Pink Floyd doesn’t have an album I don’t like, and while my current favorite goes back in forth, the one that’s in my first place slot with the most consistancy is Animals.
The conceptual theme of the whole album is amazing. The amount of attention paid to each of the personality types, and the way they different species tie in with one another at various parts of the album (in Sheep, for instance, “you’d better watch out, there may be dogs about” gives the album a polished, full-circle feel. (Plus, it literally is full-circle, with Pigs on the Wing I and II blending perfectly into one another, like the heartbeat on Dark Side of the Moon, and “isn’t this where/we came in” from The Wall.
It’s not too Waters-era dark, not too Barrett-ifiedly whimsical, not too Gilmour-period 80’s-sounding and (as post-Waters Floyd was, with some exceptions) lyrically lacking.
Lyrically, it shows Waters at some of his best. It’s truthful, biting and beautiful…yet, it he manages not to delve too deeply (or at least for too long) into depression. The lyrics are personal, defiant, satirical, political. They contain some of Water’s best lines, and for a writer with as many fucking great lines as Roger Waters, that’s saying something.
The effect of “Pigs on the Wing, I and II” serve as introduction and afterward, which I really like. They give the album meaning, and relate it back on a personal level. The lyrics give a sense of hope, of dependence, and a very humanistic feel, the music is simplistic, folky, and give a sense of one man reflecting on the world, by himself…then offering somebody he’s come to love his spin of things.
And, of course, there’s Dogs. shiver In my opinion, Dogs features David Gilmour’s best guitar work ever. Yes, better than Comfortably Numb; (a ton better than Comfortably Numb). Plus, you can make out to Dogs. It’s just one of those songs–the epitome of slow, stoner-music to have sex to. (The fact that you don’t have to get up and change the track for over seventeen minutes is a definite plus).
Regarding the rest of the album, to some extent, I do agree with HeatMiser. Dogs is the best track, but the Pigs (Three Different Ones) and Sheep, I think, are still, at least, solidly good.
The special effects in Pigs are great, and then the lyrics regarding Mary Whitehouse–(the woman who led a censorship crusade against PF’s music)–gives the audience members in the know a sense of retribution. I also like how the word “charade” is pronounced when spoken with an English accent, and the line the word “charade” is in brief and biting. Oh, and I love the little “whooo” in between the first and second couple of verses. It’s like, the anti-pop.
The slow upwind into Sheep…mmmm. I love the baa-ing on Sheep even more than the oinking on Pigs. The effects put on Waters’ voice to stretch out his notes to an impossible length and not sound completely digitialized are absolutely revolutionary-sounding. The progression from the sound at the intro to the fade out is huge. Picture the first few seconds, then the huge build-up at the end. Oh yeah, Sheep is satrical foreplay.
Honorable mentions are Wish You Were Here, The Final Cut, and The Division Bell. Then there’s Echoes, great variety, and a lot of great songs, but it doesn’t have the sense of flow a non-greatest hits album has…and that flow is one of my favorite aspects of Pink Floyd.
