Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of The Moon - Part 1 (Side A) Album Review/Analysis

Written by Thomas Crago

Graphic of light refraction through a prism from the album cover of “The Dark Side of The Moon”

The Dark Side of The Moon is the eighth studio album produced by the popular band hailing from the UK: Pink Floyd. The creation of the album was beyond its time in 1973, featuring new technology, such as the fondly regarded EMS VCS 3 synthesizer to create what's recognized as a “concept album.” Which in basic terms, is an album with a tracklist catered to be a more harmonious and collective message among the songs, as opposed to individual messages in songs.

This harmony is pleasantly achieved in The Dark Side of The Moon with captivating segues between songs being persistent throughout the whole album, and usage of motifs from all over the tracklist throughout the entire listen.

The album begins with a consecutive story themed after descending into madness, spanning through multiple songs. The two opening tracks: Speak to Me, and Breathe (In the Air) are particularly heavy on this. The former track which is an instrumental simulates the actual “descent” into madness, with the repetitive sounds of life being overlapped throughout the listen; cash register mechanics, ticket machines ripping, clocks ticking, and a short feature of Clare Torry’s vocals from a later featured song. The culmination of noises continues through to the latter track, cutting into a sharp segue from dissonance into resonance entering Breathe. Introducing a far more slow-paced and “real” song, it evokes a sense of calmness inside the chaos. These two tracks are typically conjoined on CDs and Radio plays, just reinforcing that idea.

Another segue brings the experience into the two succeeding tracks: On The Run, and Time, that follow quite a similar structure. Beginning with yet another energetic instrumental that is quite literally bringing you “on the run” as the band goes ham with the VCS 3 and apparently begins to scrape microphone stands across guitar faces to really get into the chaos again. It does make a good listen though; lacking the dissonance that Speak to Me had… At least until the end, that mimics the sounds of a faint blowtorch (with said microphone stand harassment). Then… you slowly begin to hear the sporatic noises of clocks ticking, followed by startling alarm buzzers, entering Time: The longest song on the album, (with a nearly 3 minute long introduction and 7 minute long composition), it marks the second performance piece of the album. The song, in the most basic description, is a sort of a “mid-life chrisis” that continues the chaotic story by realizing time in its true and comprehensible form: it’s fleeting; you’re running out of it; wake up! Roger Waters even projects this emotion though a personal perspective near the end of the track: “The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say” … clocks ticking

As one final brushstroke to finish off Act 1 (Side A), Pink Floyd collaborates with Clare Torry to create one of their most known and influential tracks of all time: The Great Gig in the Sky. A wildly emotional cacophony created by Torry’s improvised and wordless vocals, it certainly marks its place in the concept of the album through complete harmonious chaos, and metaphors for the cyclical nature of life. The song itself went through many changes throughout production; but the most prominent and final change was actually laying Torry’s vocals over the surreal music. It certainly functions as the final functioning part of Act 1 and leaves you completely speechless as the needle of the record player screeches to a halt–for Torry has used all of your speech.

Serving as the more surreal and interpretive side of The Dark Side of the Moon, these 5 tracks, in my opinion, harmoniously compose the beginning of the album, and prepares the listener for an immediate listen to Act 2 (Side B). It rightfully holds its space as one of the most well-known concept albums.