ANIMALS

A bit disappointing this one.

Certainly "Dark Side of the Moon" and "Wish you were here" were always going to be tough to follow, but with Roger Waters becoming more and more the dominant influence, the message was starting to become more important than the music. Don't get me wrong, "Animals" is not a bad album, but there does at times appear to be a lack of inspiration.

If we gloss over the two brief "Pigs on the wing" bookends, the album consists of three lengthy tracks. "Dogs" occupies the whole of side 1 of the LP. It has all the right ingredients to make a fine prog piece but had it been half the length, it could have been twice as good. The track lacks the strong melodies which featured on previous albums, and rather sags during the middle section which appears to contain a certain amount of padding.

On "Pigs" the politics takes centre stage, making for a rather tedious track structured a bit like "Money", but without the catchy hook. The three long verses are once again filled out with pretty prosaic instrumentation, devoid of any real musical depth.

"Sheep" is the best track, with the band finally getting to let their hair down and having some fun. This track has more positive diversity than the other two added together, with strong melodies and an uplifting final section.

I readily acknowledge that the forgoing is a bit harsher than is perhaps justified. Pink Floyd had with their albums up to this point set themselves ever increasing standards to be matched or exceeded on subsequent albums. It was inevitable that at some stage, they would hit the wall (no pun intended) and release an album which, by their own high standards, was a sideways or even backwards step.

It's difficult to put my finger on exactly what I feel is lacking here. It appears to me the album was just too easy to make. It largely recycles the ideas which had been used to great effect on preceding albums, including not only the two immediate predecessors, but also "Meddle" and "Atom Heart mother" without any great effort to develop those ideas or explore new avenues.

"Animals" sold in droves, arguably on the back of the bands previous works, but with this album, the writing was starting to appear on the wall that the inspiration was running dry.

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