33 1/3

Friday, August 23, 2013

Pink Floyd – “Animals” (1977)

Compared with their previous album Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd has spiced Animals with large does of bitterness and bleakness. Both in therms of the theme - we humans are likened to pigs, dogs and sheep - and the sound. It's not the big sweeping soundscapes created on their earlier 70s albums, that dope smoking and acid eating people had (and still have) as their favourite soundtrack. Instead, it's a non-druggy, guitar driven sound. The keyboardist Richard Wright is heard more in the background, even though he has a prominent role in some shorter passages. The songs are a bit trickier, there are long songs without the usual verse-chorus-verse structure (which in no way is unusual when it comes to Pink Flyd). But it's not a single radio friendly track, therefore Animals can be a bit of a challenge, even for a Pink Floyd fan.

But it's a good album, no doubt.

Of course you can discuss whether it's a Pink Floyd album or a Roger Waters album. Opinions differ. Waters wrote all the songs except Dogs on side A, in which Gilmour helped out. On the other hand, Dogs fills up the whole A-side (more or less), which means the song is half the record. Gilmour claims that he wrote 90% of Dogs, so he doesn’t feel he was pushed out from Animals in any way.

However, there is no doubt that Waters at this time became increasingly dominant of Pink Floyd and considered himself to be its leader and main composer. Especially Wright and Waters had many conflicts, which some years later ended with Wright getting fired (but was rehired to The Wall tour). Animals is the first album where Wright hasn’t contributed with any songs which is sad. Wright is a bit like George Harrison in the Beatles, he doesn’t write that many songs, but the ones he does are really good.

The album was recorded in a new studio Pink Floyd had built in an old church, Britannia Row. The story about the cover has also become a legend, with the inflatable pig that broke loose and flew away. In fact, the final cover is a montage of two photos - the sky was more dramatic first photo shoot and then the pig was copied in. It was Waters who had the idea for the cover.

The pig in concert

The songs are long and branches off in different directions, all with their own character. And no doubt they are very qualitative and fascinating - beautiful guitar solos, sheep bleating, dogs barking and the sometimes quite up-tempo music breaks off into more quiet instrumental passages. It’s an album that can be recommended, but if one expects something like the earlier, more druggy, albums, it might be a disappointment. Here, Waters bitterness against humanity has taken over and seems to be the main inspiration. It's more English, bleak, social realism than drug-friendly musical journeys. It's not an album one gets particularly happy to listen to, maybe that’s the reason I haven’t played it as much as many of Pink Floyd’s other 70's creations.

OK, I'm writing bleak, English social realism, but it's still Pink Floyd - the qualitative dope music’s godfathers and pioneers. And this can also be heard on Animals. A perhaps more accurate expression might be bitter and bleak dope music with a very pessimistic view on people and society. In fact, sometimes Waters seems even contemptuous. Contemptuous dope music?