THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

In 1973 Pink Floyd made their bestseller by releasing an album that gave up the progressive-rock suite on a side and single pop songs on the other (the pattern of Atom Heart Mother and Meddle), in order to record a time continuum of songs alternating with noises: in fact, sometimes the songs are the development of some noises, as in the case of the most famous: "Time", whose rhythm starts from the ticking of the clocks, and "Money", whose rhythm starts from the case of a store.

With a modern and commercial sound, Pink Floyd churns out 4 great songs, of medium to long duration, with an additional 6 short fillers, which try to give a homogeneous frame to the project. It is a cunning, an operation more of facade than substance, because from a musical point of view the album has nothing revolutionary, apart from the combination of music and noises of real life, never exploited so intelligently and widespread. Pink Floyd invent a new album format, and ultimately develop the idea of Sgt Pepper by The Beatles. The conception of the record is revolutionary, the music is not, the music is quite commercial, already heard but... beautiful, original, and flows pleasantly.

The first 7'45'' are filled with an introduction of noises and music (Speak To Me, Breathe) and a sound trick (On The Run) quite banal, but ultimately boring: in fact it's not music. Rating 6.5. You have to wait for the watch "cucù" to hear music really worthy of that name, and we are already in the eighth minute of the record when Time starts, and this is a great song, with Wright and Gilmour alternating on the singing and a marvellous solo on the guitar by Gilmour. Rating 8.5.

Mixed with the ending of Time begins the piano ballad The Great Gig in The Sky, very suggestive, without lyrics but with the voice by Clare Torry that fills it with both soul and sensuality, it is another disjointed song, as well as the whole first side apart from Time , it almost feels like PFs make entertainment music while waiting to make music seriously. Rating 8.

Side B opens with Money, a very original Waters song (sung by Gilmour), with a sly rhythm that repeats throughout the duration of the piece and a fantastic instrumental deadlift with the sax played by Dick Parry. The sound is now more and more captivating but at the same time elegant and inspired. Rating 8+. Blurring Money, the relaxed ballad Us and Them begins, sung again by Gilmour in alternation with Wright, and with the presence of the saxophone as the previous one. The chorus of the song has a magnificent progression that, combined with the instrumental piece, make it the best piece on the album. Rating 8,5/9- Pink Floyd does not renounce the habit of putting noises and spoken words even inside the piece.

The great ballad fades into Any Colour You Like dominated by Wright's synths, which give life to an instrumental piece, which then switches to keyboards, rather suscipated and excited, but basically uninspired, until the guitars and the voice of Waters come, and Waters sings Brain Damage , which contains the phrase: "I see you on the dark side of the Moon." The song is another languid ballad, which improves in the singing progression with soulful voices in the background, then forcibly Waters sings Echoes, with the purpose of finishing the narration of the lyrics. Rating 7,5.

These three final pieces, as well as the three opening pieces, are fillers, their quality is lower than that of the four main songs (but the fillers on side B are good songs), and leave the listener with the impression that the album has slipped away without leaving a big mark, except at certain moments of the four major songs, as if music announced a sound event that then won't arrive and everything ended waiting. That's why I listen very willingly and easily The Dark Side Of The Moon, and I get pleasure, but it is almost an elusive pleasure, which only in some moments I feel intense and deep. In my opinion, this album is a great masterpiece for how it is conceived, for its conceptual and commercial form, but it is a small masterpiece for the music that contains.

Medium quality of the songs about 8. Rating 9, Small masterpiece, 5 stars.