Pink Floyd’s tenth album ‘Animals’ will be released for the first time in 5:1 Surround Sound on DVD and Blu-Ray.
‘Animals’, released 21 January 1977, came between ‘Wish You Were Here’ (1975) and ‘The Wall’ (1979).
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 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.
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.”
The new ‘Animals’ will be released on 16 September 2022.
TRACK LIST
1. Pigs on the Wing (Part One)
2. Dogs
3. Pigs (Three Different Ones)
4. Sheep
5. Pigs on the Wing (Part Two)
FORMAT LISTS
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)
1977 Original Stereo Mix by Brian Humphries
Assistant Engineer: Peter James
Mixed at Britannia Row
2018 Remix: 5.1 Surround and Stereo Mixes by James Guthrie
Assistant Engineer: Joel Plante
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