release date: Jan. 23, 1977
format: digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5]
producer: Pink Floyd
label: Harvest / EMI - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Pigs on the Wing" - 3. "Pigs (Three Different Ones)"
10th studio album by Pink Floyd is another conceptual album but also a change of style. The overall theme is loosely based on George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and therefore a hierarchy of animals reflecting their value and / or status in society. It's also said to be a response to the British punk rock movement in which the band saw positive changes with music being political- and social-minded, but Animals still presents music on its own terms like a secluded and inhuman space. All previous albums gave room for all band members contributing with his own compositions on equal terms, but here I think, Roger Waters for the first time positions himself as the songwriter of the band, and unfortunately at the sacrifice of the band's unity. Waters is credited as text and songwriter on all compositions, only Gilmour is co-writer of the music for the track "Dogs". To me this is more like The Final Cut (1983) than any of their other albums except for this one being a more indistinct stylistic release with both bits of psychedelic rock as on earlier albums, and progressive rock art rock as on the tighter and more successful Wish You Were Here (1975). It's like the narration of an idea, the concept, and one man's story from start to finish in what I find a monotone and simplistic way, in contrast to the more diverse and spacious tale of The Wall (1979) with much more poignant songs.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, The Daily Telegraph 3 / 5, Rolling Stone Album Guide 2 / 5 stars ]
