Pink Floyd

Floyd continued to peak with this '75 release, featuring the majestic, glittering ode to fallen member Syd Barrett that opens the set and runs nearly 15 minutes. The album closes with a variation on the same theme. In between you'll find nothing short of rock radio genius: three mid-length tunes you can and probably will be singing till the day you die.

Without Pink Floyd we would not have the European sci-fi multitudes (Hawkwind, Can,
Amon Duul II and all their little friends) to kick around. They were the first to explore the
upper reaches of the chemical heavens, and their commercial and artistic superiority, if
ever it was in doubt, was brutally confirmed by Dark Side of the Moon. That 1973 album has
now sold over 6,000,000 units worldwide -- 3,000,000 in the U.S. alone. Advance... More >

No dumb tribulations-of-a-rock-star epic here--the dedication to long-departed crazy Syd Barrett gives it an emotional resolve that mitigates what little self-pity lyricist Roger Waters allows himself. Even more remarkable, the music is not only simple and attractive, with the synthesizer used mostly for texture and the guitar breaks for comment, but it actually achieves some of the symphonic dignity (and cross-referencing) that The Dark Side of the Moon simulated so ponderously. And the cover/liner art is worthy of all the stoned raps it has no doubt already inspired. (Grade - A-)