Pink Floyd: "Animals"
(emi)
originally released 23rd January 1977
remasterd Version released in 1992
Released in January 1977, Animals has become one of Pink Floyd's lesser known albums from a period, that is regarded as the peak of their carreer.
While LP's like „Dark Side of the Moon", „Wish You Were Here" and „The Wall" are today described as „cassical" albums, „Animals" seems to be an often overlooked masterpiece in Floyd's back catalouge.
Today, 20 years after it's recording, Animals impresses with a simple and stunning concept, harsh and powerful lyrics, a great surrealistic cover design and superb guitar work by David Gilmour.
Bassist Roger Waters (obvously inspiered by George Orwell) uses the form of parable to criticize the inhumanity of capitalistc society.
The album's sound is dominated by Gilmour´s sharb guitar riffs, his soulfull solos and, and -as a counterpart- Rick Wright's typical keyboard playing. Drummer Nick Mason also really shines on these tracks - Mason and Waters form a very tight and dynamic rhythm section.
Apart from their struggles and fights in the studio during this period of thier history, Floyd were still able to cope with their personnel discrepancies and form one of Rock'n'Roll's most exiting bands:
During the socalled „In The Flesh" World Tour that followed the release of Animals (accompagned by inflatables like a pig and a complete family, their famous circular screen as part of aspectacular audio-visual experience), Pink Floyd proved that they still were one of the world's most exicting and progressive groups.
Two of the tracks featured on the „Animals" album appeared in Floyd's live set already in 1974 as „Raving and Drooling" and „You Gotta Be Crazy" and were later rewritten to fit in the Animals trilogy. Together with the new Waters compostion „Pigs (Three Different Ones)", these two tracks form the main part of the album.
The three epic compositions contain Waters' lyrical attack on society and confront the listener with horrible scenarios and visions of the future. (David Gilmour once said „You my call it [Animals] the Pink Floyd punk album").
The main part of Animals is framed by „Pigs on the Wing", two short, simple acoustic love songs, which form a sharp musical and lyrical contrast to the other songs.
Not only the lyrics changed, but the music, too. Floyd left the sonic landscapes of Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon and produced a rocking LP, but without renouncing sound effects to link the pieces in a very „floydian" way. They used s synthesizers , vocoders and a talkbox to gain more sonic depth and to give the album a very gloomy feel. But although there is a noticeable development in their music, Pink Floyd's songs still have all the typical floydian quialities, that responsible for the success of their better known albums like Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here.
Tracklist:
Pigs On The Wing (part 1) 1:27
Dogs 17:04
Pigs (Three Different Ones)11:22
Sheep 10:25
Pigs On The Wing (part 2) 1:27
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