ANIMALS

Its amazing how there was little indication that Animals would be the way Pink Floyd would head after the amazing yet somehow lacking in the "Wow" department of the highly successful album "Wish you were here", Have a Cigar excluded. A decidedly more focused "rocker" than the previous floaty psychedelic albums that made the legends that Pink Floyd are. The Floyd needed to change and it couldnt have been better. This essentially a Gilmour/Roger dominated album while this is a good thing and doesnt detract in any notable way. Animals Starts off with a short acoustic 2-part song (the latter the closer), Pigs on the wing which is nice but little indication of the rest of the album, a sharp contrast to the next song up "Dogs" which starts off with a slightly fast paced acoustic guitar leading some of Rogers best lyrics he ever wrote, all about how the dogs will do anything for the almighty dollar and screw over anyone they can in the process the lyrics truly shine, the solos are fantastic and definetly one of the finer tracks, clocking in at 17 minutes while not as accessible as the others is truly a song to behold, epic if you will. "Pigs (three different one)" is possibly the greatest song off the album though. With ultra dark lyrics, phenomenal guitar work by Gilmour, some very cool/effective voice effects, and the classic "pig" sounds echoing through various parts of the song are tremendous mood setters. Rogers lyrics once again amazing, about ruthless pigs (business leaders and such) sit on their fat selves with disregard to others also poking openly at a "high up" women named mary who openly was against the floyd since 67' advising people to censor them, never failing with a very enjoyable and somehow never dragging mid-section, with the guitar and keyboard trudging on with the infamous pig sounds squealing like crazy, amazingly great solo to close out too. Next up is sheep, probably one of my favorite floyd songs ever. Opening with fantastic keyboarding and sheep chattering in the background with the bass line comes in at the most perfect time almost magically which after roughly 1:30 explodes into absolutely amazing guitar work just pounding away with the keyboard never failing to add a very nice touch, also a very cool and innovative thing is when after he would sing a line he would hold the note for a long time which eventually transfered over to the keyboard which kept it going even longer which is intensely trippy and psychedelic, a psalm in the lyrics put in is a very cool touch as well. The song ends with a rocking rhythmic bluesy guitar jamming away. And the second continuation of the intro song is a somewhat lacking outro but finishes the album reasonably enough. Although the first and last songs are somewhat lacking compare to the magnificence of the middle section this still deserves a 10/10 and my personal favorite as their best album, their "peak" . While many overlook it, and definetly not the greatest album to ease into The floyd your first time, it grows on you and while rogers lyrics may be relentlessly dark and an indication that he was starting to really take control of the band (The wall comes painfully to mind), it still stands high as one of the best albums of all time and in my opinion last truly great album they ever made. An end to an era you could say similar to "Red" from King Crimson which was also an amazing album.