Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon: 30th Anniversary Edition
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Free Music Notes for The Dark Side of the Moon: 30th Anniversary Edition
Free Music Review: Turn your room Lunar
Hit: 5 Stars
1973, I was all of 13. This was, in my pre-driver's license days, the only way for me to travel. "Dark Side of The Moon," a big old pair of Koss headphones, and a relatively cheap but OK stereo. Dark room. Posters. Dreams of escaping. Desires of being an astronaut. Wanting to be a pop star. And then this.
Even today, over 30 years later, "Dark Side of The Moon" remains a sonic marvel. When you imagine that this was done well before the advent of digital recording, samples and the like, it becomes all the more impressive. Instruments dart in and out, effects (the clocks, the cash register) flood your head and room with sculpted sound and psychedelics. The wailing voice on "Great Gig in The Sky" (Clare Torry) is downright otherworldly, as are the snippets of conversation that pop up at intervals throughout. The album unfolds in the best conceptual album sense, as nothing here explodes as much as it does infiltrates. It's one of those albums where it's well nigh impossible to listen to it in segments, the cross of songs into each other demands that you take it as a whole.
To this day, "Dark Side Of The Moon" is probably the best known Pink Floyd album, coming along with that masterpiece of dysfunction, The Wall. In many respects they're very much alike. On this, the band was still trying to make sense of Syd Barret's descent into madness (as they did again on Wish You Were Here), on "The Wall" they looks at the crush of success and how it almost drove Roger Waters over the edge. In the case of "Dark Side of The Moon" and its long and pristine sculpted sound (courtesy of a young Alan Parsons), they captured their moment, and over 30 years later, it still stands like a towering achievement.
Free Music Review: The Best Reason to Buy a SACD Player
Hit: 5 Stars
I have loved Pink Floyd and this album for almost 30 years. I have owned it on vinyl, and several versions on CD. Though it is not my favorite Pink Floyd album ("Wish You Were Here" takes that cake), I have always recognized it for the fantastic achievement it is. Dark Side is the result of a collaboration of a genius band at the height of its creative powers, and a young engineer, Alan Parsons, a whiz in the recording studio (and musically no slouch himself). The result is a groundbreaking concept album that sounds like nothing that came before. From the ambient soundscape of "Speak to Me", to the mellow "Breathe" and "Us and Them", the rockers "Time" and "Money", the trance-like "On the Run", the wordless vocal solo on "The Great Gig in the Sky", and the jazzy "Any Colour you Like", the range of musical styles and influences is amazing, especially considering that the tunes all hang together as a cohesive whole. The lyrics explore themes of death, madness, and the daily struggle to make a living.
In any case, I could not live in a world where DSOTM was available in a format I could not play, so the release of this SACD prompted me to get a universal DVD/SACD/DVD-A player, and I am not the least bit sorry. Someone who loves this album obviously did the multichannel mix, and it is amazing. The surround channels are used to a great extent, which is possible with densely layered music such as this, but they never become distracting. The original tapes must have been cleaned up digitally, because the disc sounds like it was recorded yesterday.
In sort, if you are interested in multichannel audio, run, don't walk, to the store and buy this disc. Even if you are stuck in the 19th century with just a CD player, you can listen to this disc as it is a dual layer hybrid with a standard stereo CD layer in addition to the multichannel SACD layer.
Five stars for musical content, five for sound quality
Free Music Review: An Anniversary Worth Celebrating
Hit: 5 Stars
Before I review I would just like to say something: While some people complain about the cover art, song times or other things that differ from the original ''Dark Side of the Moon'', I still belief that this version is worth your money all the same. While it's different from the original version (which I don't actually have, but know plenty about), I'd say this is still one of the finest albums of the 70s. And others agree! It sold at least 40 million copies worldwide, stayed on the Top 200 for more than 700 weeks and about 5 percent of every person under fifty in America owns a copy of the album.
Pros: All the songs are great. My favorites are Time, Money and Any Colour You Like. I used to play saxophone for a few years, and I give a round of applause to Dick Perry for playing the sax on ''Money'' and ''Us and Them''.
Cons: None, really. The only one I think you should worry about is the time listings on the back of the album. THIS is how the times for the songs should look on the back:
1) Speak to Me 1:08
2) Breathe 2:48
3) On the Run 3:51
4) Time 6:49
5) The Great Gig in the Sky 4:41 (thought you can get away by stopping at 4:31)
6) Money 6:22 (no big change here)
7) Us and Them 7:49 (no big change here, either)
8)Any Colour You Like 3:26 (same thing here)
9)Brain Damage 3:46
10)Eclipse 2:11 (though you can get away by stopping at 1:28, THAT'S another downside to the time listings on the back)
Overall: Excellent album, deep and great music. But before I go, I bet you're asking a question: How come ''Dark Side of the Moon'' is so successful. Well, like it has been said before, this is the answer: Since the dawn of intelligence, humans have wondered why we were put in on Earth and what are we supposed to do? Pink Floyd doesn't actually give an answer, but they manage to build a good conversation of this question.
Well, I've put my two cents in, and I hope you love this album like I did!
Free Music Review: what a concept. (album)
Hit: 5 Stars
pay attention the next time you listen to dsotm. it will start with a quiet heartbeat, like that of an unborn child. this heartbeat will grow louder and stronger as would that of a baby growing bigger and stronger in the womb. soon you will hear a woman scream 4 times like a woman would scream while giving birth. the album then takes you through various factors that affect us as human beings. these are time, money, conflict, sanity(or insanity in this case). the album ends with your life flashing before youre eyes (all that you touch, all that you see, all that you taste, all you feel, etc, etc). heartbeat fades and stops. i think i heard somewhere that when your heart stops beating you die. roger waters has stated that the concept of this album is a life cycle. nasa sent a copy of dsotm on voyager space probes so if aliens found it they might gain some understanding of the human race. if you still dont understand the concept of this album, you can still enjoy the jaw- dropping beauty of the songs. you can still enjoy the way the music flows and stops, you can still enjoy the thought provoking lyrics. like a movie is a visual presentation of a story, this is an audio presentation of a human life. if you rented a movie would you fast foreward to somewhere in the middle of it, watch part of it and think you knew all about it? this album requires that you listen and pay attention from start to finish, just like a movie. by the way, this record seems to be as popular today as it ever was, perhaps because is and always will be relevent. as long a people are born, live and die. it will be relevent. no album in the history of this planet has ever connected with people the way this one has, and of course a work of this magnitude, influence, and popularity is going to upset some folks that think just because they don't like it, it's no good. ignore them, ignore me, listen to the album and decide for yourself.Free Music Review: First time a "remaster" of this album bettered on the LP!
Hit: 5 Stars
At last! This is the moment that us audiophiles who have followed SACD's growth since the beginning have been waiting for. And boy it was well worth the wait!Indeed this is one of those rare times when the label takes serious times to "remaster" an album instead of make a quick money grab to rip people off. For the first time since the needle on my grandpa's record player broke off and my vinyl was played to death, I can hear Rick Wright's crisp, clean, haunting, keyboard, synth, organ, and piano playing again right smack dab in the middle of the action. (As opposed to tucked away deep in the corner of the left speaker.) And at last I can hear Nick Mason's devastating drum playing, most notably on Brain Damage, where that powerfully symbol/bass drum crashing has never come through with such clarity and resounding force.
Also, the instruments have been spread out more, allowed more room to breathe so that you can hear each one coming rhrough in equal clarity. (Most important on such freak out jams in Money and Time where all the instruments are practically soloing at the same time.) You can hear David Gilmour's voice sending shivers up and down your spine again, in his laid back and soothing fashion. And remember when you could hear choirs on Dark Side of the Moon? They're back again, and Clare Torrey's high notes are back too. This is the new Dark Side of the Moon, and it's great for those of us not old enough to remember the days of vinyl. For every Pink Floyd diehard or audiophile!
(Note: I'd make a comment about how wonderful the album actually is, but most who are buying this have already bought this three or four times anyway, and there are so many reviewers who have written so much anyway, what's the point?
Also, to Capitol, let's see some work done on the other classics. I don't want to wait for a 30 year edition. Let's see them all and soon.)