The most important British Invasion groups tended to follow a pretty clear path. The Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Who, Zombies, Yardbirds, Moody Blues, etc. emerged from seedy clubs where they cut their teeth on covers of American rock, blues, and soul numbers. They next gradually developed strong and distinctive songwriting voices of their own and flourished on LP.
The Animals were the one significant exception. There was no development period; they came out of the gate doing what they'd always do best: brooding their way through American rock, blues, and soul numbers. When Mick Jagger was still struggling to interpret the black American artists he worshipped, Eric Burdon did it effortlessly with a deep, seasoned, utterly distinctive bellow that sounded decades beyond his two decades on Earth. However, despite the occasional gem like "I'm Crying" or "Inside Looking Out", neither he nor any of the other Animals developed as fully as Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/ Richards, Townshend, Davies, or the rest while in the band (Alan Price became a fine songwriter in his post-Animals days). When Burdon attempted to compete during rock's most progressive years, he could only produce silly schlock like "San Franciscan Nights", "Monterey", and "Sky Pilot" with a faceless band that was The Animals in name only.
That means ABKCO's new reissues of The Animals' first four U.S. albums--all recorded before Revolver or Odessey and Oracle or Village Green or Tommy or any of the other albums that define the pinnacle of British pop--represent the pinnacle of The Animals. Perhaps they couldn't compete with those other groups in terms of progressiveness or originality, but when it came to the kind of traditional rock, soul, and blues that make up The Animals, Animal Tracks, Animals on Tour, and Animalization, no one could beat Burdon, Alan Price, Chas Chandler, Hilton Valentine, and John Steel. The use of their American LPs also makes a place for the singles that were The Animals' ultimate raison d'être.
While the LP is rarely the ideal medium for a cover band, The Animals selected their material with such care that these records mostly transcend that issue. It's not just the smashes like "House of the Rising Sun" (The Animals), "I'm Crying" (The Animals On Tour), "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (Animal Tracks), and "Don't Bring Me Down" (Animalization) that stand up. The group actually did some fabulous work on their LP tracks too.
The Animals' first two albums are the purest examples of their reverence for American popular music, although their unique style still shapes these recordings, as they electrify Bob Dylan's acoustic versions of "House of the Rising Sun" and "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" on The Animals (a year before The Byrds built their career on doing that sort of thing). The Animals On Tour is the weakest of these LPs since the band often sound unusually subdued (their easy-going boogie through Larry Williams's "She Said Yeah" cowers next to the Stones turbo-charged assault), but it's a fine showcase for Alan Price, who turns in some of the finest British blues keyboarding on wax toward the end of Side A.
On Animal Tracks, The Animals find the right balance between their idolization of great American artists like Sam Cooke, Bo Diddley, and Nina Simone, their (and producer Mickey Most's) commercial ambitions, and the desire to get into the pop composing game. Along with their Tin Pan Alley calling card, "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", the band wrote enough decent originals to fill half an LP. These originals are all in their tough bluesy style, powerfully performed, and reminiscent of songs by other songwriters. The band is at their best in a hybrid format, expanding Bo Diddley's self-mythologizing "The Story of Bo Diddley" into a mesmerizing pocket history of the whole rock and roll myth right up to 1965.
The Animals' fourth and best album, Animalisation, scales back the originals slightly but ups their quality. For the first time, top-shelf band compositions like "Inside Looking Out" and "Cheating" make the Chuck Berry and John Lee Hooker covers feel a little unnecessary and quite a bit old-fashioned. However, a swirling version of "See See Rider" shows they can still make an oldie their own when properly inspired. Their sexy and searing recording of Goffin and King's "Don't Bring Me Down" (my personal fave Animal track) gives the false impression that they could find a place in the burgeoning psychedelic era, with its acidically tremoloed guitar and warped rhythm.
Included with these reissues of those first four albums in an exclusive bundle only sold on ABKCO.com is a single-sided, 12" reissue of the I Just Wanna Make Love to You, E.P. It's not the group's most essential release, and its blank side should have been home to some of the essentials that made it to the bonus spots on the CD iterations of these albums. "It's My Life", one of The Animals' biggest and best hits, is nowhere to be found on the latest vinyl, and its absence is glaring.
Although the mastering process involved the digital transfer of analog tapes, the mono mixes sound very warm, clear, and punchy on vinyl. Animalization, the only album I had on hand for comparison purposes, sounds better in its new iteration than the original mono release on MGM. All of the vinyl is flat and quiet. The Animals are raucous and loud.
