0649. Pink Floyd
The Dark Side Of The Moon

Right smack in the middle of Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and The Wall (with six years and a bunch of albums on both sides), this is Pink Floyd's first "true" theme album (about things that pisses people off and drive them insane).

And while people with too much time and drugs on their hands figured out that the album aligns sort of perfectly with The Wizard Of Oz from 1939, the band actually were more concerned with making a kickass album than playing that kind of games.

Touring the full album for a year before even recording it, they got to know what parts could be trimmed out and also found others to fit in. And it's in all practical means two suites of songs, one for the A- and B-side each, consisting of five tracks each. Of these I'd have to say the B-side's the best, with the combo of album-apex Money and Us And Them (where the saxophone gets annoying) bridging over into Brain Damage and Eclipse via the lesser Any Colour You like.

Just the beginning of a successful string of theme or concept albums, but what a beginning!