Animals

Dave Gilmour - guitar, vocals
Nick Mason - drums
Roger Waters - bass, vocals
Rick Wright - keyboards

Amidst the punk revolution, Pink Floyd released their own social commentary based on an Orwellian novel. Roger Waters came up with this concept of releasing their most progressive rock record up until that time using oridinary farm animals that represent each faction of society. The dogs represent the cunning businessmen who like to walk all over anyone in their path and will fight and backstab, if necessary, to get to the top. The pigs are the religious, tyrannical bigots and political leaders who try to bestow their moral beliefs on the unsuspecting. The sheep are the mindless followers that allow the dogs and pigs to run their lives. The sheep finally uprise against the system, only to be controlled later by the dogs and the pigs again. Its an ongoing cycle according to Roger Waters.

A few of the pieces were already in the Pink Floyd live repertoire as different incarnations. Dogs was previously known as "You Gotta Be Crazy", and Sheep was previously known as "Raving and Drooling". These two tracks were originally supposed to be released on an album with the whole Shine On You Crazy Diamond suite, but the band decided against it. Dogs, Pigs (3 Different Ones), and Sheep are three sprawling epic tracks that are sandwhiched in bettween a tender love ballad that Waters wrote for his wife. Pigs on the Wing is this acoustic ballad which really doesnt fit in with the rest of the album, but it makes a nice bookend nonetheless.

Dogs features some amazing soloing by Dave Gilmour, an eerie synthesizer interlude, and some bitter and resentful lyrics by Roger Waters. This was Gilmour's only songwriting credit on the '77 output. It is also his only vocal appearance. Pigs (3 Different Ones) has one of Roger's best bass riffs to date. Water's lyrics takes stabs at many of these religious leaders, and nowhere is it more apparent than the verse he wrote for Mary Whitehouse, a conservative pro-activist for censorship of music and television. Gilmour uses the vocoder during an amazing guitar solo well into the epic track. Sheep is indeed my favourite on the album. The track starts out with pastoral noises, a mellow keyboard intro, and a funky bass riff. The rest of the track is pure intensity sprawling over 10 minutes. Waters uses a bastardized version of a bible psalm which was mixed rather low and indecipherable. That is the only complaint I have about this track.

Animals is probably the most underrated and underappreciated Floyd album in their back catalogue. Unfortunately it was released during the punk revolution, as I stated previously. Many dinosaur rock bands had a tough time to gain respectability after the punks took a stab at their music genre. Also, this album fell inbetween Pink Floyd's 3 classic albums of the 70s. The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall were all adored by FM radio. Animals didnt receive much FM radio airplay, yet it reached number 2 in the UK, and number 3 in the US. Its a shame this album doesnt receive much credit from critics, its truely a brilliant album. Pretentious or not.