THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

The most famous album of all progressive rock. When I first listened to it I was immediately captured by the cautious madness and ambience of "Speak to Me," which built into the soft, sighing music of "Breathe." This album is about things that make people go mad. "Breathe" is about life itself and the work that comes with it. Brilliant.

Next up is "On the Run," a high-tech song for its time but now is less amazing, but is just as musically entertaining as it was back then. This is the travel portion of the album, showing the rushing stress of today's world. Then its "Time," which is the song I best recognized from the radio, and also one of the best. The ticking pendulum synched with the heartbeat and the warning bass brings to mind a death clock ticking, shifting its focus from victim to victim of time.

Then it's "Great Gig in the Sky." The religion/fear of death track. If you dwell on that too long, you will go mad. But the song is different. The vocals of Clare Torry are amazing and they are the heart of the song, backed by the airy, spaced country chords on the guitar. Then "Money" comes in with the cash registers and bass line in the weird time scale. Another song I heard on the radio long before I knew what Pink Floyd was. It's very good, a great single for radio, but not my absolute favorite. The bass line is great for practicing bass with.

"Us and Them" seemed like a boring song at first, far too slow. But as with most very good songs, it required more listening to understand. It's about war, divisions, hatred and differences. All of these are the most likely to drive you mad. Then it enters the nice, jazzy instrumental "Any Colour You Like."

But my favorite song is "Brain Damage." It's the first acoustic song I learned, about "defending the notion of being different" as Waters put it on the Classic Albums DVD. The lyrics are amazing, peaking at the chorus. By "lunatic" in the lyrics, it means one who is different. Society molds "lunatics" into sane people through school, TV, and anything else it can. This topic is revisited on "The Wall."

Finally, it closes with "Eclipse." Another masterpiece song to end a masterpiece album. The heartbeat closing is the first of Waters' many cycles. If you put the album on repeat, it'll just keep going and going, a cycle of madness and vice that will never end.

Overall, this is the best album to use if you want to introduce someone to prog. If they don't like this after a few listens, then prog is not their thing.