A deluxe reissue of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals has been in the works for some time, with new mixes of the album by James Guthrie having been completed in 2018, including the album's first-ever 5.1 Surround Sound mix. Between the pandemic and constant bickering between Roger Waters and David Gilmour, it's taken a while to actually happen. They finally announced today that it will be out in a variety of editions on September 16 via Sony.
The Deluxe Gatefold version includes the 2018 remix on LP, CD, audio Blu-ray, and audio DVD along with a 32-page book. The Blu-ray and DVD include the 2018 remix in Stereo, 5.1 Surround, as well as 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's iconic artwork has also been reimagined for this release by Hipgnosis' Aubry "Po" Powell, who says, "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." Check out the artwork below.
There is also a standard double LP vinyl edition, a standard CD edition, and Blu-ray edition. Check out the packaging for the deluxe edition below. Preorder the Deluxe Box Set and standard vinyl and CD editions now, and you can grab lots of other Pink Floyd vinyl, too.
One of the points of contention was that Roger Waters wanted sleeve notes written by Mark Blake in the package, but said Gilmour thought "they should not be included in the sleeve notes because he wanted Pink Floyd to remain enigmatic." Waters ended up publishing them on his website last year.
Roger Waters starts his This is Not a Drill Tour next week.
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
