Pink Floyd's 1973 masterwork transformed progressive rock from niche concern into mass phenomenon, spending over 900 weeks on the Billboard charts through sheer sonic ambition. Roger Waters' meditations on madness, mortality and modern alienation found perfect expression in Alan Parsons' cathedral-scale production, where tape loops and synthesisers bloom across songs that bleed into one continuous anxiety dream.

The prism cover became as iconic as the music itself, while Money's 7/4 lurch and The Great Gig in the Sky's wordless gospel proved rock could be both experimental and deeply, unsettlingly human.