The Animals

Don’t be fooled by those well-known portraits of Saint-Saëns the bearded éminence grise—the two symphonies recorded here are the work of the young Camille, spreading his compositional wings and displaying a technical fluency far beyond his teenage years. In between, a certain musical menagerie roars, clucks, brays and squawks for attention.

This may seem like a strange way to listen to a group's legacy, 42 songs on 11 CD platters in a box. It is a bit pricey, as well, but going up four songs at a time with the Animals sort of makes sense, at least as far as distilling down their most successful and interesting work. The group never quite got the hang of making successful albums; that doesn't mean that they didn't do some very good ones, including their two for EMI, but their 12" platter sales never remotely matched the popularity of their nine hit singles from 1964 through 1966. Their EPs were a different matter - while the group strained in the studio to assemble 40 minutes of attractive listening, their songs made great four-track platters. In England, they issued five extended-play singles, while in France the group saw twice that many issued in their name, both by EMI Records and the Barclay label…