Who was dragged down by the stone

Pink Floyd - Animals - 1977

By 1977, the dinosaurs still existed, but they were already dying before they realised. By "dinosaurs", of course, I mean the whole over-bloated, self-indulgent series of bands within the genre known at the time as "progressive rock". There was another term used a lot, which was "symphonic rock", and I think that describes the pretentiousness of the whole thing quite well.
One way or another, as Bob Dylan would say, times, they were a-changing. And some artists from the genre seemed to adapt better than others.
I think Pink Floyd was one of the ones that changed the most graciously. Somehow, without changing their essence too much, they managed to still maintain credibility throughout the whole thing.
In part, I think it had to do with the slow pace at which they released albums in the second half of the 1970s. Probably that gave them time to think and, also, time to refine their material.
The other thing, I'm pretty sure, was double down on the social commentary in their lyrics, which had started with Dark Side of the Moon. While Wish you were here was not totally lacking in it, it was more oriented to the music industry. And also, the focus of that album was them paying homage to Syd Barrett.
In this album, social commentary becomes social criticism. They loosely based the concept on George Orwell's Animal Farm, and released an album that was a criticism on power, capitalism, and social structures.
I'm not saying this would give them praise from the blossoming punk scene, but it must have, at least, spared them from the worst of the criticism.
Musically, while following the pattern of previous albums, with very long songs, this sounds much bleaker, harsher, less lyrical and warm, especially when compared to their previous release. The keyboards are less prominent than in other works, so when they appear, they seem to make a point. Gilmour's work, on the other hand, is dominating and superb.
I love this album. Wish will always be my favourite, because of "Shine on you Crazy Diamond", but I have to admit that, as a whole, this gives a run for its money. Simply brilliant.

• Apparently, Roger Waters made the two "Pigs on the Wing" tracks as a declaration of love for his wife. The guy's a true romantic. 
• The story of the inflatable pig is well known, but I'll put it here because it's too good. They had a 12 metres pig-balloon built and filled it with helium. It was tethered at Battersea Power Plant. A marksman was hired to shoot it in case it became unattached. But because of the weather, they had to postpone the photo shoot till the following day. But nobody hired the marksman for the following day and, of course, the pig became unattached. It flew over Heathrow, flights were cancelled, pilots saw it from their planes, panic ensued, and it ended up landing on a farm in Kent, where the farmer was furious because it had scared his cows. The name of the pig was Algie. I love that story!
• I love every single guitar work in "Dogs", acoustic, electric, solos, I think the whole thing is simply amazing, so here it is, all 17 minutes of it.

We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood

Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel - 1977

Listening to this album, I wonder why aren't all debut solo albums like it. 

It's not a rhetorical question, I'm not asking "why can't everyone release such a good album?". It is a great album, but the question is, rather: "How come all solo debuts don't end up being like this?"

After a good few years with Genesis, a band that evolved in style but which we could not really call "eclectic", one can understand that Peter Gabriel would want to try different styles of music for his solo debut. 

And try he did. A lot. 

When the album starts, with "Moribund the Burgermeister", one would almost expect Rael to show up at so point, so similar to The Lamb lies down on Broadway it is. And that's where the similarities end. From the almost pop feel of the beautiful "Solsbury Hill", to the jazz/cabaret elements in "Excuse me" or "Waiting for the big One", this is a strange cocktail of songs.

That is probably it's biggest problem, I think. You will hardly ever be in a mood to listen to such a disparate collection. Most of the songs are great, but I have consistently found that I don't usually fell like listening to the whole of it in one sitting. Still, and while it's probably not him at his most accessible or consistent, it's a great album.

• Because none of his first four albums really had a name, they came to be known by what appeared on the covers. This one is known as Car , for obvious reasons.
• I have just found out that Erasure made a cover of "Solsbury Hill". I actually thought of including it here as a bonus track, but I didn't really like the version at all.
• I mentioned how I hardly ever listen to the whole album. There's one song I always love listening to, and it's "Here comes the Flood". It's a song I find beautiful, disturbing and very sad. I just love it. For years, I was puzzled by the lyrics. It turns out they are about this "vision" he had of a sudden "flood" in which the whole humanity would suddenly become telepathic. 
• Of course, this is the song I'm sharing here. 

In the giving of my eyes to see your face

Yes - Going for the one - 1977

And talking about dinosaurs, here we have the biggest of them all. 

This is a bit the opposite of Animals: They cut down the length of the songs a bit (I know, also 5 songs, but for a band that put 4 songs in a double album, it's a major improvement), but kept the same sound, the same pomposity, the same abstract lyrics dealing with fantastic topics. 

And when they tone down the pomposity a bit, they end up being a bit too close to pop, as in "Wonderous stories". 

It's still the song I like the best in the album, so it's the one I'm sharing here. And yes, for some reason, the title is spelled "wonderous", with an 'e'.