THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Not sure what the point is of reviewing one of the most famous albums of all time but perhaps I feel a need to balance all the superlatives and praise heaped on this album with an alternative viewpoint.

I've been buying music for over forty years and was into Pink Floyd right from the early days. By the time DSOTM came out I was a student and very much into the prog scene with bands like Genesis, Yes, Van der Graaf Generator and King Crimson among my favourites plus, of course, Pink Floyd who for me reached their zenith with "Echoes" on the "Meddle" album. With the possible exception of "Shine on .." they have done nothing to match it since.

In fact DSOTM was the first Floyd album that I didn't buy. This was no crass desire to be different just because it was so popular because I knew disliked it before I knew how popular it was to become. My room-mate bought a copy as soon as it was released and played it frequently. I sat down to listen to it with him the first time with great expectations and as the album progressed I became more and more disappointed. The problem being that it just seemed to be a collection of middle of the road songs with mass market appeal, hence the popularity. A great move forward for them financially but a backward step musically. David Gilmour has said that he was "falling out of love" with the sound collages they had been doing prior to DSOTM - well I wasn't and still haven't.

I have several newer Floyd albums but still don't have proper copy of DSOTM, the nearest being the live album "Pulse" which is pretty good and includes the whole of DSOTM on disc 2 but I play disc 1 mostly.

I don't propose to describe the tracks, you know them, but if you're into essentially conventional lyrical songs but with rather more about them than you're average chart hit then this album will satisfy you as all tracks (apart from "on the run") pretty much fit this description. It's pleasant enough but, for me, does not rise above that level.