The Animals Albums Ranked

The Animals are an English rhythm and blues and rock band, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in the early 1960s. The band moved to London upon finding fame in 1964. The Animals were known for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced frontman Eric Burdon, as exemplified by their signature song and transatlantic No. 1 hit single, “House of the Rising Sun”, as well as by hits such as “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”, “It’s My Life”, “Inside Looking Out”, “I’m Crying” and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”. The band balanced tough, rock-edged pop singles against rhythm and blues-orientated album material and were part of the British Invasion of the US. The original lineup of Burdon, Alan Price, Chas Chandler, Hilton Valentine, and John Steel reunited for a one-off benefit concert in Newcastle in 1968. They later had brief comebacks in 1975 and 1983. There have been several partial regroupings of the original era members since then under various names. The Animals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Here are all of The Animals albums ranked.

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10. Faces and Places Vol. 1 Animals (1972)

“Eric Burdon & The Animals” (sometimes called the “New Animals” or referred to as the psychedelic-era Animals for clarity’s sake), and they generated four albums, WINDS OF CHANGE, THE TWAIN SHALL MEET, EVERY ONE OF US, and LOVE IS, covering five LPs, in two years. All were fairly far removed from the hard blues-rock of the original quintet, and showed the heavy influence of drugs, eastern religion, the West Coast counter-culture, and a vast musical palette, embracing everything from Scottish bagpipes and Indian sitars to full orchestras.”

9. The Animals On Tour (1965)

“The Animals covered blues songs better than any rock group from that era or probably any era. There are some great blues songs on this record and they really did a good job on them. My favorite is Worried Life Blues, but I like every song on the album. If you like blues or blues-rock, I think you will like this album. I’ve never gotten tired of it……Cary Crosby”

8. The Twain Shall Meet (1968)

“This second true step into the psychedelic explorations of Eric Burdon and the Animals (the first being Winds Of Change) is indeed a “strange trip” which wanders through topical tunes, blues, rock, and some radio hits. Songs like “Closer To The Truth” one could definitely call `head music’ and is reflective of much of the music of the time (such as that of the Airplane). There are also roaming instrumentals like “We Love You Lil” which serve as links that connect the album together. “Sky Pilot” is by far the staple of the album.”

7. Winds Of Change (1967)

“Subconscious meets the conscious as “Winds of Change” truly does alter the ways to define reality. My only regret, that this combo,which recorded “A Girl Named Sandoz” did not offer a stereo mix of this B-Side, but everything else is engineered wonderfully, recapturing the innovation of the artists and composers.This is no piffle, just laying down the world as Eric knew it.”

6. Animal Tracks (1965)

“Turn it up.Alan Price plays the Vox Organ like no one else.Listen to him smoke on the long version of “Talkin Bout You”-Great music -Great Band-For all our Miltary in the Far East-I know your favorite Animals song is “We Gotta Get Outta This Place-Eric’s still singing it-“

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5. Animalization (1966)

“In many ways, the resulting album is even stronger than the original “Animalism” release, benefiting from the addition of “Don’t Bring Me Down” and “Inside, Looking Out”. Also, the track “Cheating”, a B-Side, for “Don’t Bring Me Down”, was a much better track than “Clapping”, for instance. The album would climb to #20 on the Billboard Hot 150 Albums chart (Billboard wouldn’t change to the “Hot 200″, until Apr 1, 1967), a very respectable showing..”

4. Animalisms (1966)

“The songs are mainly covers of American R & B things, but there also a small batch of originals. Among these the fine melodic ballad “You’re on my Mind”, which group actually did not feel was a real Animals song – it was too nice!”

3. Animal Tracks (1965)

“There are songs that can be felt after a lot of noise and hard to hear, but it is a great performance skill than that. It is drawn into the beautiful guitar riffs, which are unfolded one after another. Of course I think the singing of Birdon is genius, but I think it was Valentine’s guitar that impressed the sound of animals so much as not to draw it, Valentine’s also a genius. . People who are not familiar with music at all, but they really feel the fun of playing musical instruments that can’t be heard in today’s music.”

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2. The Best Of The Animals (1966)

“If you don’t like rock with a lot of organ, you may be repelled by this album. However, think of how bland “House of the Rising Sun” would have been without it. The key ingredient that makes The Animals a blue blood rock band and this such a great best of album is the man, Eric Burden. I could listen to him sing his ballads with nothing more than a child’s toy piano as an accompanying instrument.”

1. The Animals (1964)

“The inclusion of opener “House of the Rising Sun” alone is enough to mark the Animals’ debut LP as an inarguable classic. The song had existed as a folk ballad for untold decades by this point and even received an excellent interpretation by Bob Dylan a few years earlier, but it took the electrified treatment of five young Englishmen to give the song the resonating drama the lyrics deserved, creating not just the definitive recording of the song but one of the essential recordings of both the British Invasion and the blues rock pantheon.”

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