Animals is the third of the four great Pink Floyd albums from their classic '70's lineup of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason. Two years after the melancholy Wish You Were Here, the Floyd strike back with an album that answers the critics and Punk movement that they are not a dinosaur band. While many Prog bands died, took a beating or greatly altered their sound, Floyd attacked with raging guitars, and bitter, snarling lyrics backed with foreboding keys. Loosely based on Orwell's "Animal Farm", Waters took aim at 3 types of people each represented by an animal. And take aim he did. The three main songs, Dogs, Pigs (Three Different Ones) and Sheep contain sarcastic, venomous words shredding all that got in the way, or made the rules or blindly followed along. Only on the intro and outtro Pigs on the Wing, did Floyd let up. The acoustic numbers stark contrast the big 3 songs with the ending even being a request for shelter from the terrible world outside. While all except Dogs are written just by Waters, don't let that deter you from picking up this album. Wright, while his parts and status in Floyd has diminished, turns in an excellent performance while Gilmour is outstanding . This may even be his finest work to date. The underrated Nick Mason again turns in a solid performance with enough power but always leaving plenty of room for the rest of the band.
An absolute must have. 5 stars!