Understanding Pink Floyd's 'Animals' Album (1977)

Hello, fellow steemians! It's been quite a while since I last posted an article and I decided that it's time today to come back and discuss a little bit about Pink Floyd's critically-acclaimed 1977 LP entitled 'Animals'.

The iconic Battersea power station in London, central to the album's cover artwork. Image source: Pixabay.com

For those of you who aren't familiarised (enough) with the record or the band for that matter, 'Animals' is by far one of the cornerstone works of the progressive rock English band Pink Floyd and one of the most distinguished conceptual albums in the history of rock music so far.

The album features 5 songs which revolve around an animal-based transfiguration of the contemporary human society, drawing influences, partially, from George Orwell's 1945 'Animal Farm' satyrical novella. Therefore, mankind is portrayed as being divided between three main classes of animals as follows: pigs, dogs, and sheep. 'Animals' could be considered mostly the brainchild of Roger Waters, the group's bassist and one of the co-lead vocalists, since he can be credited for writing the lyrics and composing the instrumentation for all of the constituent tracks.

The album presents the listener with an apparently murky vision on what the surrounding world really is, in terms of money, relationships, aging, truth, lies, and many more intriguing themes and motives. In point of fact, the album is so complex that is open to virtually speaking any interpretation, mine being the use of inverse psychology to actually transmit a message of inner understanding and, possibly, a warning set of instructions on who to avoid and/or not become. In order to match this vision, the frontal cover artwork of 'Animals' displays a photograph of the Battersea power plant station in London under a rather turbulent sky.

For a more complete overview and interpretation of the album, I would definitely recommend watching the following video on Youtube (please support and subscribe the uploader if you're interested in more videos of this sort):

P.S.: On a personal side note, 'Animals' is basically the album that got me into listening to Pink Floyd as early as 2010 when I was 13. Ever since, it's still one of my all time favourite pieces of music out there.