Animals Songs Ranked
Animals is the tenth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 21 January 1977 through Harvest and Columbia Records. It was recorded at the band’s Britannia Row Studios in London throughout 1976, and was produced by the band. The album continues the long form compositions that made up their previous works, including Wish You Were Here (1975). The album received positive reviews from critics and was commercially successful, reaching No. 2 in the UK and No. 3 in the US. Animals is both a progressive rock album and a concept album, focusing on the social-political conditions of mid-1970s Britain, and was a change from the style of their earlier work. Tension within the band during production culminated in keyboardist Richard Wright being fired two years later. The album’s cover shows an inflatable pig floating between two chimneys of Battersea Power Station, conceived by the band’s bassist and lead songwriter Roger Waters, and was designed by long-time collaborator Storm Thorgerson. The band released no singles from the record, but promoted it through the In the Flesh tour. Waters’ agitation with audiences during this tour inspired their next record, The Wall. Here are all of Animals’ songs ranked.
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5. Pigs on the Wing, Pt. 2
“This is the song that bookends the album as mentioned before, this is the closer. Our narrator is revealed to be one of the dogs, one of those apathetic businessmen trying to sell a good life to any if not all the sheep, but now that this revolt has occurred, the old dogs are dead and the new ones rise, they have to lie low, and with this they realise something important. They realise that they aren’t the ones they should be taking down… it’s the pigs.”
See more: Pink Floyd Albums Ranked
4. Pigs on the Wing, Pt. 1
“We open with the track “Pigs on the Wing (Part One)” this is one of the bookends of the album, the other being the second part featured at the end. These two songs are important as they set up the themes of the album, in a subtle way. I wanted to open the write up with the lyrics to this song, as a way of introducing you to this world, our world.”
3. Sheep
“To me the instrumental gaps between all of these verses, in each song is the world moving on as normal, we’re witnessing the dogs do their work, exploiting those below them, we watch as the other animals do their thing as well, we watch the sheep follow orders given by the dogs, and we watch the pigs on the wing, we watch them as they watch us, and watch everyone else, making sure we’re all in line, because we are but another sheep in the turning machine that is this animal farm, we are only a bystander to this never-ending cycle.”
See more: Pink Floyd Songs Ranked
2. Pigs (Three Different Ones)
“The pigs are those at the top, and they are the ones in control. This song describes them as fat, careless creatures who only have their faces stuck in the money, they don’t care about anyone or anything but themselves, and are the real evil of society.”
1. Dogs
“This song is about the “dogs” of society, those who derive off of the unfortunate, mooch off of them and eat them up (metaphorically). The dogs are the accountants, the businessmen of the world, the people who use other people to their own benefits, the people who don’t care about anyone but themselves and make sure to do everything in their power to get to the top, whether it involves ethical means or not.”