THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Most people here give this album 5 stars and I can see where you come from. 20 years ago, when I bought the CD, I liked it, too, and mostly for the same reasons you all do. But with the time and the sheer mass of other prog and less prog albums I stumbled over its magic has seriously waned.

True, the concept of the album was very original at the time of recording. True, there are still excellent songs and elements on the album. Take the cash register intro of Money, the bells in Time or the lyrics of Us And Them, still one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs. I also love the last two songs, Brain Damage and Eclipse, though I prefer them connected to one CD track like on the brilliant bootleg Pigs On The Swing. Any Colour You Like shows the full scale of David Gilmour's skill as a lead guitarist. But the rest is not very convincing. The bare rhythm style of On The Run has been heard before on Tangerine Dream albums, while the biggest problem for me is The Great Gig In The Sky. The instrumental part may be ok, but this lead moaning is definitely the worst Pink Floyd have ever written and recorded. I simply can't stand this element and especially not as a lead "vocal".

Without this I could settle for something like 3.8, but it is included so the good elements can't save the rating beyond a 3.1 and 3 stars.