ANIMALS

It doesn't matter what you love about Pink Floyd -- the catchy riffs of The Dark Side of the Moon, the driving attacks of A Momentary Lapse of Reason, the grandiose construction of The Wall, or the subtle mystery of A Saucerful of Secrets -- you will find it completely absent from animals.

"Pigs pt. 1" is the worst singing I've ever heard in a Floyd song. Avoid it. The guitars sound more like the Eagles than anything Floydian. (Not that I dislike the Eagles... it's just unwelcome on a Floyd album.)

"Dogs" and "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" have better singing, and the lyrics... well, the lyrics aren't much to crow about -- they're Floyd, so obviously it's not gonna let you down. At the same time, the music is so bland and discombobulated that I found no desire to even listen to the lyrics. The guitarwork is good, but not Floyd-caliber nor Floyd-style. The result is an unfocused mess from start to end. The tracks clock in at 17 and 11 minutes, respectively. This album is the same length as the rest of Floyd's albums from this perid, but it only has 5 tracks, the first and last of which are only about 1:25 apiece. This means there are 3 songs whose average length of 13 minutes -- slightly uncharacteristic for this band (The Wall's longest track was 6:24).

"Sheep" nearly redeems this album, with its focused Zeppelinesque guitar and tight vocals. Less lengthy than "Dogs" and "Pigs," it rewards the listener with a classic, if not Floydian, riff at its end. It loses some momentum in the middle while waiting for sheep to baa to some background noise, but quickly picks up where it left off. It starts and finishes strong.

"Pigs pt.2" is more of the same -- just awful. The guitars remind me of "Mother" from The Wall, but unfortunately it never develops into anything nearly as incisive, beautiful, focused, or emotional as "Mother."

All in all, this would be a good album from any other band. But Pink Floyd is capable of so much more than this poor attempt at a "concept" album. See if you can find "Sheep" on a Greatest Hits CD.

P.S. -- Whitehouse is not a reference to the U.S. government but to the British prudes extraordinaire who used that name to lobby for decency in Britain.

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