Fontaines D.C. - "A Hero's Death" (2020)

I was turned onto Fontaines D.C. by my dad just before the release of this record, saying they sounded somewhere between Joy Division and Arctic Monkeys. And their debut very much fit that description, a moody but breakneck selection of straight to the point post-punk songs. A Hero's Death, on the other hand, delves deeper into the slower, darker and more intense side of post-punk. Keeping with the Joy Division comparisons, its very much more Closer than Unknown Pleasures. The songs are slower and more drawn out, being slow burns that let you sink into the atmospheric bass grooves and Grian Chatten's repetitive, mantra-esque lyrics.

Lyrically, the album starts sad and stays there for its 46 minute runtime. Focusing on the complete social and political disenfranchisement that can lead to the feelings of depression and emptiness. These tracks are so desolate and defeated that even the repeated mantras that Chatten sings sound almost half hearted like he doesn't even really believe them. "Love is the main thing" he repeatedly sings on the second track, but it doesn't sound like he feels any love, it sounds like him clinging to the idea of love to give life some meaning and purpose. It's bleak stuff.

The album also hits the post-punk sweet spot musically, opening with the foggy and slow duo of I Don't Belong and Love Is The Main Thing. The gnarled but restrained rhythm sections sound near enough gothic, interlocking with the twangy but low in the mix lead guitar. These tracks sound like a wet and cold November evening. Especially Love Is The Main Thing with its vibrato effected guitar and references to rain in the lyrics. Televised Mind picks up the tempo for the first time in the record, as everything becomes heavier and the vocal delivery more twisted and cynical. The pummelling bass sounds like some rage filled late night drive, with a whining lead guitar solo just to add to the intensity. A Lucid Dream sounds exactly like its title suggests, a delusional nightmare that's completely disorienting. The back half just descends into noisy madness.

The only time the record tries to dig itself out of the depths is on the title track, a song built around a slightly less bitter and sad guitar line and "ooh ooh" backing vocals, where Chatten repeats the mantra of "Life ain't always empty" over, and lists off ways to make yourself feel happier and more fulfilled in life. It's the kind of track that could come of cringy and overly sentimental, but the band pull it off very well. I Was Not Born is also more uptempo, but its more of an angry anti-capitalist anthem than a 'things can get better' song. The Closer, No, is also a real gem. It's a slow, drawn out ballad that's tinged with hope, but ultimately gets bogged back down in despair, which is a perfect representation of the album as a whole, and the view of life it's trying to present. It is darkly bittersweet.

A Hero's Death is a really solid post-punk record. It just does everything a record like this should to a T. Some might feel that this makes it an inferior imitation of the classics, but for me it just hits the right buttons just like they do. It's another record to add to the list of what to listen to when I'm in the mood for depressing post-punk.

Top Tracks: I Don't Belong, Love Is The Main Thing, Televised Mind, A Lucid Dream, A Hero's Death, No

8/10

Everything Everything - "RE-ANIMATOR" (2020)

 

Everything Everything have grown to be one of my favourite bands of the 2010s. Their maximalist and progressive approach to making pop and rock music has consistently produced wholly enjoyable albums, with 2015's basically flawless Get To Heaven being being the crowning jewel in their discography. The accompaniment of Jonathon Higgs' socio-political lyrics taken to their logical extremes, and super eccentric instrumentation and hooks make the band so ear grabbing to me. However, the band has taken a slight change of course with their 5th record that does make it stand out on it's own in their collection.

The band has made a deliberate attempt to shift their lyrical focus away from politics and society, towards the more abstract ideas surrounding the human condition: the development of consciousness, ideas of supernatural fear, enemies, desire, and tribalism. The opening lyric is "I did what anybody would that day, No speechless gibbon in the road, Not me" and sets up the tone of the record perfectly. To accompany the more cerebral themes, the instrumentation has been toned down. These tracks are far less over the top and manic, and feel simpler and more stark. I understand that it will be a turn off to some fans, as singing along to some batshit lyrics to a super fun poppy groove is a big part of the band's appeal; and even the singles from the record aren't particularly catchy in that way. But for me, the more minimalist approach is a nice change of pace that allows the more conceptual themes room to breathe and sink in.

The opener, Lost Powers, sounds like the grand awakening the opening lyric suggests. The simple chiming guitar and drums slowly give way to more elaborate instrumentation. It sounds like some kind of daybreak as the world slowly becomes more illuminated. Big Climb tackles the uncontrollable desire for excess that seems to drive so many people, backed by a more aggressive glitchy beat and harsher more staccato vocals from Higgs. It Was A Monstering and Moonlight are about as straight up Radiohead-worship as the band has ever been (and the last record, A Fever Dream, had some very Radiohead-y moments), and the first of those is actually a pretty good attempt. The krautrock-ian, rigid drums and dark, hollow guitar tones would fit in perfectly on Amnesiac. Higgs even does a really good Thom Yorke impersonation. The descending guitar lines and sinister hook melody are really good. I especially like the switched up bridge of the track. It's a really well constructed song, even if it's influences are obvious. Moonlight, on the other hand calls back to some of the more serene Radiohead ballads such as Nude. Its not bad, but doesn't quite come together into something particularly distinct for me.

The middle of the record is where it goes on its biggest run, starting with the single Arch Enemy. This track is about as close as the record comes to the band's big pop singles of the past, with its squelchy synth-funk groove and bizarre lyrics comparing an enemy to a fatberg that attaches itself to you. It is the wackiest and most fun song on the album. Lord of the Trapdoor focuses around the ideas of tribalism and 'otherness', built around a really simple and stripped back beat and stark, chiming guitar which just descends into a ferocious, heavily distorted guitar solo that tears up the back half of the song as the track falls into madness. The beat on the following song, Black Hyena, is this super snappy and prangy loop that sounds like something you'd find on a Massive Attack album which gives the song a unique flavour within the EE discography. The lyrics are really sinister, seemingly alluding to personality changes following perhaps brain damage, or maybe just a traumatic event in general - they're pretty abstract.

However, RE-ANIMATOR is certainly the least consistent record since the group's debut. Early on in the record, the single Planets is the first sign of trouble. The track is perfectly listenable, but feels like a one trick pony with its long, slow-burn verses that slowly build up through the chorus towards a spiralling post-chorus synth line. It's the only thing the track has up it's sleeve and it gets old fast. Towards the end of the album, the songs In Birdsong and The Actor also have some crippling flaws that ruin the entire tracks for me. In Birdsong is a linear, building ballad that sounds ethereal and profound; and the track at the core of it is fairly good. But as the track builds in intensity and volume, the entire mix becomes more and more tinny and compressed. It's obviously an intentional artistic choice, but it sounds really unbearable. Likewise, on The Actor, the group go so completely overboard on the reversed vocal effects that it's incredibly distracting and kills any enjoyment I might've got from an already not that impressive song.

The band do save the best cut on the record for last, being the blistering new wave throwback of Violent Sun. The pummelling drums, whining guitar leads, and overwhelming vocal delivery just commands you to feel something. It's really good, and really powerful with the simple message of  'it's okay to feel like you don't understand, or that the world is overwhelmingly confusing and scary'.

RE-ANIMATOR is a good album, if slightly underwhelming when compared to Arc, A Fever Dream, and especially Get To Heaven. I appreciate that the band took risks with their sound, and when the play out, they result in some really good songs. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, especially if you came to the band for their whacky, up-tempo singles. It's certainly an album which grew on me with time though, so don't just write it off on first listen.

Top Tracks: Lost Powers, It Was A Monstering, Arch Enemy, Lord Of The Trapdoor, Black Hyena, Violent Sun

7/10

Declan McKenna - "Zeros" (2020)

 

Declan McKenna burst onto the UK indie scene back in the mid 2010s after winning the 2015 Glastonbury's Emerging Talent competition at the age of just 16, releasing his debut record, What Do You Think Of The Car? a couple of years later in 2017. That record was a perfectly fine, if run of the mill, indie rock album tinged with some existential and political writing that showed some promise (the big single Brazil is genuinely a great indie rock song).

I only began to pay more attention to McKenna last year when he released the non-album single, British Bombs; a protest song about the war in Yemen that sounds straight out of The Clash's London Calling. It's a really great song. That song was followed up by the lead single for this album, Beautiful Faces. The song is the stomping mix of indie rock and glam with a souring otherworldly chorus. The noisy, rough guitar tones; thunderous drumming and whining synths create this raucous and alien atmosphere for Declan's existential vocals to glide over. It's a toss up between these two tracks as to which is the best song McKenna has written but it's one of them for sure.

The mash up of indie rock and glam on Beautiful Faces is carried throughout the whole of Zeros, in a generally entertaining, if messy and disjointed, way. The opener, You Better Believe!!!, starts as a jovial indie rock song with a breezy guitar melody before gaining more and more swagger as the track progresses. The existentialism seeps in as McKenna howls "We're gonna get ourselves killed!" on the bridge. It's such a feel good opener to the record and seems ready made for festival stages. Daniel, You're Still a Child has chunky, new wave groove to it that combines with the glam elements nicely. Declan uses the character of Daniel, who crops up on various points of the album, to voice the themes of teenage nihilism and existential dread; and how you've just got to enjoy yourself at a personal level, despite how terrible the world you're growing up into might seem.

The album is at its weakest when its at its most derivative.The tracks Be an Astronaut and The Key to Life on Earth are so obvious Bowie pastiches. They aren't bad songs but they feel like pale imitations of Bowie's sound and style. Be an Astronaut is a dramatic piano led song akin to the likes of Space Odyssey and Life On Mars, but is no where near as wondrous and whimsical as those classics, or as catchy. The Key to Life on Earth opens with these wobbly synths that sound exactly like the ones on Ashes to Ashes. It's distractingly similar, and the lyrics are also some of the weakest on the record. Declan plays up the teenage drama a bit too much, and is really trying to sell things like not liking school and teen fashion trends as deep, and it doesn't work for me really.

The back half of the record consists of messy but intriguing tracks, that introduce so many ideas and elements that they never quite settle into knowing what are. The track Emily for instance, starts as this twangy folk song, but from the second verse turns into a 'bleepy-bloopy' synth tune, before an admittedly killer guitar solo closes out the song. The song just doesn't know what it is. It is the most egregious example of this lack of cohesion, but it does permeate into other tracks on the second half. They all have good qualities to them (Rapture has super glam-y falsetto hook; and the simple, minimal verses of Sagittarius A* are a nice change of pace), but they don't quite come together into a particularly memorable whole. Twice Your Size is the only song from the second half that feels like a focused, complete experience, and it's one of the better tracks on the album. The very 70's synth tones and jangly guitar combine with McKenna's yelpy vocals to make something slightly psychedelic and woozy, climaxing to a wall of sound at the end of the song.

Zeros feels like the kind of transitional album for an artist still in development (hes only 21), but an ambitious and interesting one, even if it doesn't always hit the mark. McKenna's personality is also strong enough to carry the album when it's ideas don't quite land, meaning it never drags. It's solid but only touches upon something greater in a couple of places.

Top Tracks: You Better Believe!!!, Beautiful Faces, Daniel, You're Still A Child, Twice Your Size

6/10

Biffy Clyro - "A Celebration Of Endings" (2020)

Biffy Clyro have consistently put out decent records since their 2002 debut, even though they only really touched greatness with the consecutive releases of Puzzle and Only Revolutions in the late 2000s. A Celebration Of Endings very much follows in that path, being another really solid, enjoyable record of Biffy doing what Biffy do. It's completely what you would expect from a Biffy record, but it's still a great time regardless.

I was initially a little worried as two of the four teaser singles really didn't do anything for me at all. These two tracks, Instant History and Tiny Indoor Fireworks, felt like the band had succumbed to the most tired of pop rock tropes; which I didn't get as the band have done pop rock brilliantly in the past (tracks like Howl and Bubbles just to name a couple). Instant History comes straight out of that Imagine Dragons style of faux-epic, genreless nothing music and I have no idea why the band decided to try and make a song like this. It's not the worst that this type of music has to offer, but it's a really bland and simple song that has no depth at all. The guitars are mixed slightly higher on the album version which makes the track slightly better I guess. Tiny Indoor Fireworks sounds like 2000s power pop perfect for a trashy teen movie, and the tune at the core of it is pretty decent; but the track is plastered with these garish, annoying whoops and heys and it completely overwhelms any of the good elements of the track.

The other two teasers, on the other hand, are the best tracks on the record. Weird Leisure is classic Biffy, being a super heavy and off kilter but also super melodic and anthemic at the same time. The verses have this massive syncopation in the time signature which give the song a really ear-grabbing bounce to it. The song is about one of singer Simon Neil's friend's cocaine addiction, and has some really scathing yet honest lyrics in it. "You focus on others and just pick apart their dreams / It's fucking mean" is one of the most brutal. Yet the song comes full circle, detailing that this guy recovered and elaborating that Simon (or anyone else) could easily fall into the same trap. End Of is straight up, simple post-hardcore thrashing and it is so cathartic and relentless - it's great. The track details the fractured relationship between the band and someone they used to work with, and just doesn't hold back lyrically or sonically.

The opening and closing tracks are also high points on the record. North Of No South, the opener, gives a uniquely Scottish perspective on the UK leaving the EU. "You had a choice and you chose to believe it" Simon anthemically howls over loud triumphant guitars and soaring backing vocals. Cop Syrup is the heaviest and least 'pop' song here. Simon literally screams "fuck everybody, wooo!" over and over, on top of super heavy instrumentation. But in the middle of the track there is an extended orchestral section that sounds really great. The song closes out the record at its most massive and epic. The Pink Limit is also a pretty good track on the record. It has a manic energy to it as the band just go wild. The drumming on the track is thunderous, and the guitars are hectic and sporadic.

The other tracks on the record aren't that bad in comparison to the best moments, but generally follow the Biffy formula to varying results. The Champ has a kitchen sink mentality which means it never really settles. It starts as a dramatic piano and strings type song, before shifting into a more standard pop rock sound from the second verse. Then there's an emo-ish downtuned bridge that comes completely out of nowhere and then its back to the pop rock for the climax of the song. Its very all over the place. Opaque tackles the theme of betrayal by a close friend much like End Of, although in the form of a slow acoustic song. It's a very genuine and sincere song, but sounds exactly like slow acoustic songs in the band's back catalogue. If you've heard Machines, you've heard this. Worst Type Of Best Possible sounds straight out of Puzzle, although doesn't quite stack up to the songs on that album in terms of quality. It's a fine song, but one we've heard Biffy do better before. The last track to mention is Space, which is the most run of the mill alt-rock, string laden, power ballad. It's inoffensive but completely uninteresting to me.

A Celebration Of Endings is another solid album from Biffy. It's not their strongest offering, but the fact that no other band really sounds like them means it's still really enjoyable to me. Aside from a couple of hiccups, it's just Biffy doing what Biffy do, and it still works.

Top Tracks: North Of No South, Weird Leisure, End Of, The Pinkest Limit, Cop Syrup

7/10

The Killers - "Imploding The Mirage" (2020)

The Killers were one of my favourite bands as a teenager, and although it's only their first two records that are truly great, every record they've brought out since then has been at least decent, since the band have settled into their style of heartland rock meets new wave and do it pretty well. I know what I'm getting with a Killers record, and I know I'll enjoy it in the moment, even if it doesn't stick with me over time.

That being said, I enjoyed the group's last release, 2017's Wonderful Wonderful, slightly more than Day & Age and Battle Born due to the sense of subtlety and insecurity it had (perhaps due to tensions within the band preventing them from recording a record for 5 years). Killers records are usually bombastically optimistic and earnest, but WW had a real vulnerability and unease to it. Imploding The Mirage is the exact opposite. This is easily the most bombastic and stadium sized record the band has released so far, and it is kind of it's undoing. Almost every track here turns it up to 11, as if every song is trying to be the album's climax, which ultimately is to the detriment of the songs here, as most of them are pretty good.

Lead single, Caution, is the best of the bunch. A typical Killers lead single, sounding absolutely massive with a rip roaring, anthemic chorus, wailing guitars and synths and a kick ass guitar solo courtesy of Fleetwood Mac's Lindsay Buckingham. "I'm throwing caution..." Brandon Flowers wails in the Springsteen-esque chorus and it captures that sense of catharsis and sheer overwhelming emotion that all the best Killers songs do. The thing is, it is the 4th track on the record, with the two similarly Springsteen inspired and massive singles My Own Souls Warning and Dying Breed before it. When I heard them for the first time in isolation, despite them being pretty good songs, they felt like just not quite as good versions of Caution. On the record however, because they come first, by the time I get to Caution I enjoy it less, as I have already been bombarded by these tracks without any respite in a more subtle moment. As a track, My Own Souls Warning has grown on me quite a lot. It's the kind of opener that really pumps you up with soaring melodic synths and jangly guitars, and Flower's slightly wobbly vocal inflections on the song give it a really endearing nature. It's a real feel good song. Dying Breed is built on drum samples from krautrock legends Can and NEU!, which give the song a unique sound in the first half, but are overwhelmed by the more standard Killers instrumentation as soon as the live drums kick in and you can barely hear that original rhythm. The track does have one of the best choruses on the record though, so it's an odd mixed bag of a track.

The album only really comes close to having a subtle moment to regain itself in two places, in the tracks Blowback and Fire In Bone. I really like the gentler instrumentation on Blowback, but the hook is one of the weakest on the record and it really kills my enjoyment of the song. Brandon really sang "She's breathing in the blowback" and expects it to be a singalong chorus?... Fire In Bone, on the other hand, I really like. It's a funky, Talking Head's inspired track that stays reserved and lets you enjoy it's groove and quirky lyrics. It does climax towards the end of the song, but unlike most the tracks here it doesn't explode into the first chorus, setting it apart from the others.

A couple of the later deep cuts, Running Towards A Place and My God, also impressed me quite a bit. Running Towards A Place channels a very pop-era Fleetwood Mac energy with a silky smooth bass-line that's a lot less pummelling and intense than the ones on the singles, but still builds up the layers as the track progresses to a big climax that feels very earned. All the little guitar and synth licks are placed just in the right moments to give the track a lot of character. My God has a really catchy chorus that embedded itself into my brain on first listen. Flowers and guest Weyes Blood sing it in this kind of blocky flow that puts emphasis on every other word in each line. It's pretty memorable. The drums on this track are thunderous, just pummelling along with the melody. Weyes take the lead on the bridge where the track shifts to a Madonna sounding synth pop sound, and while it sounds completely different to the rest of the song, it works.

With every track trying to be the most epic on the album, some do lose out. Lightning Fields is quite forgettable, being super reverby with a long meandering chorus that doesn't really have much of a hook to it, yet Brandon is still singing is heart out trying to make it sound important. When The Dreams Run Dry is the only serious dip in quality on the record, as it has this kitchen sink mentality which makes it feel like one of those tacky novelty 80s new wave songs that would smash other genres into the typical synth pop format just for the sake of it. The track has kind of a reggae beat and tropical synths, and Flowers even does a stereotypical 'reggae' vocals for the second verse. The chorus is also so blown out and too loud, and the whole tropical angle is dropped in the second half, which means the track doesn't really end up anywhere interesting, it just sounds a bit cheesy and tacky.

Imploding The Mirage is the kind of record that is pretty decent, but could've been a lot better if the band didn't insist on turning it up to 11 on every single song. It really needs a couple more genuinely reserved songs for it to feel like a complete album. That being said, if most of these songs came up on shuffle, I wouldn't skip them; which shows that the album's issues aren't to do with the writing, more the structure. It is a bit disappointing, since Wonderful Wonderful seemed like the band was on the right track, although this album is still isn't the group's weakest (Battle Born has it beat for that). Yeah it's Killers album, so if you know what to expect from the band, you'll get at least something from it.

Top Tracks: My Own Souls Warning, Dying Breed, Caution, Fire In Bone, Running Towards A Place, My God

6/10

Glass Animals - "Dreamland" (2020)

Glass Animals first two albums were pretty different, but equally great records that mixed up a lot of different sounds and styles including art pop, psychedelia, R&B and indietronica. However since the release of How To Be A Human Being in 2016, the band's drummer Joe Seaward was involved in a serious cycling accident and suffered brain damage, causing the band to go on hiatus while he recovered. Thankfully he has made a full recovery, and the whole experience left frontman Dave Bayley wanting to create a more personal album for their next release, as opposed to the eccentric character studies of HTBAHB.

This shift in lyrical content has also been accompanied by a shift in sound as well. The R&B elements of their sound take the centre stage here, with the psychedelic and art pop tendencies nowhere to be found. These R&B influences have been augmented with more than a handful of trap beats and a general washed-out, hazy dream pop atmosphere. I understand that this an attempt to match the dreamy nostalgia of the lyrical content, and that the more eccentric elements of the band's sound in the past would not have fit. However the album doesn't really sound dreamy, it sounds flat and sedated. This is part due to how slickly produced it is, but mostly due to the generic and predictable songwriting on both fronts - lyrically and musically.

Nearly every beat and groove on this record feels like I've heard it before in some generic pop tune on the radio in the past two or three years. It's the same thing with the hooks, melodies and chord progressions. It's almost as if the band was aiming for that market of boring, meaningless, 'vibey' pop songs that leave no impact and say nothing. The title track opens up the record with the most generic of Ibiza styled piano riff's before Bayley comes in with the most repetitive of vocal melodies, all filtered through so much reverb and echo it just sounds like slush. That's literally all the song does for three and a half minutes. The following track, Tangerine, sounds like Bayley heard Childish Gambino's Feels Like Summer, tried to make it, and ended up making something that sounds enough like it for it to be noticeable, but with a melody and groove so repetitive it fails miserably at recreating that euphoric summery vibe. It's All So Incredibly Loud is a linear track that is supposed to build and build throughout until the climax at the end of the song. However, the chord progression and synth crescendo at the of the song sound like any summer club track you'd here over the past 4 or 5 years; even if the percussion rhythm at the base of the track is decent.

Lyrically the album just doesn't work either. It's supposed to be about Bayley's experiences growing up - so it's a coming of age story. But it isn't; it's just a bunch of references to things from the late 90s / early 2000s (Space Ghost Coast To Coast is basically just a list of early 00s video games), and generic 'vibey' party songs about partying and sex and booze. There's no story here, no arc. Bayley is telling us nothing about himself, and filling in the gaps with his usual references to fruit and other random things. This fractured, whacky lyrical style worked on HTBAHB when he was turning it up to 11 and creating these incredibly eccentric character studies. On Dreamland, it seems like he doesn't want to turn himself into a caricature like this, but toning down the eccentricity just makes obvious Bayley's lyrical shortcomings.

While the majority of the record, while incredibly dull and boring, is inoffensively bland; there are a handful of real stinkers in here. Tokyo Drifting features Bayley's absolutely terrible attempt at trap rapping, and his vocals are filtered with so many effects that it genuinely sounds horrible. Luckily he hands the reigns over to Denzel Curry half way through, and Denzel being an incredibly talented rapper almost saves the track (but not quite). Melon And The Coconut personifies a fracturing relationship as these two fruit talking to each other, and it as stupid as it sounds. Bayley's vocals are filtered through the worst auto-tune imaginable, and there's a bluesy guitar part in the track that feels like its been put through the same awful effects. Waterfalls Coming Out Your Mouth obsession with sex really rubs the wrong way, I think due to it trying so hard to come across dirty and edgy while still attempting to be random and quirky. There's a lyric about gummy bears in this track, and gummy bears are not sexy, and trying to make them sound it comes across really weird and creepy. The track is also awfully mixed. Every part of the song is either too loud or too quiet at various points, but the dynamic is constantly shifting and it sounds terrible.

There are a couple of tracks that do feel fairly decent, although they would easily be some of the weakest tracks if they appeared on the group's first two records. Hot Sugar is built on the same jazzy sample as Loyle Carner's You Don't Know from last year, and it gives the song more of a sense of genuine coolness and actual life to it, and the vocal melody isn't too bad either. However if I think about the track too much, all I can think of is that if I like the song because of the sample and You Don't Know uses the sample better, why aren't I listing to that instead? Your Love (Deja Vu) is easily the best track here. The beat and bass groove on the track give it the greatest sense of urgency and momentum of any of the songs, and Bayley's vocals sound sensual and impactful. And the melody is actually catchy and not repetitive.

This record is one of those ones that feels so much longer than it is, by virtue of it being so repetitive and boring. I could not tell any of tracks from the last leg of the record apart from each other, because they all sound the same, and all sound so weak and unmemorable. Furthermore, there are enough stinkers on here for me to not ever want to come back to it. I find it so perplexing that the band threw out everything that made their first two records really interesting and fun, and replaced it with a sound that is already done to death, that they aren't even doing to a degree of any quality. This is not a good album and I'm really disappointed by it.

Top Track: Your Love (Deja Vu)

3/10

Pink Floyd - "Dark Side of the Moon" (1973)

So last summer I started listening to Pink Floyd's discography properly, however I ended up only listening to the band's first two albums, and only ended up writing about the first. However a documentary I watched on concept records which featured The Dark Side of the Moon pretty prominently, and its (obvious) inclusion on my '100 Albums to listen to' poster has spurred me on into listening to the groups 8th studio record, regardless of my original intentions of listening along chronologically. I'm glad I did, because Dark Side is a fantastic album, and it is so obvious why it was such a game changing album when it released, and the influence it has had on some of my favourite artists and records is blatant.

Compared to the band's earlier releases, Dark Side is so much more accessible, musically and lyrically. None of the tracks here take the weird left field turns that the first few records do, and all follow the consistent theme of modern human life - from birth to death, and all the trials and tribulations people face along the way. Every track on the record transitions smoothly into the next song, aside from The Great Gig in the Sky and Money, being at the end of side 1 and the beginning of side 2 on the original vinyl format of the record. This lends the record an incredible flow, particularly in the first half, where the entire side feels like one long, multi-part song.

Part of why the first half of the record flows so well is that it follows a clear linear narrative. The intro, Speak to Me, is essentially the moment of birth; which leads into Breathe (in the Air), with lyrics that read like a parent setting up their child for adulthood. On the Run is a tense instrumental piece which reflects the frantic nature of adult life, before Time slows the album back down with lyrics dealing with all the dull, mind-numbing tasks you have to do to exist in society as an adult that you can't run away from. The half climaxes with soul inspired The Great Gig in the Sky, which represents death and ascending to some sort of afterlife.

Breathe is the first proper song on the record, and it sounds beyond phenomenal. The woozy, psychedelic guitar tones on the track sound so dreamlike and enveloping. The same sound and atmosphere runs through Radiohead's OK Computer, and listening to Dark Side, I can see how it Directly influenced Radiohead when making that album. Time opens with a disorienting barrage of sampled clocks ticking, chiming and alarms before settling into the same hazy atmosphere as Breathe (there's even a reprise of Breathe at the end of the track). The track slowly builds towards the introduction of vocals which build up the momentum in the song. David Gilmour sings "Ticking away the moments that make up the dull day" as the opening line and it sums up the mood of the songs perfectly; the unavoidable banality that soaks up all of your time for your whole life. The Great Gig in the Sky features no lyrics, just the emotional, soulful wails from singer Clare Torry. The track feels triumphant and ethereal, which is quite a positive spin for a track literally about dying.

The second half of the record follows less of a linear narrative, with subject matters that are more broad and grand than the experiences of just one person. Money opens the side with the iconic sounds of cash registers cashing and clicking. These layer up and morph into a mechanical drum beat as Rodger Water's bluesy bass riff combines and drives the song along. It's easily the most direct song on the record, with Gilmour's vocals howling about how money and greed drives all of society's ills. The guitar solo towards the end of the song just roars and wails. Us and Them, by contrast, is so dreamlike and foggy. A jazzy saxophone and echo-y vocal effects make you feel like you're walking around in the clouds. The nearly 8 minute song is also lyrically quite foggy and more abstract. The track revolves around the ideas of conflict and division, at the scales of interpersonal relationships, society, and at the global scale of wars between nations.

The last three tracks are a lot shorter, and flow together like a medley. Any Colour You Like is another instrumental, and features the return of the woozy guitars from Breathe and Time and represents the illusion of choice in society (the title is a reference to the Ford Model T, which only came in black to aid in mass production). Brain Damage, inspired by former member Syd Barett's drug abuse and resulting mental health issues, is about how the stresses and strains of life can be too much for some people and cause them to loose their minds. The track has a different atmosphere than the rest of the album, feeling more fairytale like reflecting the separation from reality that Syd and so many others appeared to feel. Eclipse is quite an anthemic closer, with very simple lyrics repeating "All that you... see/touch/feel/ect". It brings together all of the topics of the past 9 tracks under the final statement that 'this is life'. All of the good, all of the bad; and you can't avoid any of it.

Musically, this album is phenomenal, and sounds just as enveloping and rich as any album today. It doesn't sound like it has aged one bit. However, lyrically the record goes for a generalist approach which I find slightly stops me being completely absorbed by it. None of the tracks feel particularly personal, being sung in the second person and talking about very universal experiences. Take Brain Damage for example; the track is inspired by Syd Barett's declining mental state, but it's not about it specifically, it's about losing your mind just generally. This isn't a criticism really, just more personal preference.

The Dark Side of the Moon is a fantastic album still to this day, and it is blatant how game-changing it was when it was first released. It's so much more accessible than the band's earlier work, yet remains so inventive and incredibly well written and performed. It is such a complete experience back to front, and at only 43 mins it is really replay-able for how grandiose it is.

Top Tracks: Breathe (In the Air), On the Run, Time, The Great Gig in the Sky, Money, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage, Eclipse

9/10