Animals by Pink Floyd

This beautiful 2018 remix version by James Guthrie features a photo booklet, fully photographed below.

The concept is based on the representation of social classes as animals, similar to George Orwell's novel Animal Farm.

The aggressive dogs are the representatives of the law.
The despotic and ruthless pigs are the politicians.
The sheep represent the "blind and insane herd."

A harsh critique of capitalism, culminating in the sheep revolting against the dogs.

According to Glenn Povey, the songs "describe the apparent social and moral degradation of society, comparing the human condition to that of mere animals."

"Pigs on the Wing, Pt. 1" opens the album, a short love song Waters dedicates to his wife. It's played unplugged by Waters himself, and it suddenly stops as soon as the last verse is sung. A beautiful song.

"Dogs," which is over 17 minutes long, opens with Gilmour's acoustic guitar. The song details "dogs," meaning social climbers, all those people willing to commit any kind of crime, including betrayal and murder. The first verse is sung by Gilmour, and features two of his most beautiful solos, the second of which is played with two guitars. There's also some beautiful acoustic guitar work, followed by another solo by Gilmour and then a long synthesizer section by Wright. The fourth verse is sung by Waters, followed by two solos by Gilmour. It closes with a guitar section that accompanies Waters's vocals, which questions the "dogs" about their condition and announces their miserable end. Exceptional.

Pigs (Three Different Ones) begins with pig grunts obtained by attaching the talk box to Roger Waters's bass and a deafening whistle. Then Wright's Hammond enters the scene, beautifully playing a phrasing based on just two chords, and from this theme a beautiful bass solo develops, followed by rhythm guitar chords. Mason's drums and Waters's vocals are fantastic, here there is the denunciation of the "pigs," who "fatten" themselves at the expense of others. The acoustic guitar then takes center stage; The theme is also beautiful, based on just two chords, over which the pigs' grunts return, and then all the instruments enter one by one, and Gilmour plays a filtered guitar solo with a talk box that once again mimics animalistic sounds and grunts. The finale is beautiful, with Wright's organ, a bass solo, all the instruments entering forcefully, and Gilmour's solo that fades into the next song. Great.

"Sheep" begins with a description of the bleating of sheep. The bass gradually overwhelms the keyboards. With the entrance of the drums, with a great Mason, the music changes. The "sheep" represent the weakest, most servile and manipulable people, who need to follow a leader to feel safe. The tapestry of bass and synth notes, on which various solos develop, is beautiful. Towards the end of the instrumental section, a (highly filtered) voice can be heard reciting almost incomprehensible words. It's a band engineer using a vocoder to recite a completely distorted version of Psalm 23; in concert, this reading is performed by Nick Mason. The "sheep" then rebel en masse and defeat the "dogs." The song ends with a chord progression performed by the entire band and a chirping sound. Monumental.

"Pigs on the Wing, Pt. 2" is almost identical musically to the first part, but the lyrics are different: the first part describes what would happen if Waters and his wife didn't care about each other; the second part is the declaration that each is aware of their mutual love.

The Artwork is Iconic: the cover image, a pig flying between two chimneys of London's Battersea Power Station, was created by Waters. The inflatable pig, Algie, was also used in live performances by both the group and Waters' solo albums, and a stylized image of it appears on the cover of Radiohead's OK Computer album.

A concept that remains relevant today, with its division of society into groups of animals, ingenious and true. In my opinion, this is Gilmour's best performance with The Wall, and Wright and Mason's best work, under Waters' brilliant direction.

Simply an indispensable masterpiece.

The Songs
Pigs on the Wing (Part I) – 1:25
Dogs – 5.08pm
Pigs (Three Different Ones) – 11:28
Sheep – 10.20am
Pigs on the Wing (Part II) – 1:25
Duration 41:38

Lie-Up
Roger Waters – bass, vocals
David Gilmour – guitar, vocals
Richard Wright – keyboard
Nick Mason – drums