THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

The genius of The Dark Side of the Moon lies in one important fact: that whilst the rest of the progressive rock world was pushing as hard as it could for more complexity, more time signatures, longer songs and more obscure lyrics, the Floyd decided to take precisely the opposite approach. They didn't abandon complexity or experimentalism or prog completely, of course - the album's a 40-minute suite about madness replete with synthesisers, for goodness' sake - but they were careful to incorporate no more complexity than what a song strictly needed, and likewise Roger Waters made sure the lyrics were more direct and less abstract than, say, your average Yes composition - with the result that they had more force.

At a time when prog for prog's sake was a tempting proposition, Pink Floyd moved away from that, and therefore managed to avoid most of the backlash later in the decade, Johnny Rotten's "I Hate Pink Floyd" shirt notwithstanding. The result was the band's best album since their debut, and a definitive end to their post-Syd slump. What more is there to say?