Pink Floyd- Animals ( 1977)

The truth is almost 30 years have passed since this album was published. I remember, we were very anxious to hear the sequel to that mythical Wish You Were Here. Finally the album came sowing the bewilderment. No, it didn't look like Wish You Were Here and neither was The Dark Side of the Moon. Dark, with a striking aesthetic without a doubt, thanks to the mythical cover photo of the Battersea electric station with that flying pig, and whose music did not fit very well at the first listening. In addition, the conceptual character of a Pink Floyd album had never been seen more clearly than with it and its songs titled as three different animals. Sure, we were used to the beauty contained in songs like "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" or "Wish You Were Here," but that wasn't here. The aesthetics, of having something to do, had it with pieces like "Welcome to the Machine" or "Have a Cigar." Both discs were like Ying and Yang, the obverse and the reverse. I remember when a classmate, who is now a journalist, came saying that he had already heard it and that it started with a beautiful acoustic song. He told us another time, it's a great album! but he seemed to be trying to convince himself more than others. I remember the criticism, which I compared to Meddle, a Meddle for punk times, of course. ¿Meddle? I wondered. Yes, that metronome bass from the beginning of "Sheep" could remember some fragment of that record, but where was the resemblance of the rest? Later we would know about the crossroads that Animals represented and more about the meanings of this album, but we had to wait to know.

It was clear that after The Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd could not do anything and the truth is that they took their time and the songs were appearing organically and not forced. Thus, issues such as “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” emerged, in a way a kind of emotional coda, centered on Syd Barrett, from pieces of The Dark Side of the Moon like “Brian Damage” or “Eclipse” itself. Along with this majestic song also appeared "You Gotta Be Crazy" and "Raving & Drooling", primordios of "Dogs" and "Sheep". "Raving & Drooling" as early as June 1974, while "You Gotta Be Crazy" there are already testimonials from November of the same year. In June 1975 they would continue performing live. "Raving & Drooling" was clearly "Sheep" although more aggressive even if possible, but missing the added elements to be part of the cycle of songs conceived by Roger Waters. "You Gotta Be Crazy" in 1974 was a much more primitive version of "Dogs", since it was shorter, with different vocal lines, missing the entire intermediate section, the one that would be sung by Waters. In 1975 it was revised and the vocal lines were definitive, with a first version of the part sung by Waters. That is to say, it was already much closer to its recording. The story already known tells us that the group developed what would be Wish You Were Here first, leaving both themes in the bedroom. Thus, the only "new" songs in Animals would be the two "Pigs on the Wing" and "Pigs (Three Different Ones)", songs by Roger Waters.

From The Dark Side of the Moon the lyrics of Pink Floyd's songs had been written by Roger Waters, which resulted in each album actually being a cycle of songs. A way like any other to make conceptual albums, which do not necessarily have to be narrative. Since I met The Wall carefully, it always seemed to me that The Dark Side of the Moon was a kind of perfect preface in which some of the bricks on the wall are described, in a way. Wish You Were Here was more introspective, and its theme was braided about Syd Barrett, nostalgia, the record industry and the loss of innocence; All of them interrelated themes. Animals could be defined as a vision of the world, an outgoing disc, but with poison, as it looked outward without liking what it saw. Thus society is divided into three levels, those that have power, those that sustain it and those on which that power is exercised. Pigs, dogs and sheep. I do not find any direct relationship between this album and Animal Farm by George Orwell, a work that most likely Waters already knew and read.

As you look, Animals is Pink Floyd's latest album as a quartet since The Wall is almost a solo album by Waters, played by Pink Floyd. Waters' advance on the group's dominance, however, was not yet complete and there is a lot of Dave Gilmour still here. Nick Mason no longer intervened as a composer from the previous album and in this one the role of Rick Wright began to be eclipsed, focusing on his keyboards. Everything was composed by Roger Waters, except "Dogs", written with Dave Gilmour.

"Pigs on the Wing 1" (1:25) began the album with a simple and very beautiful song built only with acoustic guitar and voice that serves as a prelude to all the work. In it Waters, in a somewhat Brechtian way, questions his audience (If you did not worry about what happened to me, and I did not worry about you, we should dodge on our path that crosses the paths of boredom and pain).

"Dogs" (17:04) from my point of view is a kind of Floydian top, without a doubt my favorite song from my favorite Pink Floyd album. A piece with sufficient structural complexity to be able to affirm that it is the most similar thing that Pink Floyd came to compose, saving the distances, in the wave of the symphonic rock style Yes. In a continuous whole, several sections of tempo are becoming slower and slower, before recovering the initial scheme. The solos of the guitar of Gilmour, who is the lead singer of this piece, are overwhelmed by the rage of his expression. The use of sound effects adds a special touch. Listen to how that word at the end of a verse like Stone becomes a howling species, and those vocoderized barks give it the uneasy tone that the piece requires. Dogs may not only be the armed forces, the police, the mafia, organized crime, but perhaps the entertainment industry itself. Waters seems to identify with them in the verse he sings (I must admit that I am somewhat confused. Sometimes I have the feeling that I am being used). The whole series of final affirmations of the letter, which begin with the word Who, seem to place this kind of offspring who serve pigs without being sheep (Who [was the one] born in a home full of pain? Who was taught that there is no need to spit on the fan? Who gave sermons about what to do for humanity? Who was traumatized by true specialists [in the field]? Who was adjusted necklace and chain? ...). A sublime ending.

“Pigs (Three Different Ones)” (11:22) began the second side of the vinyl. In this song Waters loaded the inks towards political and economic power. Even the luxury of attacking the ultraconservative deputy Mary Whitehouse, in favor of a return to the Victorian morals (Eh, you, Whitehouse ha ha, look you are ridiculous. You, the pride of the house of a town of mice ha ha ha, look you're ridiculous). It begins with an obsessive game of the keyboards of Rick Wright and the bass of Waters, and the whole song, of three stanzas, is maintained in a truffled tension of swine grunts and effects until the only one of liberating guitar arrives. It ends in fadeout.

"Sheep" (10:24) is another of the great moments of the album. The metronomic bass makes its way on a mattress of sheep sounds, on top of which Wright develops a solo jazz electric piano. At the climax comes the voice and the song itself, an excellent guitar ride. The moment when Waters' voice melts with the Wright synthesizer is simply prodigious, what a great find! In the quieter central section, a vocoderized voice recites a text derived from one of the best known biblical psalms (The Lord is my shepherd), in which a certain rebellion is finally shown before the established order (When the day comes we despicable ones, through the calm of meditation and great dedication, will dominate the art of karate. [Looks up], we must stand up, and then we will [let] the eyes of the damned be filled with tears. ”) and The dogs die. The piece ends with a fabulous guitar riff that is repeated to lead to a fadeout final.

“Pigs on the Wing 2” (1:25) finalizes the album again with acoustic guitar and voice. In it, Waters asks his audience again, but he is more serene (You know that I care what may happen to you. And I know you care about me. So I no longer feel [so] alone under the weight of [all this large] slab).