Posted Monday at 23:275 days Animals—Pink Floyd—Mellope Album Review 1. Pigs On The Wing 1 (8/10) This certainly grew on me after a listen to the other songs! As a standalone song it's partially boring, but listening after "Sheep," for example, puts you in the mood for Pink Floyd, where I could more truly appreciate the magic around the music. I think for a folk track like this, placing it outside of parts would be better though. 2. Dogs (7.9/10) Rock guitar that gets interesting at the three-and-a-half-minute mark, where the guitar comes in with drums and other backing to make something that feels more complete and more like a highlight. The move between different sections feels slow and occasionally worthwhile, but in the end I don't feel like I got enough action out of this compared to the other songs. It's still great but could easily be shortened. 3. Pigs (three different ones) (9.2/10) This song is a part of a continued theme about the people in power, called the "pigs," manipulating others to keep that form of power and gain riches. This is all written about in an 11-and-a-half-minute guitar solo with the chords constantly changing to give an interesting piece that blows the mind and sounds clean and complete. 4. Sheep (9.2/10) The song starts with a kind of airy piano and croaking like bugs in grass before pulling a 360 in a random transformation into a progressive hard rock sound. Now what I really want to talk about is the meaning, where they touch upon the topic of the "lower class" society brainlessly following orders without hesitation, and it's so fitting that I come across this song at the time of the Trump and Epstein files drama, along with the Diddy news, because let's be honest, they want to brainwash us all. And I think the song going into a darker tone was the point in this song that the meaning flowed through more than ever, with it providing a good atmosphere before kicking back up into a groovy, more hardcore rock style. This song is truly a rollercoaster and an amazing one too! 10+ minutes of time certainly not wasted. 5. Pigs On The Wing Pt. 2 (8/10) A lighter brand of rock that's mixed with light folk that has overall a dull range of acoustic use but is salvaged by the fact that it follows up from another song and adds a feel. I think we could've gotten more. I still respect that it's decent, but I can't really separate this out from other songs. OVERVIEW: This album shows that it's not about the number of songs or the number of effects; it's about how properly you master your own one little thing. And Pink Floyd have mastered the rock guitar nearly as much as Michelin-star chefs have mastered food. This album feels complete in the way that there is substance here that has been built upon into something bigger. Sure, some tracks could be shortened, and a little more spice could be put into some parts, but I honestly think simplicity was supposedly the sweetness of the album, and I can say that it nearly excelled with flying colours. RATING - 8.5/10
Wednesday at 11:204 days I only have the Best Of Pink Floyd double CD and The Division Bell but I've listened to some of their other albums on Spotify a few times including Animals. I've just had another listen now and would put 'Sheep' forward as being the best track with 'Dogs' in second place and 'Pigs' third. Overall, it's a good album with the guitar playing standing out. For 70s prog rock, I've always much preferred Genesis and Yes and have never really fully embraced the music of Pink Floyd. Maybe it's because the other two groups use keyboard sounds to a much greater extent rather than relying mainly on guitars for the instrumentation and also their lead singers are better vocalists.
Wednesday at 12:013 days Animals is the oft overlooked gem of their 70s output. Not as instant as Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here and not as personal or 'close to a solo album' as The Wall. It's Floyd's last true co-operative effort between all the members, even if Roger took the lead, and Gilmour has said he thinks the album contains his best guitar work.The album rewards repeated listening more than anything of their others, from that era.
Wednesday at 14:033 days Author 2 hours ago, Severin said:Animals is the oft overlooked gem of their 70s output. Not as instant as Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here and not as personal or 'close to a solo album' as The Wall. It's Floyd's last true co-operative effort between all the members, even if Roger took the lead, and Gilmour has said he thinks the album contains his best guitar work.The album rewards repeated listening more than anything of their others, from that era.The re-listen definitely was rewarding! It also helped the score. Edited Wednesday at 14:033 days by Mellope
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