The classic band Elvis Costello said put him to sleep: “So deadening, not sexy”
There comes a point in any young music fan’s career when they listen to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon. Whatever you think of their music thereafter is subjective, but the importance of experiencing that album in full, for the very first time, is objectively important.
Because ultimately, it defines the idea of a concept album. Myriad sonic ideas are welded together through genre fusion and ambitious interludes to ultimately make for a record that feels blended yet coherent at the same time. It’s immersive and progressive, challenging your listening habits and taste at every musical corner and extends beyond a simple album for background listening.
Because of how it provokes the listener, either positively or negatively, I find it hard to believe anyone leaves the experience of listening to it unaffected. It was a treasure trove of sonic ideas that influenced years of music that came after it, rendering it somewhat of a critical album in modern musical history.
But perhaps the problem for many music fans is that it’s representative of a band who prove somewhat problematic. Pink Floyd as an outfit is somewhat controversial, and that’s not even taking their personal issues into account. Musically, they’ve been labelled as inflated, overindulgent and slightly pretentious as they relentlessly pursued innovation.
To finally get to the crystallised idea of Dark Side Of The Moon, they had to doggedly explore every corner of experimental music. The byproduct of that was some particularly expansive music on Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother that perhaps lost the interest of music fans more concerned with melody.
One such musician was Elvis Costello. A self-confessed Beatles mega-fan, Costello was no stranger to the idea of a band fearlessly reaching for something innovative in the realms of wild experimentalism, but ultimately it had to be rooted in a sense of melody.
When it came to the new-school of prog-rock theatrics, Costello was less than impressed. He explained, “I didn’t much care for the dry ice and all that stuff. And, you know, I knew a lot of jazz that was much more interesting than any of that music. So it just didn’t do anything for me. So I still don’t own a Pink Floyd record. I just find that music so deadening, not sexy. It just puts me to sleep.”
Luckily for Pink Floyd, they aren’t the only band from the 1970s that Costello has taken aim at. In fact, he referenced his emotional indifference to the Floyd when stating why he didn’t like Led Zeppelin, claiming, “I’ve never liked them. I’ve tried really hard. Robert’s a good guy, but the music never spoke to me. I occasionally hear them by accident and I go, ‘Well, that’s an interesting sound’.”
It’s a sobering reminder that, after all, personal taste is subjective in music, and we aren’t forced to unanimously listen to one band or record. However, you would think that Costello would be willing to admit that, despite his own distaste for the band, Dark Side Of The Moon was a groundbreaking record.
