THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

There are very few recordings released that achieve the rarified stratospheric status of this album, so that the mere mention of their names evoke a knowing nod of recognition in almost everyone-a recognition that implies not only a familiarity of the music, but also a familiarity its profound aesthetic impact on the psyche.

Rather than embark on a lengthy song-by-song critique, I only want to say that DSOTM was really the first album of its kind to produce a sonic experience in which the listener feels almost hermetically sealed. And in that isolation, the listener undergoes a mind-bending psychedelic experience that makes him/her feel the despair, sadness, and frustration of Water's Syd Barrett-inspired lyrical persona.

In addition to the masterful instrumental work by all four musicians, the sound engineer and producer really should be given credit for creating a soundscape has a real spatial sense to it, the aural version of three-dimensionality. That's why listening to this album on headphones is so powerful because through the music, your mind perceives a sense of depth and space in which all this crying, and screaming, and footsteps running, and overlapping voices talking really begin to freak you out. Then add in Waters, Gilmour, Wright and Mason and the tracers really start to streak across your mind's eye.

Essential prog rock masterpiece? Without a doubt.