Again, during a big music sale, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase some Pink Floyd. I bought Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals, as I figured I should list to what all the fuss is about these pre-The-Wall albums.
I'd heard Animals exactly once (or a few times actually, in a row) at a party (or laze-about) at a friend's place. Said friends were talking about Pink Floyd like maybe they'd made the world, and were jamming along to the album on the stereo on an acoustic. I remember listening to it, but I don't remember how it sounded, or if I liked it. I didn't even really connect it with its famous cover until just now.
In the few listens I've given it since, I find it interesting... I like the stark acoustic/keyboard music more than the almost ambient twiddle on Wish You Were Here. I'm not bored by it, despite the songs being far too long. I like hearing instrumentation and sound effects that I know from later music, like the War Of The Worlds, or Transformers, or The Tea Party.
I don't enjoy the singing, although I suppose it's supposed to sound pained and angry. It's nicely hidden in Sheep where a dodgy held note turns into keyboards, but mostly it's monotone whine irritates me, and it's nothing on performances on The Wall, or even Dark Side Of The Moon.
I love the keyboard work, the vocoder, the angrily played jagged riffs on the electric guitar, the way the tracks build and fall, so much like War Of The Worlds. In a way, I think seeing Animals played in full live would be more fun than The Wall... at least maybe in a dingy pub in a basement somewhere.
My mind rallies against this album, but I'm not irritated enough to stop listening every time I play it, so it can't be that bad.
[By the way, I listened to the 2011 remaster. I am completely unqualified to compare it with the original, but it sounded pretty nice to me.]
5/10
