Warner Music [Sony Music outside Europe] recently reissued Pink Floyd’s Animals on Deluxe Gatefold, CD, LP, Blu-ray and SACD. The individual versions were released on September 16, with the Deluxe version available from October 7. This is the first time the album has been available on 5.1 Surround Sound.
Animals surges back onto Billboard’s album charts (dated October 1) following its reissue on September 16.
The set, first released in 1977, re-enters Top Album Sales at #3 with 20,000 copies sold in the US in the week ending September 22, according to Luminate (up from 500 copies sold in the previous week). It’s the biggest sales week for any Pink Floyd album since 2014 and Animals’ highest rank on the 31-year-old chart.
Animals also re-enters at #1 on the Catalog Albums chart (its first week at #1 and the act’s fifth leader on the 31-year-old list), and impacts the top five on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Tastemaker Albums and Vinyl Albums. It also bounds back onto the Billboard 200 at #21 – the set’s first visit to the top 40, and highest rank, since 1977. That year it peaked at #3 for three weeks (on the charts dated March 5-19).
Read more at Billboard.
Animals is the tenth studio album by Pink Floyd, originally released in January 1977.. It was recorded at the band's Britannia Row Studios in London throughout 1976 and early 1977, and was produced by the band themselves. The successful album peaked at number 2 in the UK and number 3 in the US, and is considered as one of the band's best works. The album was recorded by band members David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright.
Animals 2018 Remix is released on CD, LP (with gatefold artwork), Blu-ray, SACD and Deluxe Gatefold formats. The Deluxe Gatefold version includes LP, CD, audio Blu-ray, audio DVD and a 32-page book. The Blu-ray and DVD audio include the 2018 remix in Stereo, 5.1 Surround (both by James Guthrie) and the original 1977 Stereo mix. The 32-page booklet features rarely seen behind the scenes photographs of the album sleeve shoot along with live images and memorabilia. The album artwork has been reimagined for this release.
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 economical situation mirrors that of the time.
The album's iconic cover shows an inflatable pig (now known as Algie) floating between two chimneys of the Battersea Power Station, conceived by Roger Waters, and designed by long-time collaborator Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis Studios. For this new release, the artwork has been re-designed for the modern era by Storm’s Hipgnosis partner Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell. Taking new shots of the building as it appeared during the recent conversion work, Po experimented with new angles and produce some striking new takes on the classic original. Po elaborates: “With the original 1977 album cover being such an iconic piece of stand-alone art, I had the chance to update it, which was a rather daunting task, but Hipgnosis took the opportunity to re photograph the image to reflect a changing world, and by using modern digital colouring techniques I kept Pink Floyd’s rather bleak message of moral decay using the Orwellian themes of animals, the pig ‘Algie’, faithful to the message of the album.”
Tracklisting:
"Pigs On The Wing (Part One)"
"Dogs"
"Pigs (Three Different Ones)"
"Sheep"
"Pigs On The Wing (Part Two)"
Formats:
Deluxe Limited Edition 4 Disc Package
- 1LP/1CD/1DVD/1BLU-RAY
- 180 Gram black heavyweight vinyl
- 32-page booklet
- all housed in a hardcover book style cover
1 LP Vinyl
- 1LP 180gram black heavyweight vinyl
- 28 page booklet
- gatefold vinyl sleeve
1 CD
- CD in card gatefold cd size sleeve
- 28-page booklet
1 Blu-Ray
- Special Blu-Ray gatefold card sleeve
- 16-page booklet
Blu-Ray - Audio Mixes
- 2018 Remix - Stereo: 24-bit/192kHz Uncompressed, dts-HD MA
- 2018 Remix - 5.1 Surround: 24-bit/96kHz Uncompressed, dts-HD MA
- 1977 Original Stereo: 24-bit/192kHz Uncompressed, dts-HD MA
DVD – Audio Mixes
- 2018 Remix: 5.1 Surround Mix (Dolby Digital @ 640 kbps, 448kbps), Stereo (LPCM 24-bit/48 kHz Uncompressed)
- 1977 Original Stereo Mix: (24-bit/48 kHz Uncompressed)
1 SACD
- Hardback book package with 28-page book, in slipcase.
Includes:
- 2018 New Stereo Mix (High-resolution DSD)
- 2018 New 5.1 Surround Mix (High-resolution DSD)
- 2018 New Stereo Mix (standard CD)
In the video below, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and David Gilmour describe the recording process for the 1977 album:
