A Detailed Review of Pink Floyd's Album The Dark Side of The Moon

Pink Floyd

The classic album that I chose is Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. Pink Floyd is a progressive rock band that was formed in 1965. This classic album was released on March 1, 1973. The album contains ten tracks such as: “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun,” “Echoes,” “Breathe,” “On the Run,” “Time,” “The Great Gig in the Sky,” “Money,” “Us and Them,” “Brain Damage,” and lastly, “Eclipse.” The band consists of four members. These members are: David Gilmour (vocals and guitar), Nick Mason (percussion and drums), Richard Write (keyboards and organ), and Roger Waters (bass guitar). What I will discuss in this paper is about the many unique aspects it had that made it become such a highly recognized classic album to this day.

To give some small background info, originally, Syd Barrett was the native singer before Gilmour. What happened was Barrett became deranged in 1968. After this tragic event occurred. The former members were puzzled on what their next move was going to be. The band then decided to continue their music making, replacing Barrett with Gilmour. Then, The Dark Side of the Moon soon came about. Pink Floyd’s “groove” was then described as “glacial” and “space-rock” by David Fricke, a senior editor for the Rolling Stones Magazine (Degrunwald, Smith, Longfellow, 2003). According to The Rolling Stone’s website, at the beginning of Pink Floyds career, they refined a “psychedelic sound, performing long, loud suite like compositions that touched on hard rock…” (Rollingstone.com, “Pink Floyd Biography”). they then began to progress to using a “azimuth coordinated sound system…themes were unremittingly bleak---alienation, paranoia…” (Rolling stone.com, “Pink Floyd Biography”). After more albums were released, tension between Wright and Waters increased, therefore, Wright left the band. Soon after, Waters too, left leaving Gilmour and Mason. The members then started releasing solo albums. Years after, Pink Floyd was then again reunited (excluding Waters) on July 2, 2005 for a global Live 8 performance (Rollingstone.com, “Pink Floyd Biography”). As The Dark Side of the Moon is a highly successful album, it is not their first album. Rather, this album appears on Pink Floyd’s discography as the 9th album. The previous albums recorded are: 1. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), 2. A Saucerful of Secrets (1968), 3. More (1969), 4. Ummagumma (1969), 5. Atom Heart Mother (1970), 6. Relics (1971), 7. Meddle (1971), 8. Obscured by Clouds (1972), 9. The Dark side of the Moon and then the album preceding DSOTM would be 10. Wish You Were Here (1975).

To make such an incredible album, Pink Floyd’s members experimented with many auditory techniques. Two techniques that were constantly used were echoes and double tracking vocals. This was to give off a psychedelic vibe towards the listener. They also used several sound effects such as futuristic vehicle noises, footsteps, and heartbeats. Pink Floyds exploration of sounds made the albums songs’ have various tricks within each song, giving them all distinctive traits. Another interesting thing about this album is the background about it itself. According to Roger Waters in the documentary, “The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon”, “The Dark Side of the Moon was an expression of political, philosophical, humanitarian empathy that was desperate to get out” (Degrunwald, Smith, Longfellow, 2003). Waters also expressed how the themes that can be applied to the album are “insanity, death, empathy, and greed”. This shows how it also gave off a message. The sleeve album sleeve designer, Storm Thorgerson, described his inspiration for the design was based off on three assets. First, the lightshow the band created during their concerts. Second, the themes of the lyrics, which he perceived as greed and ambition. And, third, it was an answer to Richard Wright’s request of wanting a “simple, bold and dramatic” design. When the design was shown to the members, they all immediately chose the one they used for the album. This record had such an enormous influence on both the band and the people around the world.