The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
The Dark Side of the Moon is a 1973 ambient album by Pink Floyd.
The record opens on a heartbeat. Everything after it concerns the things that make one race: time slipping past, money, work, war, and the fear of losing your grip on your own mind.
Pink Floyd worked the material out on stage through 1972 before recording it in two sessions at EMI Studios in London, which is why it moves like a set rather than a track list. It is a concept album in the strict sense, built around the pressures of the band's own touring life and around the mental health of Syd Barrett, the founding member who was no longer with them. Songs run into each other over cash registers, ticking clocks, aircraft and snatches of interview answers taped in the studio, so the whole thing plays as one continuous piece rather than as ten separate ones. It was released on 1 March 1973 in the United States on Capitol and on 16 March in the United Kingdom on Harvest.
The reason it still gets handed to people has little to do with the mythology around it. It is beautifully paced, warm-sounding, and unusually plain about ordinary dread, and it works equally well as something on in the background and as the only thing you do for the length of a side.
Quick answers
What is The Dark Side of the Moon about?
The record opens on a heartbeat. Everything after it concerns the things that make one race: time slipping past, money, work, war, and the fear of losing your grip on your own mind. Pink Floyd worked the material out on stage through 1972 before recording it in two sessions at EMI Studios in London, which is why it moves like a set rather than a track list. It is a concept album in the strict sense, built around the pressures of the band's own touring life and around the mental health of Syd Barrett, the founding member who was no longer with them. Songs run into each other over cash registers, ticking clocks, aircraft and snatches of interview answers taped in the studio, so the whole thing plays as one continuous piece rather than as ten separate ones. It was released on 1 March 1973 in the United States on Capitol and on 16 March in the United Kingdom on Harvest. The reason it still gets handed to people has little to do with the mythology around it. It is beautifully paced, warm-sounding, and unusually plain about ordinary dread, and it works equally well as something on in the background and as the only thing you do for the length of a side.
When was The Dark Side of the Moon released?
The Dark Side of the Moon was released in 1973.
Who made The Dark Side of the Moon?
The Dark Side of the Moon is by Pink Floyd.
Similar albums
Explore The Dark Side of the Moon guides
The Dark Side of the Moon in our writing
- Companion guide: Mind Control & Brainwashing
A few thoughts on The Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd built this to be lived inside rather than sampled, which changes what pairs with it. 2001: A Space Odyssey moves at the same unhurried pace and trusts sound and silence exactly the way the album does. Outer Wilds is the closest game equivalent, a small solar system you drift through with a score that keeps reminding you how little you are. If the Syd Barrett thread is what catches, Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd follows it directly, and Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii puts the band in a Roman amphitheatre with nobody in the seats, which is the closest thing to watching this sound get made.
The rest of Pink Floyd, album by album
Dark Side of the Moon is the doorway most people enter Pink Floyd through. These are the records on either side of it: the pastoral Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the grief of Wish You Were Here, the political Final Cut, the reunion of The Division Bell. The full arc of the band's sound.
Immersive albums to sink into on headphones
Dark Side plays as one continuous forty-three-minute mood, best heard front to back with the lights low. These records reward the same deep listening, atmospheric and textured, built from synths, samples and space rather than singles. Put them on, close your eyes and let the whole thing wash over you.
Long-form journeys that build slowly to a peak
Dark Side grew out of Pink Floyd's live suites, songs that stretch and drift into one another. These albums chase that same patience, from the twenty-minute tides of Meddle to Godspeed's cathedral crescendos and the wordless drift of The Endless River. Music that rewards patience over the quick hit.
Studio landmarks that changed what an album could be
Dark Side used the studio as an instrument, stitching heartbeats and cash registers into the songs. These records pushed production the same way and reshaped pop in the process, from the medleys of Abbey Road to the pristine dancefloor of Thriller. Craft you can hear in every layer.