I started this site because of my love for music, both playing it and listening to it. This site is meant to be a music review site, but in the future, it may expand beyond that. We'll see how it goes.

I'd really appreciate feedback. Is there something you especially liked? Something you disagreed with? Suggestions for the site or for a review? Let me know. Either leave a comment, or email me. Thanks, and enjoy.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Album Review: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

Genre(s): Rock/Psychadelic Released: March 1973

1. Speak to Me/Breathe - This (these?) song begins with the sound of a beating heart, the ticking of clocks, the sound of a cash register, lines such as "I've always been mad, I know I've been mad." Then comes the guitar, the drums, and an interesting slide instrument known as a 'lap steel.' The song's music is simple and sets the mood for the entire album. The song's basic message is, to me, that your life is made up of what you do, and it will inevitably be ended with death, so do what you can while you're living. 9/10.

2. On the Run - "Here for today, gone tomorrow, that's me, hahahaha." This song is instrumental plus a few spoken lines. It's one of the coolest songs to listen to on headphones because you hear the sound of an airplane flying from one side to the other, a huge crashing sound, and footsteps running from one ear to the other. 7/10.

3. Time/Breathe Reprise - The ticking and chiming of a bunch of clocks marks the beginning of this song. Following that is again a heartbeat-type sound, a bass, and a heavily-reverbed drumset. The song's meaning is fairly obvious: people often have an agenda of what they want to do in life, but hope that someone will tell them when and how to start, but after waiting and waiting, you realize that it's too late; you missed your chance. The song is divided by a simple yet powerful guitar solo, then it goes back to the vocals, describing how time is passing you by. The song concludes with a reprise of Breathe, the album's first song. 10/10.

4. The Great Gig in the Sky - Another semi-instrumental piece, the only vocals are a few whispers and the wailing of Clare Torry. Not much to this song, but it's nice. 7/10.

5. Money - Maybe my favorite song on the album. The song talks about, well, money. The theme is that people always try to hoard their money or squander it on luxuries. My favorite line comes at the end: "Money, so they say, is the root of all evil today. But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise they're giving none away." One interesting thing about this song is its time. The majority of the song is in 7/8 time, while the guitar solo is in 4/4. Basically this means (I think) there are 7 beats before the pattern repeats, rather than the traditional 4 or 8. 10/10.

6. Us and Them - A softer, piano-based song. This song was recorded to be the music for someone else's film about a war protest, but Pink Floyd decided to put it on the album as well. To me it seems to be talking about the effects and actions of war. It's pretty nice and relaxing. I don't have much to say about this song. 8/10.

7. Any Colour You Like - Yet another instrumental song. No lyrics so I can't really describe what it's about. It consists of some heavily synthesized music and it blends perfectly into the next song. 7/10.

8. Brain Damage - This song describes the effects of insanity, most definitely relating to Pink Floyd's original singer, Syd Barret, who basically went insane. The line "and if the band you're in starts playing different tunes" I think connects directly with Syd because apparently he would often begin singing different songs than the rest of the band while in concert. 9/10.

9. Eclipse - The final song of the album, always played in conjunction with Brain Damage on the radio. Pretty hard to interpret this song, but here's sorta what I think: the song describes how everything we do is "in tune" with "everything under the sun, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon;" basically everything that we've done and planned can be turned around or thrown out of sync by something uncontrollable. Anyway, that's how I see it. 9/10.

Overall - I'm sure that if you're reading this, you've listened to the album before and are quite familiar with it. If not, familiarize yourself with it. It's one of my favorite albums of all time, and I've listened to it twice today. I don't think I mentioned it, but the album flows as one song; there isn't really a break between songs (besides Great Gig in the Sky and Money). To get the full experience of this album, you really need to listen to it loud and with headphones. If not in headphones, make sure you at least have stereo speakers, because the surround sound effects are amazing. 10/10.

Labels: , ,

1 Comments:

At 8/26/2006 10:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

good call

 

Post a Comment

<< Home