Animals Mississippi

Animals

Pink Floyd

Columbia Records, 1977

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 09/11/1997

With all the talk about whether or not Roger Waters is rejoiningPink Floyd (my opinion: I hope not - let's let the past be) and theupcoming re-release of the band's Columbia catalogue,now seems asgood a time to dip into the Pierce Memorial Archives (hey, who'sbeen baking brownies in here?) for one of their most overlookedalbums - 1977's Animals.

For the British foursome, you're in a sticky situation. Yourlast two albums, Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here, have been incredible successes. Butinternal squabbles are beginning to fester in the band, and thegroup seems to be torn over whether to continue in a pop vein or toturn back to their psychedelic roots. The answer at the time: whynot combine both? The end result: five songs, two of which arebridges to start and end the album, all vaguely connected by atheme surrounding animals. The jams are incredibly drawn out, andthe musicianship is at a high.

So what does this all mean? Simple: while Animals showed that Pink Floyd couldn't go home again to theworld of psychedelia, their songwriting was still riding at itspeak.

The two snippets, both titled "Pigs On The Wing," are of littleconsequence to the album - let's pass on these tracks andconcentrate on the remaining tracks. They all seem to have sometouches of social commentary in them - though I will freely admit Ihaven't picked up all the nuances yet. The first real track,"Dogs," seems to criticize the way we behave in the human race -almost as if we are the real animals.: "You have to be trusted by thepeople that you lie to / So that when they turn their backs on you/ You'll get the chance to put the knife in."