Product Details

DIDP-020206 Animals is the tenth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 21 January 1977,[2] by Harvest Records and Columbia Records. It was produced by the band at their new studio, Britannia Row Studios, in London throughout 1976. The album continued the long-form compositions of Pink Floyd's previous works, such as Meddle (1971) and Wish You Were Here (1975). Animals is a concept album that focuses on the sociopolitical conditions of mid-1970s Britain. The cover was conceived by Roger Waters, the group's bassist and lead songwriter, and designed by long-time collaborator Storm Thorgerson. It shows an inflatable pig floating between two chimneys of Battersea Power Station. Pink Floyd released no singles from Animals but promoted it through the In the Flesh tour. Waters' agitation with audiences during this tour inspired their next album, The Wall (1979). Animals reached number 2 in the UK and number 3 in the US. It initially received mixed reviews, but gained more favourable reviews in later years, and is considered by many to be one of Pink Floyd's greatest albums. CD. Of all of the classic-era Pink Floyd albums Animals is the strangest and darkest a record that s hard to initially embrace yet winds up yielding as many rewards as its equally nihilistic successor The Wall. It isn t that Roger Waters dismisses the human race as either pigs dogs or sheep it s that he s constructed an album whose music is as bleak and bitter as that world view. Arriving after the warm-spirited (albeit melancholy) Wish You Were Here the shift in tone comes as a bit of a surprise and there are even less proper songs here than on either Wish or Dark Side. Animals is all extended pieces yet it never drifts -- it slowly ominously works its way toward its destination. For an album that so clearly is Waters David Gilmour s guitar dominates thoroughly with Richard Wright s keyboards rarely rising above a mood-setting background (such as on the intro to Sheep ). This gives the music on occasion immediacy and actually heightens the dark mood by giving it muscle. It also makes Animals as accessible as it possibly could be since it surges with bold blues-rock guitar lines and hypnotic space rock textures. Through it all though the utter blackness of Waters spirit holds true and since there are no vocal hooks or melodies everything rests on the mood the near-nihilistic lyrics and Gilmour s guitar. These are the kinds of things that satisfy cultists and it will reward their attention -- there s just no way in for casual listeners. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Rovi.