THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

"Dark Side of the Moon" is noted as the best progressive album of all time, to many critics, next to to In the Court of the Crimson King. If you expect great instrumentation, and impressive virtuosity in the music, pass this up. If you want the quality of songwriting, relaxation, and maybe even some psychedelia, Dark Side of the Moon is for you.

"Speak to Me", Nick Mason's creation, starts off with a heartbeat, mad laughing, and sounds to me like either a typewriter or a poor representation of a gun. Crescending into...

"Breathe" starts with a mellow slide guitar sound and a slow tempo, followed by vocals that are mostly monotonous. The beginning of the overall mellow sound of the album. I don't really know what the song is about, it looks to me like it's about telling someone not to kill themself.

"On the Run" keeps a quicker pace, and really points out why Pink Floyd is sometimes referred to as space prog, or space psychedelia. Nick Mason's closed hi-hat beat and Richard Wright's looped keyboard vibrato lick makes the song. There is vocal tracks and wind throughout the ending, it's an instrumental that gets your heart racing. Probably the most psychedelic song on the album.

"Time", the only sog on the album written by each and every member of Pink Floyd, kind of sounds like maybe what you'd hear walking through a space jungle in the beginning, that's as much as I can pinpoint it. The singing is a bit more powerful, I'm pretty sure it's about wasting time in life, and not being able to get it back, but then finding solace in the end. The solo by David Gilmour is very fitting, which makes "Time" a very solid performance.

"The Great Gig in the Sky" is pretty much keyboards, and vocals by Clare Torry. It hits an exhilirating climax towards the end.

"Money" contains the famous bassline, and is the most jazzy song on the album, with Dick Parry's sax solo streaming into Gilmour's guitar solo beautifully. The song is about trying to get money, but finding it hard, but necessary.

"Us and Them" starts with a quiet sax, and reaches a few climaxes, keeping a pace, but becoming powerful at moments. A melodic song, it reaches a few moods during the whole thing. Also contains talking vocal tracks, like many others on the album, to make it have it's very own flavor, and a sense of is anybody listening?

"Any Colour You Like" is an instrumental showing off the more instrumentational side of the band with a keyboard and guitar duo that sounds great.

"Brain Damage", a tribute to Syd Barrett, who had Gilmour's old spot. Yet again a good song, but not as good as Time, Us and Them, or Money in my opinion.

"Eclipse", I just see as the second part of Brain Damage, but with a more accessible message than it considering the topic of Brain Damage. It closes out the album with the heartbeat.

This is the Floyd album to have, and an excellent addition to a prog-rock collection, not very essential, but a very excellent one, considering what it's done for rock, and the quality, and different nature of the music.