Pink Floyd – Animals: 2018 Remix (CD)
Review
Humbly, a word of advice: Deny any cynicism. Deny any notion that a reissue of Pink Floyd’s Animals- this, a 2018 remix by James Guthrie- is yet another commercially-motivated plan to repackage the past; not to mention messing with those 45-year-old memories of the original classic. Furthermore, and as importantly, deny any hesitancy to experience it for yourself.
Instead, get out the headphones, find a comfortable place, and sink in to 42 minutes of an entirely new, respectfully vintage, sonically majestic, engaging and arresting audio thriller. Yes, it’s that good.
There was some obvious delay from the time of the remix and its arrival four years later; word was the new edition’s proponent, bassist Roger Waters, and the legendary band’s remaining living members- guitarist David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason- hadn’t quite sorted out the fine details. Regardless, it’s here now and there is no turning back. Nor should there be, given how illuminating is this 2018 mix.
What was always a brilliant album, released in 1977 between Wish You Were Here and The Wall, it was also one that played as a bit of a sonic dreamland; its conspicuous use of reverb held it pleasingly in the ether. Guthrie’s judicious choice to pull back and let the earthy immediacy of Waters’ and Gilmour’s voices instead penetrate intimately and less coated is one of several exceptionally rewarding strokes. Everything has a vivid crispness; a raw and surging quality; more adrenalized Saturday night, less Sunday afternoon come-down.
Gilmour’s layers of soaring, syncopated guitars, Richard Wright’s imaginatively selective and tasteful keyboards, Waters (now) exposed, thunderball bass, and Mason’s drums of Gibraltar coalesce into a walloping quartet, awakening the ears, flooding the brainwaves. Deny any concern that the new is here to replace the old. Revelatory, almost rattling, the Animals 2018 Remix is not only a fresh and scintillating experience, but one that can sit perfectly alongside the original. An undeniable joy; 45 years later, and once again, there are pigs on the wing.
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— Larson Sutton, jambands.com
Product Details
Recorded at Britannia Row Studios in London, a facility the band built themselves after outgrowing Abbey Road, "Animals" captured Pink Floyd at their most politically raw, with Roger Waters' caustic worldview driving every track. The 2018 remix by longtime collaborator James Guthrie restores depth and clarity to David Gilmour's guitar work across the album's sprawling, side-long compositions, making this one of the more sonically revelatory catalog revisits in recent memory.
Animals 2018 Remix - The iconic 1977 Pink Floyd album has been remixed for the first time by James Guthrie. Animals is a concept album, focusing on the social-political conditions of mid-1970s Britain, and was a change from the style of the band’s earlier work. The album was developed from a collection of unrelated songs into a concept which describes the apparent social and moral decay of society, likening the human condition to that of animals. Taking inspiration from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the album depicts the different classes of people as animals with pigs being at the top of the social chain, dropping down to the sheep as the mindless herd following what they are told, with dogs as the business bosses getting fat on the money and power they hold over the other. Although it’s been a long time since 1977, the narrative of the album still resonates today as our social and economic situation mirrors that of the time.
Tracklist
UPC: 190758768625
Label: Pink Floyd Records
Release Date: 9.16.22
Format: CD