This album is still as amazing to me now as when I first heard it, though I can't say as I recall when that was exactly. When I was a junior in high school, my friend and I went to stay with my aunt in London for a week during school break. Somehow I caught wind that the building on the cover of this album actually existed, was called the Battersea Power Station, and was in London. I think I had seen something in an English newspaper at the time about an attempt to do something with the defunct building. Some musical pilgrimages end at the Père Lachaise Cemetery where Jim Morrison's is entombed, some in Memphis, Tennessee at Elvis' Graceland, or for others perhaps making it to a sermon by the Reverend Al Green. For me, at seventeen, my musical pilgrimage concluded (or had it just begun?) at the Battersea Power Station. It remains one of the most surreal sights I have experienced. It was like I was looking at a giant cartoon that had been plopped down in the middle of a city. Seriously bizarre. Not like any other visual experience I have had before or since. I think parts of my brain melded or crossed over or something, I don't know. The recent movie Children of Men by the director Alfonso Cuarón aptly pays homage to this brilliant album (I won't tell you where the reference is in the film because I think it will be best to just notice it).Being my favorite album, I could mention many things about this album both from my own life and as Pink Floyd data. I am going to limit myself to the most fundamental pieces of information to know about this album if you intend to listen to Animals for the first time. Most importantly, Animals is based on George Orwell's allegorical satire Animal Farm. Each of the songs is named after an animal (pigs, dogs, and sheep) that appears in Orwell's novel representing a particular social class. The first and last song on the album ("Pigs on the Wing, Part 1 & 2") apparently were written by Roger Waters to his wife at the time. Both of these songs are solid, but no match to the three fucking fantastic pieces that compose the core of this gem. (Could it be that these relational bookend songs are Waters' offering of a more optimistic insight on enduring such a bleak and depressing, albeit rather accurate, outlook on society?)
As an ensemble, Pink Floyd has had quite the dynamic history. Interestingly this album was produced when some significantly troubling relationship issues were emerging within the band, which ultimately, I think it is accurate to say, led to Waters leaving the band (marking, in my opinion, the dissolution of Pink Floyd). David Gilmore's guitar work is as present and necessary as Water's lyrics. Rick Wright's keyboard work, however, is sparse, though immensely effective when used, further dredging the already dark abysmal instrumental mood of Animals. Nick Mason's not-to-be-forgotten rhythmic drumming is so very solid, as always.
No comments:
Post a Comment