Its true...it should be called "Roger Waters, the Final Cut guest starring Pink Floyd" (doesn't the back say "By Roger Waters, Performed By Pink Floyd"?)

This is the point where I kind of don't like Roger...telling Mason he sucked at drumming...listen to In The Flesh and you know right away he doesn't suck. So he's no John Bonham, nobody is...geez Roger.

ANIMALS (1977)
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/...71/animals.jpg

An album that musically seems out of sync with their ever increasingly polished 70's output, Animals sticks out like a sore thumb. The Wall may have came 2 years later and seemed like the black sheep, it was still a continuation (for better or for worse) of the Floyd Journey.

This is the conumdrum of the Animals album. It does'nt fit somehow. The production is slightly below par. The songs are not as immediate or as catchy as the previous two releases. It shares it's own specfic thematic content yet it is musically a different beast altogether compared to the lush landscapes on offer before.

The album cerainly has a contradictory nature. Coming just before The Wall, five out of the albums six tracks are sole Waters compositions and the sixth is wrote with Gilmour, yet (lyrics notwithstanding) it is an album with Gilmours stamp all over and is one of the few albums that showcases Gilmours solo and exceptional rythmn work.

The album is bookended by Pigs On The Wing (Parts 1 and 2), which are short acoustic pieces that set up the themes on the album. (A treatise on the class system in the UK which in turn has it's roots in George Orwell's Animal Farm).

Dogs follows and builds it's lazy insouciance with one of Gilmours most famous guitar phrases that is infamously triple tracked and remains a quintessential signature of Gilmour's style of play. There seems so many individual guitar tracks vying for attention on this track, yet through careful arrangement you are never overwhelmed. The ambient breakdown showcases some of Wrights best ever keyboard work for Floyd and it is a shame that he never got a songwriting credit on this track at least.

Pigs is a mid tempo track that works on a simple bass line and guitar riff that reveals hidden layers upon subsequent listens. Lyrically it is amongst Waters best work and tapped into the U.K's economic problems at the time as well as the onset of the nanny state.

Sheep concludes the bulk of the material and is based upon a superb bass line and a quicker tempo to the usual Floyd track. The track opens with some beautiful hazy hammond organ before the throbbing bassline kicks in and leads us onto a keyboard note that segues into a guitar note. This simple 2 stage evolution is extremely effective and gives the song a simple drive and impetus.

The album has an interesting throwback in that it features many countryside sounds that were prevalent in their early recordings and is maybe asmall reminder of the band before ego.

I have tried to be emotionally detached from this album as I could be, yet it is scarcely a secret that Animals is my all time favourite album and listening back I know emplicitally why it is, yet i do feel that it is definitely an underachiever and lost amongst the the Floyds better known releases. Give it a listen..who knows?

Sheep:

About every other year, someone tells me, or the story reasserts itself, that Pink Floyd's album "Dark Side Of The Moon" works in perfect synchronicity with the first forty or so minutes of the movie "The Wizard of Oz."

It's not easy to make this happen, of course.

You have the set up the CD and the DVD. You must start the CD and then pause it. When the MGM lion roars for the third time, you start the CD and it's....magic! Amazing! Totally existential, man!

There are whole websites devoted to this phenomena, including one that is so meticulously detailed that I suspect the developer took four years off work to create it. Or perhaps he was on unemployment. Or maybe he's a burned-out pothead at some institution, I really don't know.

(At some point he links to certain recipes for foods you can eat during this viewing of "Oz" and hearing of "Dark Side Of The Moon" in your Home Theater, food that sort of synch up with the movie. I guess. I'd say he makes it a whole-body experience.)

And some websites assign far more sinister motives to this synchronicity than just entertainment.

I love Pink Floyd and right after I finished running "The White Album" in reverse and listening in amazement as the Beatles embedded in their work the words "Number NINE, Number NINE" I moved right on up to REAL stoners' music and did the "Dark Side Of The Moon" thing.

Here's a bit of news, though.

"Dark Side Of The Moon" also synchs with "Raising Arizona", "Rambo", "Dead Poet's Society" and, most significantly, "Lady And The Tramp."

I've been there, I've said, "Whoa! How did Gilmour DO that?" despite the fact that in interview after interview, the lead vocalist of Pink Floyd declared he had never seen "The Wizard of Oz" and had no connection with it whatsoever. What a genius, man! He did it without seeing the movie! That's, like, so totally chillingly bizarre!

There are some interesting details about the recording of "Dark Side Of The Moon" and frankly, the CD alone is well worth any listener's time without added enhancements of pot and/or "The Wizard of Oz", but it no more parallels Dorothy's adventures than Elvis Presley's All-Time Gospel Hits does with "Top Gun."

It's still a cool experience. If you have "Dark Side Of The Moon" but not "The Wizard of Oz", you can play it with any of PBS's "Nova" episodes set to "mute" or "ER" or, if you're into it, any episode of "Friends." "South Park" works well (but better with any Grateful Dead CD) and Steely Dan is awesome with "Survivor." (Any Steely Dan and any episode of "Survivor.")

It just depends upon what you're smoking.

I'm so late. Animals holds a special place in my heart as it's the first Pink Floyd album I'd heard. I loved the intro but the rest of the album I just didn't care for until recently by I still prefer the more acoustic oriented Floyd stuff like Wish You Were Here (the song) still great album and great review.

It's evident from any interviews you might see, and from the history itself, that neither Roger nor the rest were, to say the least, the sharpest tools in the box.

I don't see that at all. I think they are all pretty smart guys, especially Roger. Most of them were architecture students at uni before they formed the band. Roger is pretty astute when it come to politics. I have always thought of the guys from Pink Floyd as having an above average intelligence, especially when compared to other people in Rock Bands.

Well I've always liked Animals, but I've also always preferred Meddle and WYWH. But in the past 2 months or so, I've been listening to Animals non-stop and it's now my favourite Floyd album... probably one of my favourite ever in fact. The music fits the theme/lyrics unbelievably well (especially Gilmour's talkbox solo in Pigs) and I love the concept.

Compared to who, Nickelback? Loz. Any high mental acumen they once possessed was withered away entirely through many years of substance abuse and insane egotism. It is evident from the nature of the breakup and how they couldn't communicate. That always represents a bunch of braindead dunses. Walters is one of the most egotistical twits I've ever heard speak.

may be true but has nothing to do with music...Pink Floyd is up there man, one of the better and most influential bands ever

Compared to other bands who are of their vintage, the who, rolling stones, I would put waters intelligence level up there to someone like John Lennon.

Sorry but you need to get your facts straight. The only member who ever had a substance abuse problem was Syd and he left the band very early in the piece. There are a lot of bands who break up on bad terms, it does not make them dumb. Having a big ego also does not make you unintelligent.

Another good review BTW. Dogs is in my top 5 floyd songs (could be in the top 3) and Animals is my favourite floyd album on every second day. Bring on the Wall review.

Sorry about the double post but I can't edit in here for some silly reason.