I’m mid-way through a lovely
weekend. In fact, I just woke up from a satisfying nap and I’m looking forward
to the evening ahead. The older I get the more I appreciate a good nap.
I also appreciate a good album,
and the Odyssey is on a bit of a roll, with its fourth 4 star album in a row.
Disc 823 is….Animals
Artist: Pink
Floyd
Year of Release: 1977
What’s up with the Cover? Not the album title, not even the
band name, just a huge factory. This is one of my favourite album covers. The
factory is grandiose, menacing and decayed all at the same time. It is also
strangely beautiful. It is like a castle that once let a feudal baron dominate
the local landscape. The album will go on to condemn modern day barons of
industry, making the cover the perfect fit.
How I Came To Know It: My friend Craig is a big Pink
Floyd fan. Years ago I was staying at his place and we ended up talking about
Pink Floyd. He either put this album on or exhorted its virtues. Whatever the
case, the recommendation stuck in my mind and years later I bought it. I don’t
know why I took so long, but I was probably thrown off by it only having five
songs.
How It Stacks Up: I have six Pink Floyd albums. Of the six,
“Animals” is probably 4th best, although there is an argument it
could be as high as 2nd. For now, let’s leave some room for the
skaters coming later to outscore it and stick with 4th.
Ratings: 4 stars
“Animals” is an album that requires your full
attention. I was glad of the CD Odyssey rules that ensure I’m not doing
anything else while I listened to it. As a result I was able to appreciate it
as it is intended; a single art-piece about greed and consumerism.
The record is really just three very long songs that
all connect to one another, bookended by two 90 second pieces that serve to
introduce the musical themes, ask the question “should we care what happens to
each other?”
The way the album was presented reminded me of
classical music, which often has 3-5 distinct movements that introduce a
musical concept, develop it and then resolve it.
On “Dogs”
describing those who jostle one another for advantage and try to get ahead at
the expense of others. It is a ‘dog-eat-dog world’ if you will, but the song
mercifully doesn’t spell it out in such an obvious way. “Dogs” is the longest song at over 17 minutes, but it never feels
like too much. It just takes its time to work through its argument. It also has
some of David Gilmour’s best guitar work on this or any other record.
On “Pigs (Three
Different Ones)” Pink Floyd introduces us to three different ‘pigs’ that
result from the dog-eat-dog world they postulate in “Dogs”. The first is obvious: the fat and overindulgent on top of
the heap, “pig stain on your fat chin”.
The other two I’m not sure about, but my best guess is organized crime,
organized religion or politicians, profiting at the expense of others in
various ways. Whatever the intended metaphor, the song has a great guitar riff,
and Roger Watters clearly enjoying himself as he sings “ha ha, charade you are” dismissing the various pigs he perceives with
first laughter and then tears.
Finally, we have “Sheep,” which calls out all those who see injustice but meekly
choose to do nothing about it. This song has a much thicker production, and a
pace that creates anxiety and panic. You get the feeling of a flock of sheep,
darting away from danger even as it fails to improve its lot in the long run.
Lyrically, none of these songs is particularly
inspired, but when paired with solid musical choices and Gilmour’s guitar the
album as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. My only minor complaint
is the use of actual animal sounds at the beginning and end of some songs,
which felt overindulgent and unnecessary to the album’s intentions.
“Animals” is not a great album to have randomly
mixed on a playlist. Taken out of context they lose a lot of their punch and
context. However, if you’ve got the internal fortitude to sit down for 40
minutes and listen to it sequentially this album will open its black heart to
you and leave you thoughtful and more than a little melancholy.
Best
tracks: Not really an album where you can single out a
track but I’ll go with all the “Pig” songs. That would be: Pigs on the wing 1,
Pigs (Three Different Ones), and Pigs on the wing 2
No comments:
Post a Comment