Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd (CD, Oct-1990, Capitol/EMI Records)

A strong contender for the greatest album ever released. 'Dark Side of the Moon' spent over 14 years in the US Billboard charts and has a total of nearly 7 years in total in the British album charts, making it the longest and 5th longest chart runs ever respectively for any album. Now chart success doesn't necessarily equate to artistic greatness, but this album is widely acclaimed as a true classic.
The music runs continuously, each song merging into the next (except for one break - this was an LP release originally), all on the general theme of life and its trials. The tracks themselves are superb, ranging from (almost) straightforward rock songs like 'Money'(a US top 20 single with some very neat time changes) and 'Time', through languid accoustic tracks like 'Breathe in the Air' and 'Brain Damage', to the almost transcendental 'Great Gig in the Sky' featuring an incredible lyricless vocal performance from the initially uncredited Clare Torry. And then there is the frankly psychotic 'On the Run' with its fast paced cyclic rhythm and explosive crescendo.
But what really makes this album great is the addition of various sound samples such as manic laughter, screams, chiming clocks, looped cash registers, a heartbeat, and - most notably - various quotes such as 'I know I'm mad. I've always been mad, like most of us are' and 'There is no dark side of the moon really. As a matter of fact it's all dark'. These were apparently responses to a series of questions on a card which were put to various people in and around the studio, and the inclusion of these was the icing on the cake.
The production is far better than anything else of the period and introduced a whole new experience to multi channel listening. To this day it still sounds incredible on a set of headphones.
Even though many of the songs are excellent on their own merits, it is the whole album as opposed to its parts that gives the most gratifying results. This is an absolutely essential part of any serious music collection. Enjoy....