emphasis is on the music driven by the organ and ends with the heartbeat from the beginning of the album, bringing it all full circle.

Anyone with a love of music of any genre will absolutely love this album. There isn't anything else out there to compare it to, since Floyd moved into a more guitar driven territory with their subsequent albums. It is truly one of the greatest albums of all time. No album collection should be without it.