ANIMALS

With Animals, Pink Floyd changed their style, going with a rawer sound. What didn't change was the legendary guitar work of David Gilmour, the dark, cynical lyrics of Roger Waters, and the band's ability to create great music. "Animals" is a concept album in which different roles in society are represented by different animals. The first and last tracks are basically the same thing; I'm not really sure why they bothered to put them on the album. The three main tracks, on the other hand, are some of the greatest songs they have ever recorded

Dogs is the longest of the three songs, and the best on the album. Gilmour is at his finest, which is great because it is a very guitar- driven song. Water's lyrics are fantastic; I'm pretty sure the dogs represent government agents (F.B.I., C.I.A. etc.), and lines such as "deaf, dumb, and blind, you just keep on pretending that everyone's expendable and no one has a real friend" and "and you believe at heary everyone's a killer" perfectly sums up that group of people.

Pigs (Three Different Ones) is the weakest of the three main tracks, but overall it's not bad. The strongest aspect of this song is the lyrics; where the pigs represent greedy politicians and power-hungry heads of state. The song starts with nice keyboard work by Rick Wright, who is rather subdued on this album The rest of the song contains some nice guitar pieces, but nothing like what was in Dogs

Sheep is a great song about those in society who blindly accept what the pigs and dogs are doing. Waters' lyrics are again on the mark, Gilmour's playing is again superb, and the few keyboard parts are good as well.

Overall, highly reccomended for fans of both the symphonic side and the Rock side of Floyd

Highlights: Dogs, Sheep

Lowlights: Pigs on the Wing parts 1 and 2

The Verdict: 4 stars