I’m sure that this isn’t the case for everyone, as neither listening to albums nor even music is important to every person as they grow up, but for me there was a definitive moment in my listening career that changed what I enjoyed and how I even enjoyed music. It occurred in high school. For years my parents had exposed me to a variety of music, from 60’s and 70’s rock to 80’s pop and 90’s alternative, but it was during my freshman year of high school that I decided to dig into an album that my father had exposed me to, but also one that I hadn’t spent a whole lot of time with. I sat down in my room in Colorado, a new state, a new high school, and put Dark Side of the Moon on my portable CD player.
Yes… I still rocked a CD player.
It was a pivotal experience for me because, as frustrated as I was at the time, I found that whenever I attempted to return to one or two songs, seeking the frantic electronic runs of “On the Run” or the cathartic climax of “Eclipse”, that I was never satisfied with the experience of just the one song, and that it only really worked within the larger context of the album. And this was the first time that I really felt connected to an album as an ALBUM, as an experience that was singular, that could only really be captured not if you picked out single songs but if you sat down with it and gave it time to develop. To become enveloped in it. And while there would be plenty of albums to come that would scratch this itch, one always looks back fondly at their first.
Produced by Alan Parsons, mastermind of The Alan Parsons Project and responsible for the production on the previous album of this list, The Dark Side of the Moon is a meditation on sanity, and the many facets of society that can make one feel insane. Largely inspired by the mental deterioration of bandmate Syd Barrett and the straightforward, paranoid lyrics of Roger Waters, the album immerses the listener in an experience that brings them to life, helps them experience death, and finally come out the otherside somehow changed, elated, a little bit more in sync with their own spirit (and you can experience all of that sober… or elevated). Unlike the atmospheric rambling of their previous album, Meddle, this album feels more refined without losing any of its psychedelic nature. On Dark Side, you’re floating calmly through the cosmos, not swirling through a tornado of colors.
Approaching this album again, after years of loving it but not necessarily listening to it, and having a multitude of other albums that are, considered by many, to be the greatest albums of all time, I can confidently say that this album is not overrated. The band is incredibly tight, aided by Parsons to showcase the right instrument in the right moment (something that was also aided by a year of touring it before actually recording it). Waters’ lyrics are pointed but not obvious, biting but not condemning, comforting but not coddling. As a package, this album is a piece of art, a moment in culture and music that forever shaped and will continue to shape the minds of young musicians, dreamers, and artists. And one day, when my children feel like they’re ready to take their music exploration to another level, I’ll nudge them towards this album, in hopes that it takes them to the dark side of the moon and back, the way it has for me and so many other million people.
My Rating: 5/5
The Word and The Song 