Pink Floyd - Animals

[BigDim]

I reckon it's the first consistently angry album in terms of Water's lyrical content but the WYWH tracks like Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar have a pretty snidey and sarcastic bent to them.

And what of Free Four from Obscured by Clouds? Hardly a jolly number.

Water's always had that dark element but I do agree that it probably didn't fully manifest itself consistently until the Animals album.

[princessDungan74D]

It is true most of Roger Waters music is depressing. Even the songs he tried to make happy are depressing. Animals just has to be one of his most depressing albums to stay on topic. I enjoy his music and he is a good song writer but I am sure Roger will always see the glass of water half empty. I am still a big fan of his music and Animals is one of my favorite album.

[Djgilmour]

An album that contains a song this good (Dogs) deserves a 5/5 voting.

[Stephen]

Makes a good coaster.

[BigDim]

Makes a good coaster.

Most constructive.

[nosaj]

Love your avatar BigDim!! I always enjoyed Animals in the past - especially the interesting production values. I have listened to it so much, that I found myself getting bored several years ago. Maybe it is time to dust it off and give it a spin spin spin

[Stephen]

Makes a good coaster.

Most constructive.

You're welcome.

[sonylr]

Ha ha ha ha.

Nice comments


Thanks
Sonylr

[Idisaffect]

Animals themselves create a lot of shit. In particularly pigs and cows. This is exactly what this album is SHIT. I couldn’t possible vote for this as Keith doesn’t provide a minus 100 button.

One thing I've always wondered about- Why do you have a pig for your avatar?

[thefinalcut]

I love Animals, it´s pure gold. Every single song on this album is splendid. Quality !!!

[J Ed]

Animals was the 4th Floyd lp I purchased
folks at home will be relieved to hear I dont remember the order I purchased the remainder

actually the first time I ever heard of Floyd was when Dr Johnny Fever was playing this album on WKRP in Cincinatti
I didnt even realise he was saying the name of the song, and from the glimpse of the album cover assumed the artwork was a picture of Saurons castle in Mordor, not a power station in London
and the snippet of music sounded like Saurons castle in Mordor

I bought the album one weekend while visiting my dad: he declared it the weirdest thing he ever heard
my dad had a beagle who started howling during the middle section of the 2nd song, but when I repeated the album again she'd figured out it was just an electronic gimmick and refused to howl again

with this album I actually bought something none of my more hip friends had heard yet: it turned out they all only had two Floyd albums
with this record we all started listening a lot closer to the trippy things my new favourite band was doing and all raced out in a hurry to buy the earlier albums, which is why I dont remember my exact purchasing sequence from then on
and my schoolchums and I all started paying a lot more overanalytical attention to progressive rock in general, glam, psychedelia and the more experimental punk bands who were actually currently active
by some zany coincidence I also started smoking 'erb about this time too

but even after that I would encounter folks who had never heard Animals, even if they knew Piper Ummagumma and Meddle: it was obscure amongst folks who knew the famous radiofriendly Floyd of the 70s, and chronologically too late for hipsters whod decided they only liked the early psychedelic stuff
yet once folks heard it, they were always blown away, and declared it a missing link between classic Floyd and The Wall, causing them to go back and listen to the whole Floyd catalog more closely all over again - in some ways its much more trippy than the two albums thatd come immediately before
but now that I know my Floydian history better I see it as the last release of the classic Floyd, and The Wall really was a different band

1st live version I heard was relatively recent: when I was living in States a few years back, a local record store got a collection of that expensive bootleg vinyl in, and it was just as expensive as ever
but Id got my workvisa renewed about that time and as a reward to myself bought a vinyl copy of a Great Set (Oakland 1977) and was amazed to hear the extended outros to Pigs and Shine On Pt IX

[jambo]

I absolutely adore this album, but I fear bootlegs have spoiled it for me because of one thing in particular. I really don't like the "light" sound of the album version of Pigs (Three Different Ones). On the tour bootlegs it's so much heavier and bombastic, plus that extra guitar solo at the beginning improves the song for me.

Just need a "Best Of In The Flesh" live album to come out with some nice 2011 remasters of the best nights on the '77 tour and I'll be a happy boy!

[pastchristmas]

Animals really blew my mind the first time I heard it. I was not too familiar with the idea of a concept album at the time, so I thought it was pretty amazing that they had written an album around Orwell's Animal Farm, which is one of my favorite stories.

I consider this to be one of those rare cases when the music is really good but it means something at the same time. A rare combo indeed!

[jambo]

Animals really blew my mind the first time I heard it. I was not too familiar with the idea of a concept album at the time, so I thought it was pretty amazing that they had written an album around Orwell's Animal Farm, which is one of my favorite stories.

Animals was one of the last Pink Floyd albums I listened to and I'd already read Animal Farm in early high school so it was really cool to see the connections to the novel with it so fresh in my mind.

[Meandthem]

Re-heard it yesterday and I'm knocked off my feet again. All in all, it's a very symbiotic album, where everything works...