laura10801's Full Review: Animals [PA] by Pink Floyd
This review is my entry into kristinafh’s I've Got The Music In Me Write Off in which we are supposed to Write about a CD that deserves five stars.
I cannot believe the album Animals, by Pink Floyd, came out in 1977. Am I really that old? I loved this album from the first time I heard it. I could argue that it is Pink Floyd’s best album, but I could make that argument about several different Floyd albums. I chose to write about this album for the write off because it is probably the most neglected of all of Pink Floyd’s works.
I consider Animals to be the third album in a trilogy of Pink Floyd’s works when they were at their peak, during the period of 1973-1977. Included in that magnificent trilogy are Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Following Animals the Floyd went on to The Wall and The Final Cut before really coming apart and regrouping without their leader, Roger Waters. This album may have marked the beginning of Floyd’s end.
At the time that Animals was released Pink Floyd was a four member band:
Roger Waters: the primary songwriter, played bass and vocals
Richard Wright played keyboards
Nick Mason played drums.
David Gilmour played guitars
This is an awesome lineup of musicians. Waters has never been a very glamorous singer, but he shows just the right amount of anger and contempt as he sings of a society he despises. His bass work is smooth and perfect. I consider Richard Wright to be one of the finest, most innovative keyboard players of all time. Whenever you hear a keyboard-heavy piece of music that is more than 25 years old, it sounds dated - but not here. This man did things with sound that few people had even considered before he came along. Nick Mason proved his ability to play both rhythm and melody with drums on the 1972 album, Dark Side of The Moon; here he shows his skill and creativity again, while still remaining the steady backbone for the other musicians. I can’t say enough about David Gilmour’s work on this album; he really came into his own here, so I will simply tell you that the guitar hook on the song Dogs is powerful enough to bring tears to my eyes!
Animals is a concept album. All of the songs are allegorical, with animals representing a certain type of people. The animals chosen are dogs, pigs, and sheep. I cannot help but notice the parallel between the chosen animals and the animals in George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm, which was an allegory of the Russian revolution, with dogs representing the military, pigs representing politicians, and sheep representing the masses of people. This album it is not a political allegory, but the animals do represent certain types of people and shows contempt for them.
You could easily define this album as classic rock, but I think it transcends that label. This is an album that has psychedelic, heavy metal, progressive, alternative, and even some experimental elements. Pink Floyd has never shied away from sampling various sounds you don’t normally associate with music. With Animals they chose to use the sounds of real dogs, pigs, and sheep. The album starts and ends respectively with two very short songs, which sound almost like love songs. The three middle songs are long and cynical commentaries upon the world through Roger Waters’ eyes.
I will warn you right now that there is some harsh language and a radical redo of a Christian prayer on this album. If this type of stuff easily offends you you should be aware. Pink Floyd has never been a very reverent band.
Here is the line up of songs:
Pigs on the Wing (part 1) This song is very short. It is simply a singer and an acoustic guitar. It sets the tone for the rest of the album. I am not entirely sure what it is all about, but it has to do with what would happen if people didn’t care for each other and the pain it would cause. There is a suggestion of the need to watch for “pigs on the wing.”
Dogs This is the longest song on the album, clocking in at over seventeen minutes! I kind of think it sounds like three or four songs, tied together. This song contains some of David Gilmour’s finest guitar work ever. Even if you don’t like the song in general, I cannot imagine not appreciating the beauty of the various different approaches he takes with rhythm and lead guitar to create a sense of intensity and pain. I believe Gilmour wrote the music for this piece and does the vocals, although the lyrics (and all the lyrics on the album) are by Roger Waters. The lyrics seem to be a commentary upon the cutthroat world of business people:
And after a while
You can work on points for style
Like the club tie
And the firm handshake
A certain look in the eye and an easy smile
You have to be trusted
By the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you
You'll get the chance to put the knife in
Pigs (Three Different Ones) This song is much heavier on the keyboards than Dogs, although it still has plenty of guitar power. Waters handles the vocals on this song, and does some experimenting with processing his voice. Waters tends to have a much more sarcastic style to his delivery as he addresses each of his three pigs, a “well heeled big wheel”, a “f-cked up old hag”, and a “house proud town mouse.”
Sheep There is feeling of suspense and anxiety as we listen to the building of sound on this song. Starting with a synthesizer alone, playing a sort of jazzy solo, we hear the sound of sheep and a slow ominous building of the bass, getting louder and louder. The synthesizers are pleasant at first, with the soothing sound of sheep in a field. However there is something brewing in the building bass line, then the drums kick in and Waters snarls the first lines of the song:
Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air
You better watch out
There may be dogs about
I've looked over Jordan and I have seen
Things are not what they seem
We have guitars howling danger along with all of this until…suddenly, we hear an almost calm settle. A chorus of sheep/people, recite a radically rewritten version of The Lord's Prayer, which ends in the sheep rising up and making “the bugger’s eyes water.” The sheep revolt and find freedom at the end of the song amid a triumphant guitar riff, but they are also admonished to stay home and do as their told “stay out of the road if you want to grow old.”
Pigs on the Wing (part 2) This is exactly the same style as part 1, however the lyrics are different::
You know that I care what happens to you
And I know that you care for me too
So I don't feel alone
Or the weight of the stone
Now that I've found somewhere safe
To bury my bone
And any fool knows a dog needs a home
A shelter from pigs on the wing
Pink Floyd is not known for its love songs, and this may be as close as they ever got to writing one.
Despite the fact that this album has gotten little attention from the public, it is an essential Pink Floyd album and if you are at all into them you should buy it.
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