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Brought this for my husband as he had lost the vinyl version when we last moved. Has always love Pink Floyd. Great music, never to be outdone. Will get heaps of playing time.
For me Pink Floyd rather lost their way after Piper. Ironic then that over thirty years after it was released Rolling Stone would have it as 347/500 all time. As the years passed Floyd remained a mainstay in the UK album charts while in the US none of the group's subsequent six LP's cracked Billboard's top 50. The record has just 38 minutes of music, proving once again that we don't need to fill every cd with to its maximum 80 minutes. However I cannot begin to describe how spectacular the reproduction is on this hybrid SACD. They simply didn't have the rest of the equation worked out. On Amazon.com there are 1202 Pepper reviews and nearly 1500 for Dark Side. There isn't a remotely weak track to be found.
My recollection is that Dark Side was a collection of accessible prog-space-acid-psychedelic rock songs far more commercial in nature than anything that the band had recorded theretofore. An edible cake has the right combination of ingredients, mixed in the appropriate order and for the appropriate length of time so as to create a batter of the proper consistency. This record was and remains an exceptional, once in a lifetime achievement that still sounds as fresh as the day it was released. Like Hotel California, A Stairway to Heaven and Thriller, Dark Side is much-played (perhaps over-played) music that never wears out its welcome with me.
Combined Canadian sales for all formats are estimated at 2 million - in a country of 35 million. The years come and go, yet I never tire of this album. Although the album was successful in the UK (#6) it went unnoticed in the US (#131). A cake is a combination of eggs, flour, milk and sugar, mixed and baked. At that time no-one predicted that the group would become as huge as it did. However, today, if I really listen closely and analyze the music I realize that the music on Dark Side isn't that far removed from the music that preceded it on the LP's that I don't particular care for. Sales for the cd still approach 10,000 a week.
Picking my way through More, Atom Heart Mother or Ummagumma to find the worthwhile tracks was just too much like hard work. With Dark Side the band learned that focus and superlative production (engineer Alan Parsons) does make a huge difference. I was on to these guys early - 1967 - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - still have the rather well-played and scratchy LP. The cake mixture is then placed in the oven at the correct temperature for the appropriate period of time. Pink Floyd always had the ingredients. The sound affects, rather than being just unrelated noise, become integral parts of the song.
Dark Side was therefore a revelation. Dark Side has always sounded tremendous, from record through to cd. This changed in 1973 with the release of The Dark Side of the Moon. The lyrics are interesting. Subsequent LP's wandered rather aimlessly hither and hither, a decent song or piece of music followed by meandering/experimental sections or songs that to my ear were more a collection of sounds than they were music. The band suddenly matured and the result was a brilliantly consistent album with one great song followed by another.
The songs no longer meander, as if searching for a conclusion - five on the album are under 4 minutes in length.
This is the least impressive of my 5.1 SACD/DVD-Audio discs. Instruments are discretely placed in separate channels about as much or as often as they should/could have been, but various vocal sections and istrumental ones are very hushed or subdued to the point of barely being present. Some songs/passages are impressive (Breathe, Us and Them), others starkly lacking (Time, Great Gig, Money) on this SACD. Only a minor improvement over the stereo version letting Dolby Pro-Logic II do the surround. And yes, all my channel levels are set correctly. Not like the original, for sure. Get "Avalon" or "Brothers In Arms" and you'll see what I mean. Beatles' "Love" DVD-A is also quite impressive.
Desde que puse este cd por primera vez quede impresionado por la calidad del sonido. es de otro mundo. hasta ude percatarme de pequeños detalles que nunca habia escuchado en las ediciones anteriores como minusculas voces mas debiles que las conocidas por todos o detalles de los instrumentos que se escuchan tan nitidos que no lo podia creerdeben tenerlo sean fans o no.
I couldn't possibly improve on any of the positive comments made previously, but DSOTM brought us into a new time and space that had never before been explored sonically. I don't care if this masterwork, on some levels, might sound a bit "dated", even on SACD. It is beyond "a timeless classic. It was a gift from the gods.
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