Hello I am Masters University Degree for Leeds English.
Hello I am Masters University Degree for Leeds English.
Member since:13.02.2006
Reviews:134
Members who trust:127
<Pretentious Writer Alert> He walks left, he ducks to the right and dodges the straight arm jab, before sneaking round left-handed and breaking in his opponent’s face with a cross-armed punching combo. Yes, that sentence is totally irrelevant, but I’m about to review Pink Floyd and you need to be in a certain kind of mood for this band. You need to think about dark spaces and about doormats, about the heart and the mind and the soul, the brain, and how it can deceive you. The decimation of your hopes and dreams, the corruption of your family and the essence of Hampton Court’s hedgemaze. Pink Floyd are a band who can seriously mess you up, dude! At the time of Dark Side, the band members were David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright. They’d had some reasonable success, and were looking for something big, something to break them through and define them. And boy, did they find it! Dark Side of the Moon deals with insanity, mainly, in all its forms: greed, phobias, warfare and obsession. It’s a stunning record, and so immersive I won’t be able to write a review of it, only a record of what happens. Bit of a cop-out, but I’m sure you won’t hold it against me. Er… will you?
My dad, he likes Pink Floyd. This used to be a sign that they weren’t worth listening to, just like the solo career of John Fogerty or Jackson Browne, but recently I’ve found more and more of dad’s music is actually… not rubbish. The Rolling Stones, CCR, Bob Marley, they’re all good. So Pink Floyd, the pinnacle of my dad’s music collection, would they also be undiscovered brilliance? My friend Phill, who is in fact a girl called Phillippa who prefers being called a boy’s name because… she’s a weirdy, she told me that I’d like it. So, cautiously, I crept out of the corner and bought it. I waited till a dark and stormy night- because it’s important to
get a good atmosphere – turned off the lights, and played it.
For thirty seconds nothing. Then till receipts ring through, people start talking to each other, a man laughs and the sound of a helicopter, like something from Apocalypse Now, all mixes together. Then there are screams. The guitars slide in and keyboards chime together. The album’s started. The guitars slowly slide upwards and downwards, with a laid-back drum accompanying. “Breathe, breathe in the air” the band chant, gliding along with the music, “don’t be afraid to care.” ~ Speak To Me/Breathe
“I've been mad for fucking years, absolutely years, been over the edge for yonks”
The guitars feedback a little, and the drums stop and a cymbal rush begins. Keyboards start to throb and pulsate together. These keyboards build and build and fade and rise again, all the while the cymbals are brushing and there’s a running beat. It’s a plane journey, except it’s seriously not going to end well. ~ On The Run
After the crash, it’s quiet again. A shock to the system as the clocks all set off one after the other, loudly, warning each other. A broken drum keeps time, each beat takes another half-second away. Something’s happening, but you can’t tell what. So it’s with relief that David Gilmour breaks in after two minutes and yells at you to follow time, and use it while you have it. As you get older, it runs away from you. The urgency he conveys is backed up by the crashing guitar, one of the finest guitar solos of all time, smashing into the song and ripping it away so that all that remains is the strength of the music. ~ Time
“And I am not frightened of dying. Any time will do; I don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it—you've gotta go sometime” Reverberation from the last song remains with us. A piano plays on it’s own, a simple melody that winds around itself. Music fills around it… and then all that’s heard is a prolonged female scream, desperate and clinging on to life. The road to heaven isn’t a fun one, and the pain of everything surrounds the music and decimates it. The only thing left is the feeling of loss. When the woman stops, all that’s left is the thoughts of the listener. ~ The Great Gig In The Sky
“I never said I was frightened of dying.”
The recognisable scrape of a cash register drawer being opened and closed, the clink as it’s shut, starts up. A knowing guitar strums and rolls against another, the beat kicks in, simply, and the song starts to give power to the greedy, listing the rewards from being selfish. “Car, Caviar, Four-Star Daydream, Think I'll Buy Me A Football Team." The driving force of the song is the saxophone, though, which blasts against the keyboards and makes the song its own. The saxophone and guitar grapple for the power as the song breaks down into a jam session. Dictating what the people want, the song laughs at them for wanting it at the same time. ~ Money
A long, drawn-out organ plays, slowly, peacefully. The song is slow and steady, pointing out the differences people distinguish between each other. As a saxophone rises up, the music and words separate mankind into two groups; those who are here, and those who are over there. A quiet indictment against the government, it bursts out into a group chant, calling out together for change. The message is clear, but nobody hears it. War continues, and persecution will always go on. ~ Us And Them
"I mean, they're not gunna kill ya, so if you give 'em a quick short, sharp, shock, they don't do it again. Dig it?”
Keyboards siren out, but synthesisers are in control. They heavily layer over one another, flailing out at times but keeping together for most of the time. They build up like thoughts, threatening to break the mind, and when a guitar walks out, the only question left is what toll do thoughts have on your sanity? ~ Any Colour You Like
“The lunatic is on the grass”. The mind is broken, and the thoughts are gathering together and confusing, creating an alternate personality, one that can’t be trusted. The guitars keep calm for as long as they can, but when the subject can no longer control himself, they encourage him and he can only say “I’ll see you on the Dark Side of the Moon!” The lunatic has control, and the surgeons brought in to fix him lock the door behind, trapping him in his own mind forever, a changed soul. ~ Brain Damage
“I can’t think of anything to say…”
Erupting into the finale, the guitars swell and everything breaks forth. Everything seems new and whole, and beautiful. It’s listed one after another, thoughts falling into place one after another “the sun is eclipsed by the moon!” Life goes on, and there’s a beam of light shining across the world. Meanwhile, a pulse, hardly there, gives out. Time to go… ~ Eclipse.
Wow, I really got lost there. Sorry about that. So. It’s an immense record, filled with depth and with more guitar solos than you could shake a greased-up Jenny Lewis at. The album deals with dark subject matter, as you can probably tell, and it does so with an un-nerving sense of calm. Do not listen to this in the dark - when Time and Brain Damage play, you will be seriously creeped out, looking round the room for ghosts. You can literally feel yourself being drawn into the world. It’s amazing. The start is superb, as is the end, although the two songs “Us and Them” and “Any Colour You Like” don’t match the standard of the others, feeling slightly dull and listless. Breathe is mellow, Time rocks out a little, and Brain Damage/Eclipse combine to create the greatest ending to an album Of All Time. In fact, I don’t know why I’m still talking: if you have any sense, you probably already have this album. Wonderful, just wonderful. Beautifully sung, beautifully made. One of the greatest albums of all time.
“There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact, it's all dark. The only thing that makes it look light is the sun.”
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I love the album and the band, and whilst I do appreciate fully your review, I think a consumer reading this trying to make up their mind whether they want to buy this would get a tad confused...therefore can't give more than an H although in other circumstances would have given more...sorry x
danpatmore 11.05.2007 14:27
Nicely written piece and your approach of describing what's actually going on than trying to explain the album was perhaps the best approach for what is such a nutty, creative, pretenious and artistic album. nice one
avacarrdo 10.05.2007 10:50
That was such a creative review! I love this album too, and I used to laugh at my dad's music until I also realised that it's....not crap. Loved reading this.
One of the most famous albums of all time,Dark Side Of The Moonsold 25 million copies in ... more
its first 25 years of release. It continues to be a favourite, with 20 per cent of those sales occurring in the period since it first came out on CD, a medium to w...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: Put Prog Rock On The Map, Introduced The World To Sound Effects As Music Disadvantages: A Decent Set Of Headphones Is Needed For The Full Sensory Effect
Advantages: A musical watershed; Your CD player will biodegrade before these tracks become yesterday's noise... Disadvantages: Hazardous to listen to if you're prone to contemplating suicide...
![Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon [With CD (Audio)] (Hal Leonard Bass Play-Along) - Paperback](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/70658086.jpg "Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon [With CD (Audio)] (Hal Leonard Bass Play-Along) - Paperback")
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