Pink Floyd’s 2018 ‘Animals’ Remix Finally Gets A “Sheepish” Release (ALBUM REVIEW)

Anyone mystified by the release of a 2018 Remix of Pink Floyd’s Animals four years after the fact only needs to take note of the almost startling relevance of the songs on the 1977 album. Notwithstanding the use of a conceit similar to George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the topical pertinence is as provocative as the sound, both of which deserve a close hearing.

A dispute over liner notes originally set to appear in a thirty-two-page booklet was actually the source of the title’s delayed release. Regardless, Animals was then and remain now the most literal-minded of all Pink Floyd concept albums: 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall six years later are both rife with cross-purposed intentions). 

And simplistic as the symbols and metaphors may now seem on this sophomore CBS LP, the music is right in line with that direct approach; the spare simplicity of the arrangements is set out in all the greater relief through the technical expertise of Floyd’s long-time engineer James Guthrie: his efforts include the first 5.1 mix for the record.

Forty-five years after its initial release (and five years since its last digital remaster), the less-is-more premise prevails throughout Animals and in altogether stunning fashion, headphones or not. Grandiosity was, in fact, so anathema to bassist/composer/idea-man Roger Waters (at this point anyway), that heavily-echoed voices from the group hang in the air in place of vocal chorales, while his bass is more than sufficient to add pointed emphasis to “Pigs (Three Different Ones).” 

Meanwhile, the sound effects of those swine are borderline intrusive until they meld with the effects-laden David Gilmour guitar. The revised sonics not only clarify the dovetailing of those tones but also parallel its cover art: modified by Aubrey ‘Po” Powell from partner Storm Thorgerson’s original to a darker and more dense design, images in keeping with the history of striking Pink Floyd covers are shrouded in shadows, the visual effect of which mirrors the thematic undercurrent of the material and its pursuant production. 

Yet the enhanced audio also illuminates the instruments in a way that also corresponds to how much more germane the individual songs and overall concept of Animals has become in the interim since its initial release. Hear for instance the ominous air of acoustic guitar combined with the forlorn vocal on the opener “Pigs On The Wing (Part One).” Its atmosphere reappears, fully replicated, in the comparably abbreviated concluding cut, a sequel that bookends the three extended tracks. 

During the seventeen minutes plus of “Dogs,” for instance, unplugged fretboards simultaneously mesh with, and provide a counterpoint to, the electrics, not to mention the icy tones of Rick Wright’s keyboards (equally so organs, pianos, and synths). Nick Mason’s deliberate drum work, spread across the stereo spectrum, only heightens the overweening paranoia in that song. 

At least compared to the more nebulous but nonetheless dense likes of Meddle and the density of content contained in The Early Years Volume 6: 1972: Obfusc/ation, the comparatively spacious arrangements here serve to highlight the edge of attitude(s) within the songs. No doubt, with Waters as chief composer (he shares writing credits with the guitarist only on the latter cut), he is the main idea man here, but his passion is authentic and shared virtually equally by his bandmates: the quartet literally soars in unison on “Sheep. 

Sets including CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, vinyl, and print, released over the course of time, ultimately stand to further embroider upon the points of discussion within Pink Floyd’s Animals. Nevertheless, the marketing of these various packages will ultimately not blunt socio-political interpretations of this LP nor camouflage how the 2018 Remix brings such reading(s) to bear in so thought-provoking a manner.