Pink Floyd Announce ‘Animals 50’ Releases

Animals 50

Five decades on from the bleak picture of 1970’s Britain it embodied, Pink Floyd’s revered dystopian masterpiece Animals is being newly released in multiple formats including a deluxe box set, on January 22, 2027, via Sony Music. The 50th anniversary edition of the Jan. 21, 1977, release brings fans fresh insight into one of the band’s most visceral and compelling works, featuring rare and unreleased music, alongside unseen photographs capturing a unique behind the scenes perspective of the recording process, creation of the iconic album art and groundbreaking tour production.

Animals 50 will be released in multiple formats, including a Deluxe box set, a single LP, 2-LPs, 2-CDs, Blu-ray Audio and digital. Various editions, including the deluxe set, are available here. Others are here. The deluxe set contains 3 LPs: the original 1977 album, the 2018 Remix (remixed by James Guthrie), and a disc of five rarities that includes an unheard Roger Waters track titled “Young Nicholas Jon” and previously unreleased early versions of “Sheep” and “Dogs.” It also has 5-CDs mirroring the LPs, plus a 2-disc set of the May 9, 1977 Oakland, Calif. show recorded live at the Oakland Coliseum Arena by a then-19 year-old bootlegger, Reinhard Hohlwein, and the 1-disc Blu-ray, which includes all of the above audio with the 2018 Remix being available in 5.1 and Dolby Atmos. The band’s lineup for this recording also comprised David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright.

The Nov. 5 announcement followed a brief teaser campaign on the band’s various social media platforms.

Milan. https://t.co/IIysUPZa2u

— Pink Floyd (@pinkfloyd) November 4, 2026

The Deluxe box set also features a 64-page hardback book comprising new sleeve notes from New York Times best-selling author and life-long Floyd fan Jonathan Lethem, an interview with Reinhard Hohlwein, and an excerpt from Hipgnosis’ Audrey “Po” Powell’s memoir about the making of Animals’ iconic album art. These fascinating insights are interspersed with previously unpublished images that document the full creative journey, from the album recording to the shooting of the cover at Battersea Power Station and the subsequent global tour. The single LP contains the original 1977 album in orange and sandstone color variants. The 2-LP and 2-CD sets contain the original 1977 album plus rarities, as does the digital release, which also features the Oakland show.

Watch the visualizer for “Sheep (Original Radio Edit),” a four and a half minute, promo-only version, which has never been commercially available until now

From the Nov. 5 announcement: Animals remains as relevant in 2026 as it was in 1977. Its dystopian nightmare vision of a society torn apart by greed and hypocrisy continues to fester in the current age of misinformation, disconnection and uncertainty. The music and message is eerily prescient, as Dogs and Pigs still run amongst us, while Sheep are unwittingly manipulated into compliance. There is still a glimmer of hope.

Listen to “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” 2018 remix

The most lyrically and musically raw of Pink Floyd’s albums, Waters’ anti-capitalist rage bursts its way to the fore, mirrored throughout in David Gilmour’s haunting barrage of electric guitar. Recorded themselves at their new, purpose-built studio at Britannia Row, the recording process was not without its teething problems, but the stripped-back set up helped forge the gritty end product.

The incredible creativity and vision that forged Animals is perhaps best exemplified by one of rock’s most enduring images: the flying pig. Dreamt up by Waters and delivered by Powell and Storm Thorgerson at Hipgnosis, Animals’ album artwork vividly illustrates Waters’ vision for the record. The crumbling Battersea Power Station he drove past every day represented what Powell describes as “a capitalist monolith, crumbling at the core beneath the overbearing weight of greed, burgeoning bureaucracy and archaic infrastructure,” underlined by the pig floating above, symbolizing the greed of the ruling classes.

Photo: Hipgnosis © Sony Music; used with permission.

The story of the shoot itself has become the stuff of legend and helped cement the artwork’s legacy. With a 40-foot inflatable pig named Algie commissioned and permission granted to fly it over the station, eight photographers were placed around the station with a helicopter film crew and a police marksman in place to shoot it down if necessary. But a technical failure meant the shoot had to be postponed, and the next day as Algie rose, it broke free of its moorings and began to float toward Heathrow. They had forgotten to rebook the marksman. RAF fighter jets were scrambled and flights were canceled. An international incident was in the offing until a call came in from a farmer in Kent who had found Algie in one of his fields. The story quickly became a press sensation and inspired further inflatable pigs in the groundbreaking production of Pink Floyd’s 1977 “In the Flesh” world tour.

Gilmour says: “The mood in music was changing in ’77. Punk music was hitting everything and I suspect that had a little bit of an influence on the way we were working on the Animals album. I mean it’s quite an aggressive, stripped-back album. It was moving away from the sort of soundscapes that we had on Wish You Were Here. This album is more in your face and more rough and ready. And definitely the lyrics are a lot more aggressive from Roger. We had a lot of fun making it.”

Mason says: “There were all sorts of differences beginning to surface within the band but in some ways Animals was a remarkably cohesive enterprise. The big thing was the development of Britannia Row. Britannia Row was this building we’d bought some few years before in which we’d actually started building our own recording studio. We tried to design the studio in such a way that any of us could operate it and all the trunking was labelled clearly so anyone could plug in a set of headphones without someone else having to do it for us.”

The news represents the latest upgrade of music and film from Pink Floyd’s remarkable career and enduring legacy. A 50th anniversary release of Wish You Were Here arrived in 2025 as did the cinematic issue of Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII.

Animals Deluxe Box Set Track Listing

5-CDs
CD1: Animals (Original album)

Pigs on the Wing 1
Dogs
Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Sheep
Pigs on the Wing 2

CD2: Animals (2018 Remix)
CD3: Rarities

Dogs – Early Version, Rough Mix*
Sheep – Original Radio Edit*
Sheep – Early Version, Rough Mix*
Studio Jam*
Young Nicholas Jon*

CD4: Live from the Oakland Coliseum Arena, 1977 Disc 1
CD5: Live from the Oakland Coliseum Arena, 1977 Disc 2

Sheep*
Pigs on the Wing 1*
Dogs*
Pigs on the Wing 2*
Pigs (Three Different Ones)*
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1-5)*
Welcome to the Machine*
Have a Cigar*
Wish You Were Here*
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 6-9)*
Money*
Us and Them*
Careful with That Axe, Eugene*

3-LPs
LP1: Animals (Original album)
LP2: Animals (2018 Remix)
LP3: Rarities

Blu-ray
Animals – Original Stereo Mix (1977)
Animals – Remix: Stereo + 5.1 + Atmos (2018)
Rarities (Stereo Mix)

* never before officially released

Various editions, including the deluxe set, are available here. Others are here.