Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1977…

#7 – Animals – Pink Floyd

I was four years old for most of 1977, so I didn’t listen to any of these albums at the time. But it’s funny how many have a nostalgic pull for me nonetheless, based on the time in my life I first discovered them.

Pink Floyd’s Animals is the most prominent example. My Pink Floyd era, like that of most men who had one, came in high school. That’s when I gobbled up the progressive rock band’s catalog and memorized every spacey note.

My favorite Floyd albums were the 70s releases, starting with 1971’s Meddle and culminating with the epic 1979 double album The Wall.

The span of The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall should be considered up there with the best four-album runs in history. It found the band experimenting in the studio, reinventing the idea of the concept album, and laying down some truly indelible tracks.

Animals is the least of those albums but it’s still a thrilling work of art. Inspired by George Orwell’s Animal Farm, it depicts capitalist society as a battle between dogs, pigs, and sheep.

It features only five tracks, and two of those are minute-long bookends. The bulk of the album is made up of three epic songs titled ‘Dogs,’ ‘Pigs (Three Different Ones), and ‘Sheep,’ each of which is broken into movements that highlight Roger Waters’ insightful lyrics and David Gilmour’s intricate guitar work.

I’m generally no fan of drawn-out, jammy songs, but Pink Floyd is an exception. Their epic tracks are musically interesting and they contain melodically interesting verses and choruses sandwiched between some of the best guitar work I’ve ever heard.

Maybe it’s just my high school brain surfacing more than three decades later, but I find this music still works like magic.