The Dark Side of the Moon
by Pink Floyd
This album has been added to 39 private lists and 93 public lists:
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On Vinyl
Greg- Root Genre: Rock
- Primary Branch: Progressive Rock / Art Rock
- Secondary Influences: Psychedelic Rock, Space Rock, Jazz Fusion, Blues Rock, Electronic
- Textural Identity: Immersive, polished and cinematic — analogue synths, tape loops, clocks, cash-register effects, spacious guitar, organ, saxophone and layered vocals integrated into a continuous studio-built sound world
- Energy Axis: Low → Medium-High (moves from ambient suspension to blues-rock drive and dramatic climaxes, but rarely becomes outright aggressive)
The Dark Side of the Moon is firmly Rock → Progressive Rock / Art Rock. AllMusic classifies it as prog-rock and art rock while also noting how its music moves through neo-psychedelia, jazz fusion and blues-rock. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=“0”}
The electronic element is more significant here than on many classic prog records. “On the Run” is essentially an early synthesizer-driven electronic piece, and throughout the album Pink Floyd use tape loops, musique-concrète-like sound effects and studio manipulation as part of the composition itself. Yet the album’s core remains rock: Gilmour’s guitar, Waters’s songwriting, Wright’s keyboards and Mason’s drums still provide the fundamental language.
It is also unusually coherent conceptually. Pink Floyd describe the record as addressing universal pressures including life, work, money, travel and death, and the continuous transitions make those subjects feel like parts of one large cycle rather than ten independent songs. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=“1”}
Small review: What remains striking about Dark Side is not simply how good the individual songs are, but how flawlessly the album flows. “Breathe” seems to emerge out of the opening heartbeat; “On the Run” turns that calm into anxiety; “Time” provides the first enormous emotional release; and “The Great Gig in the Sky” resolves it without needing conventional lyrics. Side two is even stronger structurally: the lopsided 7/4 groove of “Money,” the enormous atmospheric space of “Us and Them,” the psychedelic instrumental release of “Any Colour You Like,” then the seamless descent through “Brain Damage” into “Eclipse.”
And compared with Wish You Were Here, which we classified earlier, Dark Side feels more rhythmically varied and more studio-experimental, whereas Wish You Were Here is more spacious, melancholic and overtly atmospheric. Both belong comfortably in the same root/branch, but they occupy different corners of progressive rock.
Collection shorthand: Rock → Progressive Rock / Art Rock.
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My top 25 albums
Sagni9.7/10
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Listening Log
TarakantainThis album is just a classic 10/10.
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Every Album I have Listened to
GwiffmanOne beautiful psychedelic rock masterpiece
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Every album I've listened to
wiktorclassic, through and throguh 10/10
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Top 50
lostySimply put…perfection. Everything from the writing to the performances to the flow and sequencing. An undeniable work of art.
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the_3goodies45>[120.2vp]*
sugar damp ratf: Any Color You Want
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Set ξ
HugologousHas every right to be so critically acclaimed.
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Listen Log
Tyler SmithFinally got around to listening to this legend. Wasn’t what I was expecting. Great sonic experience (obviously). Listened with headphones. I’d like to give it a go on the stereo.
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Listening Log
adam :)I'll see you on the dark side of the moon... what else can I say?
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Top 100 Albums (Oct 2025)
GabrielThe album that everyone knows and loves. Such a work of art.
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the list.
Joseph SandersWhat’s more to say that it’s the greatest album ever made. The flow between songs, experimental, riffs, lyrics, album art, feeling.
Never to be replicated.
I find I don’t listen to this casually as much. It’s too intense sometimes for just listing on on his. It’s n an amazing way
10/10
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albums
badiflo10/10
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Top 100+1
FerryAnd everything under the sun is in tune
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon
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Favorite Albums of All Time
DavidAnother life-changing album. DSTOM reminds me of my first year in university. Every night, listening to it at 2 AM while under the influence of everything possible. I also remember watching the DSTOM/Wizard of Oz time-synced movie. Is it the greatest album art of all time? It’s just an immense record.
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Albums On Repeat @ 16
JamesMike Southward
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1001Albums
Neil HopkinsWhen I was a kid, the local radio station would sometimes play classic rock albums in full late at night. I remember sitting out in the garden on a warm August evening, watching for meteors and listening to this album for the first time. It still has the power to send shivers up my spine, even after 40 years and countless listens. It’s nice to see that Clare Torry finally gets a writing credit for Great Gig in the Sky - her voice is the highlight of this!
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My top (Almost 100) Albums of all time.
GwydianThe Dark Side of the Moon is psychedelic for its sound scape and use of electrical mixing and mastering. However the album is also psychotic for what it attempts and aims to achieve, the more you listen the more it becomes lunacy because you realise it has achieved what it set out for. A sound that no one could replicate and a raw feeling that no one could understand in words, only in emotion. This album introduced me to Pink Floyd and the capabilities of sad British people in the arts. Truly wonderous.
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Favorite 50 Albums of All Time
Stu(1973)
”’Forward!’ he cried from the rear
And the front rank died
The general sat, and the lines on the map
Moved from side to side…”
There's a good reason this album spent a total of over 17.5 YEARS on the Billboard album chart (and not just because it's a trippy stoner album!) This is one of the earliest and best examples of the effective use of sound design on a music album, which contributes to it feeling like a mini movie. This album is to sound design in recorded music what 2001: A Space Odyssey was to special effects in movies. There are so many iconic sounds (the heartbeat, the clocks, the spacy journey of “On the Run,” the interview snippets, the cash register), but there are classic musical performances as well: the choir, the sax, Clare Tory’s incredible wordless vocal solo, and David Gilmour’s soaring guitar solos. A towering classic.
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FIFS music run
Nipun Suresh❤︎ hated it as a kid, adore it now - i have matured
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2023 Concerts
BarrySunday, August 6 | Actually it was Brit Floyd I saw.
Saturday, November 19 | Saw them again at a more-local venue, and with two of my children! -
Marvin's top twenty-ish albums
MarvinPink Floyd was "94.7 KMET" or "95.5 KLOS" music in the 80's and I didn't really listen to that (preferring 106.7 KROQ). I went to a Laserium show at the Griffith Park Observatory set to this complete album, and I became a fan.
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All Time Favorites
BarryThis is the band that got me into music on a deeper level. DSotM is my favorite of their albums. (1973)
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