Pink Floyd has a way of gripping its audience. Surely many readers can say they experienced this the first time they listened to Dark Side of the Moon. That album is nearly perfection—moving seamlessly from one song to the next, almost necessitating a listen-through of the entire album at once. Dark Side of the Moon might by the English band’s staple album, but an equally classic, yet overlooked album by many, Animals, can easily stand toe-to-toe with it.

The year this album was released, 1977, was a volatile year in the history of rock music. Punk rock, led by the Sex Pistols on the English front and The Ramones on the American side, was the new musical movement. The leaders of these groups got teenagers to rebel against the so-called “dinosaur” rock of bands such as Pink Floyd.

Roger Waters, the principal songwriter in Floyd, decided to some rebelling of his own against both the punk bands that hated him and English society itself. This would come in the form of Animals, clearly the most bitingly political album of their career. To go along with this sharp commentary against English society, David Gilmour, the lead musical composer for the group, wrote some of the hardest and heaviest music the band had performed to date.

Dividing people in society into three different groups—Dogs, Pigs, and Sheep, Waters is able to allegorize how he feels about British society at the time. This division is loosely based upon George Orwell’s classic treatise, Animal Farm. The Dogs are the megalomaniacal businessmen who will stop at nothing to get what they want, Pigs represent those greedy and blind by their wealth, while the Sheep are the masses—those that lap up anything that is sold or said to them.

The notion of hard and heavy music does not seem true with the opening track on the album, “Pigs on the Wing (Part 1),” which is a very brief love song featuring only Waters strumming on an acoustic guitar and singing. The lyrics pertain to his love for his wife Carolyn Christie, whom he divorced in 1992.

The following song, “Dogs,” a 17-minute epic, is one of the most ambitious pieces of music that Floyd ever performed. This song features the only instance of Gilmour singing on the album, something which would prove to be a trend on later Floyd works. Until this album, Gilmour was the principal vocalist on nearly every Pink Floyd song, but “Dogs” affords him the only chance on this album to showcase his soulful vocal chords. Even still, Gilmour only is able to sing on half the song, as Waters eventually takes over after the extended keyboard and synthesizer solo by Richard Wright in the middle of the song.

Continuing on the musical journey, “Pigs (Three Different Ones),” is perhaps the most political song on the album. Featuring direct references to Margaret Thatcher and Mary Whitehouse, an advocate against rock music and who was said to hate Pink Floyd, Waters lashes out at those he does not like. Although the political commentary may now sound dated, the listener can still hear how passionate Waters is in expressing his discontent with what England had become.

An extended bass duet by Waters and Gilmour begin the third of the three extended songs on the album, “Sheep.” This song showcases some of Wright’s best keyboard work and was a bit ahead of its time—it sounds way more 80s than 70s. The ten-minute song closes with what is perhaps my favorite guitar riff ever, a classic way to bring the hard rock part of the album to a close.

The album ends much like it begins, with “Pigs on the Wing (Part 2),” the finale of the short love song sung by Waters at the beginning of the album. Although this and the first part of the song have little to do with the political nature of the album, both of these little ditties provide exceptional bookends to the three extended songs on the album.

Although the wheels were beginning to fall off the band at the time, Animals is one of their strongest albums from start to finish. For some reason, it tends to be overlooked by the masses that may only have come into contact with Pink Floyd through Dark Side of the Moon and “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).” If you have the patience to sit through several lengthy songs on this album, you will be rewarded by a concept album that is an excellent attempt by the band to stick it to society and lash back at the punk rock bands of the day by making a hard rock album of their own.