Amazon.com Customer Reviews
Good, but still overated - Review written on September 25, 2008
Rating: 4 out of 5
1 customer found this review helpful, 3 did not.
Dark Side was a great album. But it was not that great. I love the songs, Time, Us and Them, Eclipse, Breath in the Air, and the instramental On the Run. But the song Money? That song was one of the most annoying pieces of garbage I have ever heard. The great gig in the sky is not much better, just some 'soulful wailing'. A good album, but overated.
Blast Beat Mania: The Ant-Flagged Turtleshell - Review written on September 16, 2008
Rating: 4 out of 5
2 customers found this review helpful, 2 did not.
Dark Side of the Moon is Pink Floyd's most famous album, and one of the most famous albums of all time. It sold like hot cakes when it came out, and continued to sell well for several years afterwards. This was odd, because Pink Floyd were obscure until that point. Their singles did not chart, and they were not famous on a personal level. They gigged a lot, but they didn't appear on television and they rarely appeared in the newspapers. Imagine if The Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" had gone multi-multi platinum, selling millions, and that it was still in the charts today; that's how odd it must have seemed back in 1973, 1974, 1975 etc, when Dark Side of the Moon was out. Nonetheless the album had broad appeal. Mums and Dads could enjoy the thoughtful lyrics and tasteful melodies; hi-fi fans could listen to it on headphones, for the sound effects; sex-people enjoyed the melancholic feel and moderate tempo; thoughtful student types could use the cover as a means of decanting drugs. About the only people who didn't like the record were punk rockers, who hated it for being slow and grandiose. Everything about Pink Floyd is the antithesis of punk. Despite years of improvised free-form gigging, they had a reputation for being unspontaneous and calculated, proudly so. Dark Side of the Moon does not freak out. It is precisely the rock album you'd expect from a bunch of former architectural students, and there is no margarine on the guillotine.
It is a surprisingly sensible record, given that it came from a former psychedelic former space-rock band during the height of prog rock's mainstream acceptance. The songs are slow, but generally they don't go on too long. There is a bit of soloing on the second side of the record, but not too much, and it isn't flashy. The lyrics make sense. They are sometimes trite, but they make sense. I reckon the band had got tired with self-indulgent noodling on Atom Heart Mother and Ummagumma, two albums that were full of likeable but half-baked nonsense. There's no nonsense on Dark Side of the Moon. It's a set of songs with short, pointed titles; a weird mix of John Lennon's stark minimalism crossed with state-of-the-art production. On a sonic level it doesn't sound too dated nowadays. The drums sound dead and flumpy, but apart from that there's nothing that really screams of 1973. In fact, "On the Run" is conceptually a dead ringer for an acid house techno rave stomper circa 1989, with a drum loop (taped, rather than sampled), plus synth squiggles.
Dark Side of the Moon was written and performed by a group of clever, down-to-earth people whose brains were not clouded by hippy idealism or religion. It deals with weighty issues, but they are definite, concrete issues that face real people, and the band's lyrics are pointed and sensible rather than vaguely-worded platitudes. That alone separates Pink Floyd from most other popular bands, in any genre. See, most bands that have something Big and Important to say about Life and Death tend not to have the means to focus and articulate their thoughts; either that, or they didn't really have anything Big and Important to say after all. Dark Side of the Moon is all about life and death and madness and everything in between, but it never feels insufferably pretentious or smug. I never feel an urge to slap David Gilmour, whereas conversely I always want to slap Jon Anderson. And Peter Hammill. And Robert Fripp. Sometimes I want to slap Roger Waters, but not because of Dark Side of the Moon.
"Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines" is a silly line, because it rhymes and has the word "naught" in it, but it's a profound line as well. I reckon that most people can relate to it, because most people are useless failures who have achieved nothing much with their lives. I reckon that everybody who has written a review of Dark Side of the Moon without being paid for it can relate doubly, because if you're good at something, and someone wants what you have, they will pay for it. If you don't have anything that people want, you have to give it away. And sometimes you can't even give it away.
"Waiting for someone or something to show you the way". I reckon Pink Floyd was mocking the audience with those lines. In 1973 Pink Floyd had achieved more than most people; they had achieved more than I had achieved by 1973. They did not wait for someone or something to show them they way. They got into gear and worked hard to get what they got, to get where they got to. I think the lesson of "Time" is that your life will slip away unless you take charge of your life, unless you finish what you start. Ignore the starting gun, and run your own race. Who or what is your master?
You are saddled and ridden, like a horse. Society has put a saddle on you, and rides you. You must throw your rider, before he turns you into glue.
My personal opinion is that the album is clever, but it feels bit flat. It is the kind of album to think about and write about rather than rock out to; it doesn't work on a visceral level, it's like a think to admire rather than a blast beat manifesto. Meddle and Wish You Were Here have more variety, and are more tuneful; Animals and The Wall are louder and rockier and more bitter and angry; the other albums are basically from a different band. I admit that I cannot recall Obscured by Clouds, which is often praised as a modest prototype of Dark Side; I heard it once, long ago, and I have forgotten everything about it.
As I write these words, I am bewitched by the thought of eggs. I am hungry for eggs, warm eggs, boiled eggs. I want them so much. Later on I will make the dream real.
awful and just plain stupid - Review written on August 29, 2008
Rating: 1 out of 5
20 customers found this review not to be helpful.
Oh my goodness, I was forced to listen to this (expletive) bummer of a CD recently and my brother, who is a doctor, almost went into shock at the sight of me: palpitations, eczema, hot and cold rushes I got.
This CD is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. There is not one good note on this filthy disc. It hurts my eyes and ears to see so many dumb dogs run around believing this p.o.s. actually is worth a lousy nickel.
Tracks among others are ALL simply atrocious: Time is a drag, just a slimy piece of I don't know what, Money would be OK if it wasn't a complete King Crimson ripoff, Any color you like is a laughable joke, The great gig in the sky tries to compete with great bands like Tavares and Village People but fails miserably, Brain Haemorrhoids is horrible and respectless Us and them is just plain boring.
Rufus Bingham
Still a classic after all these years. - Review written on August 27, 2008
Rating: 5 out of 5
1 customer found this review not to be helpful.
Honestly, what could I say about this album that hasn't already been said in thousands of rock and roll essays, books, word of mouth, etc, etc, etc? This is one of the few albums I can listen to that has absolutly NO FILLER, I've memorized the songs, and I can hear something new everytime I hear it. Powerful isn't the right word to describe this album. Revolutionary is the word. First off, the music is absolutly fantastic. Even listening to earlier Floyd albums, I would've never predicted that they would come up with something so thought-provoking, so soulful, and so powerful as this. Whether it's the floating feel of Breathe, the dark funk of Time and Money, the acid-soaked jazz of Us and Them, or the powerful anthems of Brain Damage and Eclipse, the music is excellent. Gone are the free-form noisy jams of the past, replaced by a deeper understanding of melody and resonance. Also, some great additions are a backing soul group, and a saxaphone player to give the music some extra depth and diversity. Could the band honestly make a song like Money, with a 7/8 time signature and sax solos a few years back without Syd? Most likely not. Second, the lyrics are spellbinding. There's some powerful one-liners that really hit home with the listener, especially in tracks such as Time (How on earth David Gilmour could still sing the lines "The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older/Shorter of breath and one day closer to death" while he's 65 and not feel suicidal is beyond me.) and Us and Them. They lyrics are three-dimensional, almost fourth-dimensional in their abstract way. Finally, no previous album boasted such an immaculate production or such a huge load of special effects. Beating hearts, wild laughter, maniac phrases, airplanes exploading, money ringing, clocks ticking, all of this to emphasize madness. And it works! It really, really works. It sounds like a man slowly going insane. From this point on, Pink Floyd became the giant Space Rock band that they would be infamous for. It would only be a few more years until it backfired on them.
I just don't get it - Review written on August 27, 2008
Rating: 2 out of 5
1 customer found this review helpful, 7 did not.
Honestly, I just don't get it. My father has many worthwhile classic rock CDs and LPs and I have actually been fed on this kinda music and I must say I can appreciate quite a few albums, Ledzep 2 and 3, Pearls before swine, Jim Pepper, Silver apples (hey, this is cool music) and so many more.
When my dad said that this album was one I would most certainly like I really had to laugh. I've been coming back to this since I was 5 and I just couldn't believe that this was once considered a worthwhile album.
To me, it's more of an involuntary hodgepodge of atrocious ideas and non-sequitures.
Take a song like Us and them, it's *so* boring, DUH!, Any colour you like is basically OK but one song alone can't carry an album, can it?
Money is nothing but a lame rip-off of the great King Crimson song 'Catfood'.
Well, I am sorry, but this is notsomuch classic rock as the equivalent of horse manure soup.
Therefore no more than 2 stars.
Chance Watson
One of rock's great ironies - Review written on August 11, 2008
Rating: 3 out of 5
4 customers found this review helpful.
In my sophomore year of high school, 1996, I had to listen to Dark Side of the Moon while watching Fritz Lang's silent masterpiece Metropolis because my world history teacher thought it fit with the movie perfectly. While I was watching the movie, I tried to correlate the album with the movie and I couldn't. Instead I was annoyed and wish I could watch the silent movie the way it was intended. Let me tell you right now, Metropolis WAS NOT what Roger Waters had in mind when he wrote the songs for Dark Side of the Moon. Dark Side of the Moon is one of those albums that could grow on you if you gave it a chance. Thing is, I am not one of the listeners who is willing to buy it and let it grow on me, since I prefer faster music. However, just because I prefer faster music, does not mean I am close-minded. For example, I think Massive Attack's slow album Mezzanine is one of the greatest albums of all time. About a year after hearing Dark Side of the Moon in my world history class I decided to give it a second chance. I listened to the album in my room, by myself, and I felt detached emotionally. This is very challenging music and the commercial appeal of the album is one of rock's great ironies. There's a lot to admire about Dark Side of the Moon: the lyrics are thoughtful, the vocals are melodic and emotional, the instrumentation is complex, and the production is stellar. The sound effects were pioneering at the time; it's hard to imagine Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, and electronica's offspring without Dark Side of the Moon. However, there's a difference between admiration and enjoyment. The overall tone of the album is very pessimistic. Dark Side of the Moon is a gloomy experience. It is not the kind of album to put you in a good mood. It is a work of art, maybe profound even, but for music listeners such as myself, sometimes that is just not good enough. B-
When they hit it big - Review written on July 26, 2008
Rating: 5 out of 5
2 customers found this review not to be helpful.
There are over a thousand reviews for this album and it's tough to find anything new to say about it. It's a great album of enjoyable music, probably Pink Floyd's most well-rounded recording and one that has held up strongly over the past 35 years. "Time", "Brain Damage", "Us and Them", "The Great Gig" - these are all classics. Perhaps the only real drawback is that we've all heard each a million times; they can't help being overplayed.
My only additional comment is that, despite being lumped in with other popular Pink Floyd albums of the mid- and late 1970s, it is stylistically more similar to the early 1970s albums Atom Heart Mother, Meddle and Obscured by Clouds. The key difference from earlier albums is the presence of Roger Waters's dark, cynical lyrics (though the extreme bitterness of later efforts isn't here yet). But the music, just as on those earlier albums, is a full collaboration between four band members - not the effort of one man, with a few companions filling in as session musicians. That would change on subsequent albums, and in my opinion not for the better.
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