Held back for four years over a dispute between band members Roger Waters and David Gilmour over the liner notes, the remaster of Pink Floyd’s tenth album, Animals, finally has a scheduled release date of Sept. 16.
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The remix of the band’s 1977 album was initially put on hold since it was completed in 2018. In 2021, Waters called out Gilmour for allegedly vetoing the release of the remastered album over information contained in the original liner notes, written by Mark Blake. The former Pink Floyd bassist and songwriter said that Gilmour did not want the new edition of Animals released until the section in the liner notes on Waters’ vision for the album was removed. Waters agreed and posted the liner notes and a message on his website.
“As I am banned by Dave Gilmour from posting on Pink Floyd’s Facebook page with its 30,000,000 subscribers,” said Waters in his message along with liner notes to the album, “I am posting this announcement here today and in full on rogerwaters.com.”
Waters continued, “I am agreeing to the release of the new ‘Animals remix,’ with the sleeve notes removed. Good work James Guthrie by the way, and sorry Mark Blake. The final draft of the liner notes was fact-checked and agreed as factually correct by me, Nick [drummer Nick Mason], and Gilmour. Here they are. Enjoy. There’s nothing controversial, just a few simple facts.”
Waters wrote four of the five Animals tracks entirely on his own, with the exception of “Dogs,” which was co-written and sung with Gilmour.
Though the reissue doesn’t include any new material or bonus tracks, it will include a 32-page booklet of never-before-seen photos from the era and be available in multiple formats. The album was remastered in 5.1 stereo sound by engineer James Guthrie, who originally finished working on the project in 2018.
Pink Floyd is reportedly in talks to sell their recorded music catalog, including some of the best-selling albums of all time for at least $500 million. The band recently joined TikTok and released the first physical copies of new music in 25 years with the CD and vinyl release of the band’s single “Hey Hey Rise Up,” which was released in April to support Ukraine.
