Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

I just came back from a 45 min. walk, had a shower and set for this. It's 4 AM now, and I'm beginning to think that I should do this "walk, listen to an album, take a shower, write a review" thing more often. So here it is, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" or "The Dark Side of the Moon" or whatever you call it.

First things first, this is not an album that you can listen to on a normal time, you have to be prepared for what you are about to hear. You have to have the right conditions. I've listened to this album many many times and I don't really remember listening it in a morning time. Not because it's titled Dark Side of the Moon, this is a dark album, and to listen to a dark album you have to be in a dark environment. Most albums, you listen and have a good time. This one is an exception though. You listen to it, it rocks your world, changes your life. Every single time.

I've first heard about this album when I was like 14 or 15 years old. We were trading cassettes with friends, and I've got this. I guess I gave him Queen's Greatest Hits II. I wasn't much of a music freak back then but the first thing that got my attention was the recurring melodies in the album. They were stealing their own music, and they were doing it in style. This also helps to give a more complete feel to the album and attracted the listener. It is highly psychedelic and highly progressive. If you don't know what these two words mean don't worry, you'll definitely get it when you listen.

The first two tracks form an epilogue of what's yet to come, and the album actually starts with "Time". The backbone of the album is songs 3, 4 and 5; "Time", "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Money". Then comes "Us and Them" which is kind of a bridge between the beginning and the end. This album does not contain usual rock songs except "Time" and "Money". Clare Torry perfoms one hell of a vocal in "The Great Gig in the Sky", Dick Parry's saxophone in "Us and Them" is epic. I still believe it's the best ever performance by any session musician.

The album was intended to Syd Barret, their former front man who (decided to) lost his mind. It opens up with quotes from a few mad men. These voices (and sometimes evil laughs) are placed at various points in the album. I later learned that these were not actual mad men, they were friends of the band members. Linda and Paul McCartney were also interviewed but their voices were not used in the album. But another Wings member Henry McCullough says "I don't know, I was really drunk at the time" between "Money and Us and Them". The main idea of the album is to look at life and things from another point-of-view. The closing lyrics of the album is shocking:

and everything under the sun is in tune

but the sun is eclipsed by the moon

This is not an album which consists of songs, you have to think of it as a 45 minutes long song. You definitely don't want any of these songs in your shuffle playlist, any of them will bore you to death, but when you listen to them all together, it is magical. It ties with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" at the top spot of my best albums of all time chart. There isn't a possible way that anyone can surpass this no matter how hard they try. This is the highest point achieved in writing, executing and producing music.

"There is no dark side of the Moon really... as a matter of fact, it's all dark."

Gerry O'Driscoll