Rank the Tracks 206: Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon

spreadsheets with previous results can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12PpZ3uQ093tRPVu-KLewIxmrzfLJf1oo?usp=drive_link

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_2
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_3
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks_Set_4

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Thursday, March 13th at 8:00 AM Central Time ; If you do get in a vote after the deadline but before I post the results, I will probably include it.
7. Every few weeks, a nomination period will open; there may or may not be a theme. Each user can nominate one album. The following week, everyone will be able to rank their top ~5 among the choices - this will use a bottom-up scoring approach, i.e. voting for one album will give your #1 a single point, voting for five will give your #1 five points, so it is always better to vote for the maximum number of albums. The top ~5 will then be covered (if there is a tie leading to six entries, both get in - if more than that, I will do a tiebreaker)
8. Skits and tracks under 40 seconds will be excluded from the rankings unless argued otherwise

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon track list:
1. Speak to Me
2. Breathe (In the Air)
3. On the Run
4. Time
5. The Great Gig in the Sky
6. Money
7. Us and Them
8. Any Colour You Like
9. Brain Damage
10. Eclipse

Future weeks:
3/13: Green Day - Dookie (+ album noms)
3/20: Billy Joel - An Innocent Man (+ album voting)
3/27: Portishead - Dummy

Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
PunishedJeezy (18)
Seanchan (22)
FoolFantastic (26)
MarkS2222222222 (28)
Mega_Mana (28)
MaxGalactica (30)
Fluttershy_Pony (32)
Johnbobb (34)
RyoCaliente (38)
HBJDubs (40)
hotdogturtle (48)

General Album Comments

Seanchan : I don't think I'd heard this full albums before, though I've heard the big hits more times than I can count. Semi-Charmed Life was such a mega pop hit back in the day. Jumper and How's It Going to Be were also hits that I remember from back then. On a first listen those just really overpower the rest of the album.

Mega_Mana : I've listened to this album in the background enough times over the past two decades that I'm surprised like two or three did not really register in my long-term memory at all.

Bitto : Skipping this week. I tried doing two listens and just lost interest both times. I always liked Semi-Charmed Life and Losing a Whole Year, Jumper, and Motorcycle Drive-by were standouts to my listens.

FoolFantastic : Should be a short and sweet pop rock classic, but it's held back by length. Cut this down from 14 to 10 tracks and you get a potential all-timer.

Sheep007 : Decent album on the A-side, most of that B-side melts into one. I haven't been able to separate them whatsoever across two listens, so it feels like pretty much any ranking I did would be arbitrary. Semi-Charmed Life is the obvious choice for #1, and I liked Losing a Whole Year a lot, but once we get to the latter half, I'm pretty much spent.

Fluttershy_Pony : Good album, but I always forget just how long it is. Probably could have stood to remove two or three tracks, but I like enough songs here that it's still quite strong even if I find it a bit long.

Seanchan : I fully agree with what everyone has said about this album being too long. At the same time (and maybe I was just in a good mood on my last listen), the album goes pretty deep with good, listenable songs. It's kind of that Burning Man-Good for You-London stretch that brings it down a bit overall and I could do without. On the whole though, this one surprised me as it grew on me a bit and was more than just the big hit singles.

HBJDubs : I agree that this could have been cut down to around 10 tracks to make the bangers stand out even more. I still like everything on this album, but there definitely is a clear cut difference between the top and bottom halves.

hotdogturtle : This album has too many songs. Individually none of them are too egregious, but the album overstayed its welcome long before it was over.

MetalmindStats : Jumper means a great deal to me, for reasons that have very little to do with conventional readings of its lyrics. I went in already quite fond of How's It Going to Be, as well, and so had hoped I'd find the rest of the album more-or-less compelling. And... it's fine - surprisingly distinct on a full-album basis, but with too many similar-sounding songs to make me want to attempt a track ranking.

MaxGalactica : Mostly enjoyable alt rock album, although you can feel the bloat with a few filler tracks from track ~7-11. Definitely agree with the sentiment that if you removed those, this would be really great.

PunishedJeezy : I was lucky enough to see Third Eye Blind a few years back when they were doing a nostalgia tour and playing this album in full. The front half is great, and I've got a lot of affection for both Semi-Charmed Life and Jumper which were big songs from my childhood that I would listen to over and over.

Third Eye Blind track ranking

14. Burning Man (Track #8)
Score: 39 (Average Rank: 11.45/14)
Biggest Fan(s): RyoCaliente (#8)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan (#14)

13. The Background (Track #12)
Score: 44 (Average Rank: 11/14)
Biggest Fan(s): FoolFantastic (#7)
Biggest Detractor(s): Johnbobb (#14)

12. Good for You (Track #9)
Score: 48 (Average Rank: 10.64/14)
Biggest Fan(s): hotdogturtle (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): RyoCaliente, FoolFantastic, PunishedJeezy (#14)

11. I Want You (Track #11)
Score: 55 (Average Rank: 10/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan (#6)
Biggest Detractor(s): Mega_Mana, MarkS2222222222 (#14)

10. London (Track #10)
Score: 58 (Average Rank: 9.73/14)
Biggest Fan(s): hotdogturtle (#5)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#14)

9. God of Wine (Track #14)
Score: 64 (Average Rank: 9.27/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): hotdogturtle (#14)

8. Thanks a Lot (Track #7)
Score: 72 (Average Rank: 8.45/14)
Biggest Fan(s): RyoCaliente (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): MaxGalactica (#14)

7. Narcolepsy (Track #2)
Score: 80 (Average Rank: 7.91/14)
Biggest Fan(s): RyoCaliente (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#14)

Johnbobb: ironic title because this album was putting me to sleep ayyy

6. Motorcycle Drive By (Track #13)
Score: 95 (Average Rank: 7/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Mega_Mana (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs, Johnbobb (#13)

5. How's It Going to Be (Track #6)
Score: 111 (Average Rank: 5.27/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): hotdogturtle (#11)

4. Graduate (Track #5)
Score: 115 (Average Rank: 5/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): MarkS2222222222 (#8)

3. Losing a Whole Year (Track #1)
Score: 140 (Average Rank: 3.36/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Fluttershy_Pony (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): RyoCaliente (#7)

2. Jumper (Track #4)
Score: 146 (Average Rank: 3.55/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs, MarkS2222222222 (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): hotdogturtle (#12)

1. Semi-Charmed Life (Track #3)
Score: 165 (Average Rank: 2.36/14)
Biggest Fan(s): RyoCaliente, FoolFantastic, Seanchan, hotdogturtle, MaxGalactica, PunishedJeezy (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Mega_Mana, HBJDubs (#5)

Looks like we're all mostly in agreement that cutting Burning Man through The Background (tracks 8-12) would have made Third Eye Blind a pretty damn killer 9 track album.

One of the albums I've listened to since I was a wee little baby and don't really need to do multiple listens, since my opinions on the tracks are largely solidified

1. Time
2. Us and Them
3. The Great Gig in the Sky
4. Breathe (In the Air)
5. Eclipse
6. Brain Damage
7. On the Run
8. Any Colour You Like
9. Money
10. Speak to Me

My copy of the album has Speak to Me/Breathe as one track so I need to figure out for the first time ever where the split actually is haha.

Underleveled posted...

My copy of the album has Speak to Me/Breathe as one track so I need to figure out for the first time ever where the split actually is haha.

Okay, so I wasn't going crazy when I thought that was the case. Both Spotify and Wikipedia have them separated, but reading further I now see it was a change that started in 2011.

As such, we should probably just treat Speak to Me as the intro to Breathe. Listening now, Speak to Me isn't exactly a song.

Speak to Me is cool as fuck but I'm absolutely chill with it not being considered a song for this purpose.

1. Time
2. Us and Them
3. Brain Damage
4. Eclipse
5. Breathe (In the Air)
6. Money
7. The Great Gig in the Sky
8. Any Colour You Like
9. On the Run
10. Speak to Me

Feel free to cut Speak to Me, treating it as an intro to Breathe wouldnt change my rankings.

I am also fine to keep them combined

1. Time
2. Breathe (In the Air)
3. Brain Damage
4. Eclipse
5. Money
6. The Great Gig in the Sky
7. Us and Them
8. Any Colour You Like
9. Speak to Me
10. On the Run

bump

Eh, I've listened to a lot of music this week but this hasn't been one of them yet. I'll see if I can squeeze it in.

1. Money
2. Eclipse
3. Any Colour You Like
4. Brain Damage
5. The Great Gig in the Sky
6. Time
7. Us and Them
8. Breathe (In the Air)
9. On the Run
10. Speak to Me

I have to be honest, I found this album to be dreadfully dull.

Us and Them
Breathe (In the Air)
Brain Damage
Eclipse
Time
The Great Gig in the Sky
On the Run
Any Colour You Like
Money
Speak to Me

My hot take for this album is that I don't think Time is the strongest song here (it's still exceptional, would be far and away the best song on 99.9% of albums). The Brain Damage/Eclipse ending is catharsis incarnate, Breathe is a perfect intro to the mood of the album, and Us and Them just is perfect.

My main criticism of the album is that it's nowhere near as good a listen if you're not in the mood for it (like pretty much every Pink Floyd album really, though it's more palatable than The Wall). I can definitely see why people might find it dull or slow - if I'm wanting energy in my music rather than to just chill out and let it wash over me, no way I'd be putting this album on. Money is catchy but could have a couple minutes cut off in the middle - it's already a slow album and it's probably the least interesting song, despite the fun cash register sounds. Everything else, pretty much perfection. Speak to Me is only 10th because it adds the least, not because it's unnecessary or bad (I think it's a phenomenal opener and bookend).

The main reason I didn't nominate this sooner is because it's a little tricky to rate tracks. Another one of those albums where the whole experience is what makes it good, but each remains surprisingly distinct in sound considering they all literally blend into the next.

Money
Us and Them
Eclipse
Time
Breathe (In the Air)
Brain Damage
On the Run
Any Colour You Like
The Great Gig in the Sky
Speak to Me

Feels like the definition of cool in an abstract sense, big and self-assured. At the same time, that sense of coolness creates an emotional distance. Pink Floyd in general have always struck a weird balance to me; what does it mean to be impressed but not find resonance? They are certainly masters of their craft and I can see why many view this as a masterpiece, but the stuff I really love has more emotion. They show more vulnerability on their following albums once they start wrestling with Syd Barrett, but DSotM almost feels too mechanical.

Still, on a purely technical front, everything here is seamless. Few albums capture the steady flow it manages through its odd production choices. And, in all this time, I can't think of any band who sound quite like Pink Floyd - they truly carved their own space in music history. It's an album I wish I felt more strongly about because there's a lot I can't find elsewhere.

Also, I feel weird putting "Money" at the top - by far my favorite as a standalone, but it doesn't quite gel with the album as a whole. At the same time, maybe it needed something to clash at right that moment.

Money
Us and Them
Time
The Great Gig in the Sky
Brain Damage
Speak to Me/Breathe (In the Air)
Any Colour You Like
On the Run
Eclipse

Also, I imagine "Money" probably works better in the original format as the start of Side B? If there has to be an interruption, might as well punch in a different direction.

1. Money
2. Us and Them
3. Eclipse
4. Time
5. Brain Damage
6. Speak/Breathe (In the Air)
7. Any Colour You Like
8. The Great Gig in the Sky
9. On the Run

I'm not going to rank this one but The Dark Side of the Moon won my album ranking a few years ago. It's very cool. Back then, I said On the Run was my favorite song from it.

One of my favorite albums of all time and it's not even my favorite Pink Floyd album. I could see an argument for it being the most masterfully created album though. I maintain that the five album stretch from 1972's Obscured by Clouds through The Wall in 1979 is the best stretch of albums any artist has ever put out, just incredible stuff straight through. There is not a single song on this album that I wouldn't want in my regular rotation.

1. Time
2. On the Run
3. Money
4. The Great Gig in the Sky
5. Eclipse
6. Brain Damage
7. Speak to Me/Breathe (In the Air)
8. Any Colour You Like
9. Us and Them

If anybody else likes On the Run, check out this Commodore 64 tune from a game called Delta, composed by Rob Hubbard (who also composed Monty on the Run). Strong homage to On the Run:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOpIbm_XX-k

1. Money
2. Any Colour You Like
3. Eclipse
4. Brain Damage
5. Time
6. Us and Them
7. Breathe (In the Air)
8. On the Run
9. The Great Gig in the Sky
10. Speak to Me

Not my first time listening to The Dark Side of the Moon but it was never one that really stuck with me. It was nice to listen to it again with different ears and have a new appreciation. Not a favorite of mine but a generally good, solid album. In particular, I really enjoyed the last 3 songs.

Time
The Great Gig In The Sky
Any Colour You Like
Money
Speak To Me/Breathe (In The Air)
Us and Them
On The Run
Eclipse
Brain Damage

The start of a phenomenal four album stretch in terms of popularity. Personally, it is my least favorite of the four (and actually in the bottom half of my Pink Floyd album rankings), but it still is a great album, and the most appropriate for this topic series. The top 5 flip-flop a lot which is good in that there's a lot of high quality stuff here.

1. Money - Absolutely iconic bassline and guitar solo
2. Time
3. The Great Gig in the Sky
4. Us and Them
5. Speak to Me / Breathe (In the Air)
6. Any Colour You Like
7. On the Run
8. Brain Damage
9. Eclipse

While its not my personal favorite Pink Floyd album (that would be Animals), The Dark Side of the Moon is an integral album in their discography and likely the most accessible. It's essentially the epitome of Pink Floyd's psychedelic sound that they're known for. There are no bad tracks here, but I feel like other than Money and Time, the rest need to be heard in the context of the album to be fully appreciated. Overall, it's an excellent album.

Time
Eclipse
Us and Them
Any Color You Like
Brain Damage
On the Run
Breathe (in the Air)
The Great Gig in the Sky
Money
Speak to Me

Honestly I did not care for most of this. And I'm already feeling like an old man lately so I really didn't need you rubbing it in like this

1. Money
2. Time
3. Breathe (In the Air)
4. Us and Them
5. Eclipse
6. Brain Damage
7. The Great Gig in the Sky
8. Any Colour You Like
9. On the Run
10. Speak to Me

I love the intro to Money and Time a lot. I kinda wish more of the songs had that, but it would ruin the flow of the album.

In any case, a really easy and enjoyable listen. Nothing really stands out other than Money and Time, but nothing falls short either.

1. Us and Them
2. Brain Damage
3. Time
4. Speak to Me/Breathe (In the Air)
5. On the Run
6. Eclipse
7. The Great Gig in the Sky
8. Money
9. Any Colour You Like

Have found it and its generally potent principal sense of stately grandeur pretty neat to listen to and really neat to think about.

1. Eclipse
2. Time
3. Brain Damage
4. Any Colour You Like
5. Us and Them
6. The Great Gig in the Sky
7. Money
8. Speak to Me/Breath
9. On the Run