Pink Floyd - Animals (Remastered) (1977/2016)

Animals is the tenth studio album by English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 23 January 1977 through Harvest and Columbia Records. It was recorded at the band's Britannia Row Studios in London throughout 1976, and was produced by the band. The album continues the longform compositions that made up their previous works, including Wish You Were Here (1975). The album received positive reviews from critics and was commercially successful, reaching number 2 and 3 in the UK and US, respectively.

Animals is a concept album focusing on the social-political conditions of late 1970s Britain, and was a change from the style of their earlier work. Tension within the band during production later culminated in keyboardist Richard Wright leaving. The album's cover shows an inflatable pig floating between two chimneys of the Battersea Power Station, conceived by the band's bassist and lead songwriter Roger Waters, and was designed by long-time collaborator Storm Thorgerson. The band released no singles from the record, but promoted it through the In The Flesh tour. Waters' agitation with the crowd during this tour inspired their next record, The Wall (1979).

AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Of all of the classic-era Pink Floyd albums, Animals is the strangest and darkest, a record that's hard to initially embrace yet winds up yielding as many rewards as its equally nihilistic successor, The Wall. It isn't that Roger Waters dismisses the human race as either pigs, dogs, or sheep, it's that he's constructed an album whose music is as bleak and bitter as that world view. Arriving after the warm-spirited (albeit melancholy) Wish You Were Here, the shift in tone comes as a bit of a surprise, and there are even less proper songs here than on either Wish or Dark Side. Animals is all extended pieces, yet it never drifts – it slowly, ominously works its way toward its destination. For an album that so clearly is Waters', David Gilmour's guitar dominates thoroughly, with Richard Wright's keyboards rarely rising above a mood-setting background (such as on the intro to "Sheep"). This gives the music, on occasion, immediacy and actually heightens the dark mood by giving it muscle. It also makes Animals as accessible as it possibly could be, since it surges with bold blues-rock guitar lines and hypnotic space rock textures. Through it all, though, the utter blackness of Waters' spirit holds true, and since there are no vocal hooks or melodies, everything rests on the mood, the near-nihilistic lyrics, and Gilmour's guitar. These are the kinds of things that satisfy cultists, and it will reward their attention – there's just no way in for casual listeners.

Tracklist
1. Pigs On The Wing 1 (01:24)
2. Dogs (17:01)
3. Pigs (Three Different Ones) (11:20)
4. Sheep (10:22)
5. Pigs On The Wing 2 (01:24)