ANIMALS

Animals is the tenth full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Pink Floyd. Most of the music on the album was written by bassist/ vocalist Roger Waters, who at this point in Pink Floyd´s career, would more or less take over the creative process in the band. Guitarist/ vocalist David Gilmour is credited as co- writer on the song Dogs though. Keyboard player Richard Wright has on more than one occassion commented that Animals was the album were Roger Waters ego centered ways really came out and the seed for the inevitable split of Pink Floyd was sown here.

The album is very much Roger Waters child, that´s for sure. The man wrote all the lyrics, wrote most of the music and sings most of the vocals too, leaving only a couple of lines in Dogs for David Gilmour. As a consequence Animals comes off as a very different album compared to its two commercially successful predecessors Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and Wish You Were Here (1975). Personally I think Animals is the most progressive sounding rock album Pink Floyd ever made. The album features 5 songs. The two short songs Pigs on the Wing Part 1 and 2 bookend the album while there are three longer main tracks between those two. The 17:04 minute long Dogs which filled almost the entire Side 1 on the original LP release is an excellent track were David Gilmour´s and Roger Waters collaboration works wonders. I won´t hesitate when I call this track a progressive masterpiece. Even the ambient synth laden section in the middle of the song is greatly enjoyable to my ears and I usually don´t enjoy ambient music much. The 11:28 minute long Pigs (three different ones) and the 10:16 minute long Sheep which are dominated by Roger Waters touch and desperate sounding vocals are both excellent songs as well. I especially enjoy Sheep.

The production is not quite as accomplished as on the two predecessors but it´s still very well sounding and professional.

Animals is another excellent album by Pink Floyd. I think it´s very honourable that the group opted for a more progressive and less commercial style on this album when they had so much success mixing their progressive rock with commercial pop/ rock on the two predecessors. It shows that Pink Floyd were an act that went their own ways. An Act that made music for themselves before thinking about what their fans wanted. A very admirable attitude towards making music IMO. A 4 - 4.5 star rating is well deserved.