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  • Writer's pictureMetalligator

Animals - 2018 Remix Examined

For this article we're doing something a bit different. Animals is my favorite album by Pink Floyd and it recently got a remix that's been in the works since 2018. It was delayed because of a dispute between Roger Waters and David Gilmour that I won't get into here. Rather, I was curious about what has changed between the two versions, and so I decided to dig deep into both of them to see what's changed and which one I prefer. Here are my impressions.


It is hard to put a finger on what makes Animals such a classic album for me. It is at times a very freeform album that mixes some of Pink Floyd's best ambient work with driving melodies and anger about the way things work in capitalist society. The concept informs the music: the album is harsh, sarcastic, uneasy and tragic. A big part of this harshness comes from the way the album sounds: the guitars are a particularly sharp and the drum sit loud in the mix, making every hard beat felt. To this point, Animals feels much like the way its album cover looks: stark shadows, sharp corners and saturated in color. At once peculiar yet particular, I might have felt drawn to this album because I discovered it after a decade of listening to extreme metal.


As for the specifics, the original album drives the songs with the drums punching through everything and guitars cutting everything down beneath them. The ambient sections stay in the same lane sound-wise but leave you hanging in the moments where the pronounced beat is absent. The mix definitely works but can feel a bit flat at times. Especially in "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" in which a rather rude sounding piano is trying to interrupt the guitar and sort of merges with it, but disappears in busier moments. While the vocals sit in the middle of it all, the bass has to settle for the lowest layer. It is still audible but does not quite have the impact it could have had.

In contrast, the 2018 Remix of Animals pushes the bass up to the top with the drums, making them work in tandem with each other. The vocals and guitars sit beneath and the latter, less than feeling texturally connected to the music, sound varied and much clearer. Each guitar- and bass-line now has a life of its own. Much like the remix's album art looking like going from a 90's PC game still to the realistic graphics of today, the mix is much more full and dynamic. In this way the cover art selection is spot on for describing the music.


A big risk with this kind of change to an album's sound is that you fundamentally change the way everything in it is perceived. That can be enough to rob a work of its charm and point. At first I was not sure if I liked this change but as I spent some time with it I started to notice intricacies to the music that I had never heard before. The cohesiveness of the sound is retained yet it is much fuller. This is noticeable not only in the busier moments but also in the way the ambient sections breathe. What previously sounded synthetic, like the sampled dogs barking in "Dogs" now sounds life-like. If you will like this version of Animals will simply come down to if you prefer dynamics or the original's harsher edge. I have a hard time choosing and think it is nice to be able to pick between them. But when it comes down to what I'm going to pick for vinyl play, I'm likely going for the remix.


Verdict: This is pretty damn good. Give it a chance and rediscover a classic like you haven't heard it before.

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