Pink Floyd
Animals

PINK FLOYD ANIMALS (Harvest Records) (1977)

1) Pigs on the wing (part 1) (Waters) [01:25] Vocals by Waters
2) Dogs (Waters, Gilmour) [17:03] Vocals by Gilmour, Waters (from "Gotta admit...")
3) Pigs (three different ones) (Waters) [11:25] Vocals by Waters
4) Sheep (Waters) [10:25] Vocals by Waters
5) Pigs on the wing (part 2) (Waters) [01:23] Vocals by Waters

Total duration: 41:41

On January 23, 1977, “Animals” was released to complete the ideal “trilogy” formed by 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' (1973) and 'Wish You Were Here' (1975). Pink Floyd decided to gather the material discarded from the previous album (“Wish You Were Here”). The new work thus emerged from the musical and textual adaptation of old unreleased pieces like "You Gotta Be Crazy" and "Raving and Drooling," according to a new common thread: the reference to the animal world.
The two pieces respectively became "Dogs" and "Sheep" and, together with the new "Pigs (three different ones)" and the brief opening and closing interludes of "Pigs On The Wing," make up “Animals,” an invective against certain figures of society (with Waters' lyrics "as nasty as ever *So have a good drown, as you go down all alone, dragged down by the stone*"), Orwellianly replaced by animal species.

From a technical point of view, noteworthy is the compelling rhythmic construction, with all the instruments always in perfect harmony, almost fused together to generate a single common thread, never resorting to purposeless virtuosity. It is one of the band’s albums with the best listenability, where all the musical components flow smoothly and the voice perfectly conveys the sensations that the text wants to give, namely the classification of part of humanity into animal categories (dogs, pigs, and sheep).
The idea of the cover is highly original, depicting an inflated rubber pig filled with helium among the towers of Battersea Power Station, an imposing disused London industrial complex, creating a very evocative picture of London. Hipgnosis (which took care of almost all the Pink Floyd covers) was mainly engaged on a technical level, following Waters' decision to visualize the album’s concept with some black and white photographs of Battersea. Since the band liked the color and light of the sky portrayed on the first day of the session (that of the unexpected flying pig escape!) and the pig’s position caught instead on the third day, when the sky turned out dull, "what could we do but create a photomontage pasting the pig on the photo from the first day and then touching up everything?” (Storm – Hipgnosis, 1978).

Gilmour’s guitar knows how to be sweet and roaring, Waters' voice is expressive just as in the subsequent “The Wall,” Wright creates magical and engaging atmospheres, Mason is no longer the same as in Pompeii! But he is more than ever suitable to what this concept wants to convey. We are in front of those pieces that will never bore, not even on the millionth listen; it is the definitive consecration, artistically speaking, of those who launched themselves from the springboard of the London underground of the '60s and reached the moon, to then exact their revenge against pigs and dogs. Mixing everything, as a whole, yields something that from the '70s moves toward infinity, remaining relevant even after decades, thanks to the skill of impacting the listener perhaps more than the other albums: with 'Animals', the Pink Floyd system confirms that absolute stability that will only fail with “The Final Cut” and partly in “The Wall”, fruits of Waters' arrogance and egocentrism. Perhaps, commercially speaking, “Animals” achieved less than it deserved, not as much as “The Dark Side of the Moon” but at least as much as “The Wall”. But in the face of such structures, of artists, musicians, poets, and creators of the genre, there is only to listen and to avoid falling into silly and insignificant comparisons with 'Pompeii' or even with 'The Piper', another untouchable masterpiece.

But Waters is not Barrett, he cannot trespass from the system, and when his selfishness (though appreciable in 'The Wall') emerges, it truly is the final cut. In my opinion, Waters is one of the best rock lyricists ever, almost on par (and I don't want to spark debates about this) with the myths Dylan and Morrison, but he should never have tried to prevail over Gilmour's harmonies, which manage to strike more than ever, even in the last two albums which, in my opinion, despite what many think, are in their own way 2 great non-psychedelic works by Pink Floyd. So has what seemed infinite reached its end of the line?

Listen to “Dogs” and let me know… I won’t add technical analysis because they can only arise from constant subjective listening. Dear Roger, you are the Goliath defeated by a timeless David...