Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon Review

I was first introduced to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon on compact disc, being a music listener that came along near the end of the generation that really enjoyed records.  My Dad had purchased in CD form rather than on tape, because he felt it helped the music with its presentation.  Well after listening to it a couple of times, I quickly became hooked, and many years later I still find it in my rotation of CD's that stay in the car with me.  Over the years the lore surrounding an album that was released in 1973 has come and gone, but with each year a new set of fans are drawn to the psychedelic music that became Pink Floyd's bread and butter in the 1970's.  Dark Side of The Moon is an album that runs in that exact vein, combining many instrumental interludes with sounds that could appear to a non-fan as just being thrown together at the last moment.  It is those sound effects however, that really grabbed my attention in the first place, and have propelled some of these songs to be very lasting on the radio.

With Dark Side of The Moon, you have a 9-track CD that is presented in a very slow build-up, with many of the songs serving best as music to be played while you are multi-tasking.  One thing that all fans of the album can agree on, is that you don't pop this one in to the player if you are looking to sing-along, but rather to enjoy some excellent music while you clean the house, take a long drive, or are sitting down to work on your computer at home or work.  Though it can best be described as "mood" music since you have to have your mind geared towards the flow of these songs to best enjoy them, there are certain songs that have really impressive guitar riffs which get you really into the presentation of the music.  Sure some of the lyrics are repetitive as the songs progress, but I found it to be very original, and still haven't heard anything like it since the release of the album.  Of course there have been many covers of some of these songs, but Dark Side of The Moon really stands out as some of the best of classic rock in my opinion.

One of the songs that really stands out for me on this album is Money, which starts out with really interesting sound effects of dropping coins, much like what you would hear in a casino.  Then it starts to build up into a song that is also memorable for its lyric, "Money, it's a drag."  Another notable song is called Time which starts out with a bunch of clocks and alarms going off to really wake you up after the slow preceding song has come to an end.  There are many moments like that on the CD, that can lull you to complacency, only to bring you back just as quickly with great use of everyday sounds.  This is one of those CD's that I have no problem listening to from the beginning all the way to the end, and it flows so well that sometimes you don't even realize that one song has transposed into another track until the lyrics start to kick in.  I love the complex presentation of this album, and I think that most fans of classic rock would agree that this is one of Pink Floyd's best presentations.