Animals is the tenth studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd, released in January 1977. A concept album, it provides a scathing critique of the social-political conditions of late 1970s Britain, and presents a marked change in musical style from their earlier work. Animals was recorded at the band's studio, Britannia Row, in London, but its production was punctuated by the early signs of discord that several years later would culminate in keyboardist Richard Wright leaving the band. The album's cover image, a pig floating between two chimneys on Battersea Power Station, was conceived by bassist and writer Roger Waters, and photographed by long-time collaborators Hipgnosis. The album was released to generally positive reviews in the United Kingdom, where it reached number 2. It was also a success in the United States, reaching number 3 on the Billboard 200, and although it scored on the American charts for only six months, steady sales have resulted in its certification by the RIAA at four times platinum.
Of all of the classic-era Pink Floyd albums, Animals is the strangest and darkest, a record that's hard to initially embrace yet winds up yielding as many rewards as its equally nihilistic successor, The Wall. It isn't that Roger Waters dismisses the human race as either pigs, dogs, or sheep, it's that he's constructed an album whose music is as bleak and bitter as that world view…
The Many Faces Of Pink Floyd is a wonderful, truly stunning album… a 3CD labour of love, the likes of which are rarely seen on the market.
CD 1 contains Dark Side Of The Moon (in full) as interpreted by luminaries of the world rock scene (members of King Crimson, Yes, The Doors, Toto and Asia, among others).
CD 2 features ten key tracks of The Wall, two from Wish You Were Here and two psychedelic era classic quartets by musicians such as Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Ian Anderson and British Psychic TV freaks, among many others…