Pink Floyd is the bomb - the smart bomb. I love these guys, from about 1967 up to '75. Wish You Were Here is the last one that blew me away, and the middle tracks (dominated by Roger Waters) turned me off to anything after that. After '75, "IMHO", they should have called it a day, but Roger Waters took over the band and drove them into the ground with albums like "The Wall" and "My Dad Died in the War and I Hate Maggie Thatcher". Billy Pilgrim recommended Animals (1977) to me, and since I know that he shares my opinions on Waters, I chose to give it a try.
The album is a mixed bag, but it's a bag mixed with goodness. At some points, the sound gets pretty mainstream, a generic classic-rock sound. That disappoints me because I could get that anywhere: when I put on Pink Floyd, I want an album that only Pink Floyd could deliver. Rest assured that this is such an album, but not to the same degree as DSotM or Meddle. My theory? As Wikipedia tells me, "Rick Wright admittedly did not contribute much compositionally". Wright is the keyboard wizard behind "Any Color You Like" (Remember that the defining characteristic of Wish You Were Here is the mind-blowing keyboards? Remember the bit at the end of Dark Side where the keyboards blow out the back of your skull with a ray of pure prismatic LSD? That's Wright.) and part of the lyrics to "Time", my favorite Pink Floyd poetry. He and Gilmour are, I suspect, the genius behind post-Barrett/per-Waters Pink Floyd. I'd like also to note that all band memebers EXCEPT Waters are credited on "Any Color". Make of it what you will.
Animals itself requires dedication. It begins and ends with a little acoustic segue. The songs do not skimp and are longer than the line in front of Have-a-good's register. Roger's bass is mostly in its place as a team player, the songs are weird and interesting (though sounding more plastic than earlier albums - see "Sheep"). Wright's keyboards are what I really miss. He sounds dried out. The keys don't have the psychedelic sunburst power that is what keeps me coming back to Pink Floyd long since my original love affair with Gilmour's guitar. Here, the atmosphere comes often from flourishes on the guitar that any rock band could muster or from cheap echo voice effects. Where is the ineffable? Where is the incomparable? Where is the Pink? I'm not sure. There's a little bit in "Pigs (Three Different Ones)", but that disappears 50 seconds in with a gross-out faux-string preview of the 1980's. Starting at 1.50, you can hear the nails going into the coffin - or is that a cowbell? Wright, you make me cry. Waters, you make me grimace. In all, it's a good album, and it's a Pink Floyd album, but by my count, it's not a good Pink Floyd album.
Finally, take note:
" I didn't really like this album much. I have to say I didn't fight very hard to put my stuff on and I didn't have anything to put on. I played on it. I think I played really well but I didn't contribute to the writing on it and also I think Roger was kind of not letting me do that. I think it was the start of the whole ego thing in the band, Animals. "
– Rick Wright, November 1994, BBC Omnibus Pink Floyd Special 1994.
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