THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

This being my first album review here on PA I feel I should start by doing homage to the first progressive album that I can remember listening to. That lead me to Dark Side which I purchased about 8 years ago when I was in high school. Id never heard of prog at the time, the only reason I picked the album up was because I figured If umpteen million people on the planet have listened to this and enjoyed it there must be something to it. So I bought it, listened to it and enjoyed it although at the time I didnt appreciate its progressive character, me being only interested in the seminal arena hard rock bands of the 70's like Led Zep, AC DC etc.

However, now, after I've allowed Dark Side to peculate in my speakers for years, I can say that this album as a whole is the greatest artistic statement ever made by a group of human beings. A very tall order I know and one that can certainly be argued, but what I mean is that it is the ultimate description of the human condition. It's so simple, we're born, we live a little while, we disappear and PF says it all in 3/4 of an hour. Along the way we deal with the problems of Time, Money, Government and ultimately Death, all of which are encased in the groves of this disk. As a concept Dark Side focuses much of its attention on the enigmatic beauty of life itself, like light being refracted by a prism, and the music begs the listener to enjoy this great gift and not take it for granted. We also have to deal with issues beyond our control like Insanity (poor Syd) and the music also reminds us that we are never in complete control of our destiny. Life is something that we cannot hope to understand, as mysterious as the Dark Side of the Moon. But I digress, i guarantee that's the most philosophy ill put in a review!

Musically, Dark Side forms the bridge between the psych heavy material of the group's early years and the Water's obsessive material of their later years. That being said, I think this is the best Floyd album (apart from Piper but thats another story). Its certainly the most accessible prog album as evidenced by its astronomical sales, something that has to do with the universality of its message. The music itself has been discussed ad nausium above so ill simply point out my fav tracks: Time (great guitar bridge), Money, Us and Them, Any Color You Like (I love the opening keyboard wash) and the uplifting Brain Damage-Eclipse suite.

This album certainly isnt my favorite but I have to give it 5 stars for being conceptually perfect. Who needs therepy when you have Dark Side of the Moon!