Book Review: Pink Floyd and The Dark Side of the Moon - Martin Popoff

This thorough examination of Pink Floyd's epic album is a lushly illustrated coffee-table book. Breezily written and good for dipping in and out of. It gives as a brief history of Pink Floyd and then dives in to every nook and cranny about the making of DSotM.

It's chock full of some great archive photos - it really goes for the deep cuts. Although I'm sure that die-hard fans will have seen a lot of these, there's plenty to keep you entertained.

That said, some of the photos veer into "filler" territory. Do we really need photos of the "Allison Research TR804 Kepex (Keyable Program Expander)? Looking for all the world like any another box of electronics covered in switches. Or a modern photo of the outside of Abbey Wood studios?

The writing is informal - occasionally being a little repetitive. But it is full of cited interviews - both modern and contemporaneous - which drill down into how the perception of the album and its creation have evolved. There are also potted biographies of the band members

It also delves into some of the peripheral players in the story. Hipgnosis, the studio which designed the album cover gets half-a-dozen pages full of photos of their (non-PF) work. That may or may not be of interest to you.

I know they say writing about art is like dancing about architecture, but Popoff does an excellent job of recreating the excitement of listening to the album for the first time. He captures the thrill and frustration of making music - as well as a critical analysis of how the tracks fit together.

If you like trivia, large photos of prog-rockers, and a commitment to squeezing out every detail about an album, you'll enjoy this book.

Weirdly, it kinda peters out at the end. But, then, I suspect you're meant to flip the book over and start reading it again 😉

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for the advance review copy. The book is released on the 14th of February 2023.