Following the wildly successful Still Wish You Were Here project released earlier this year, another gathering of classic, prog and art rock superstars have come together to recreate and reimagine Pink Floyd’s ambitious 1977 concept album, Animals. The CD, released on November 19, 2021, from Cleopatra Records, features such stars as Yes’ Rick Wakeman and Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre. (A vinyl edition arrives in 2022.) Listen to the album’s tracks below.
From the Oct. 7 announcement: Fusing the guitar work of guitarist David Gilmour with Roger Water’s lyrics, Animals is widely hailed by die-hard Floyd fans as one of the group’s most highly conceptual and uncompromising albums of their career, and certainly set the template for the commercial breakthrough that would come two years later with 1979’s The Wall.
Listen to “Pigs on a Wing (Pt 1)” with Barre
Animals Reimagined includes performances by such veteran players and singers as jazz-rock guitar legend Al Di Meola, psych-rock godfather Arthur Brown, drum master Billy Cobham, UFO’s Vinnie Moore, Patrick Moraz of Yes and the Moody Blues, Jan Akkerman of Focus, Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge, Jon Davison and Billy Sherwood of Yes, guitarist Albert Lee, Dream Theater’s James LaBrie, and more.
Listen to “Sheep” with Brown, Wakeman, and more
Each track of this groundbreaking work has been completely reimagined with modern production flourishes and tasteful musical additions while staying true to the original album’s heady and subtly complex compositions.
Listen to the new version of “Dogs,” a 17-minute suite sung by Rainbow’s Graham Bonnet with Vinnie Moore on guitar, Utopia’s Kasim Sulton on bass, Dream Theater’s Jordan Rudess on keyboards, and King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto
The CD comes in a deluxe 6-panel digipak with artwork created by Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann, with cover art designed by James McCarthy.
Animals Reimagined Track List
1. Pigs On A Wing 1 – Nick van Eede (Cutting Crew) & Martin Barre (Jethro Tull)
2. Dogs – Graham Bonnet (Rainbow), Vinnie Moore (UFO), Kasim Sulton (Utopia), Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) & Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson)
3. Pigs (Three Different Ones) – James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Al Di Meola, Joe Bouchard (Blue Öyster Cult), Patrick Moraz (The Moody Blues) & Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
4. Sheep – Arthur Brown, Rick Wakeman (Yes), Jan Akkerman (Focus), David J. (Bauhaus) & Carmine Appice (Cactus/Vanilla Fudge)
5. Pigs On A Wing 2 – Jon Davison (lead vocalist for Yes), Albert Lee & Billy Sherwood (Yes)
Listen to “Pigs (Three Different Ones)”
Listen to the brief “Pigs on the Wing (Pt. 2),” featuring Davison on lead vocals, with Sherwood and Lee
Related: Our coverage of Still Wish You Were Here
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