ANIMALS

This is not only my favourite Pink Floyd album, this is my all time favourite along with King for a day by Faith no more. Perhaps it is a bit overshadowed by the huge success of The Wall and DSOTM and a bit more difficult to get into, but once it gets under your skin it stays forever. It is true that no song has the overwhelming beaty and bliss of Shine, Echoes, Breathe, etc. The songs here are a bit more like monsters: they are huge, fierce, aggressive and ugly. That is why they are so majestic yet real.

Animals is rather bleak and the pseudo optimistic Pigs on the wing intro/outro cannot change the overall mood. Dogs is undoubtedly the standout track here. It evolved from the song You gotta be crazy the floyds played during their 1974/75 tours and includes some of the greatest Gilmour solos ever, it makes you forget the poppish Momentary and Division records. It is also the darkest song on the record and goes for 17 minutes of pure perfection.

Pigs is a song that slightly resembles of Have a cigar, Time and Childhood's end rhythmically, but has a lot more depth (and is twice as long). Not to mention that Roger Waters' vocals are much more malicious. The song also features Gilmour on bass (and what a great bass line it is) as well as one of the first attempts to use the talk-box guitar effect.

Sheep is the most aggressive and fast paced song on this record and it completely contrasts to the excellent atmospheric keyboard intro. Despite the virtually non-existng contribution by Rick Wright in terms of composing songs for the album, his playing is superb all over. This song also originated from a song played at the 74/75 tour (Raving and Drooling) and has been played by Roger Waters on his recent solo tour.

Having mentioned touring, the tour following the Animals album was Pink Floyd at its live peak. The song arrangements were even more extended and elaborate than on the album (and they got Snowy White play a second guitar) and the set list was unique, featuring the Animals and Wish you were here albums in their entirety, as well as Money and Us and them off the Dark Side played as encores. That is why my advice is to not only buy the Animals album, but also get as many bootlegs from the subsequent tour as you can.