If
the Animals
had never recorded another album except for
Animalism
, their musical reputation would have been assured -- none of the participants ever participated on, or would ever work on, a better long-player. The irony was that
(not to be confused with the group's earlier, British-issued
Animalisms
, or its American counterpart,
Animalization
) was only ever issued in America, and came out after the group had ceased to exist and, thus, was scarcely noticed by anybody (which made it a choice occupant of cut-out bins for decades). Recorded mostly during the spring and summer of 1966 by the lineup of
Eric Burdon
,
Hilton Valentine
Chas Chandler
Dave Rowberry
, and
Barry Jenkins
proved to be a glorious musical high point, as well as an end point for the band. Even as they were playing out their string, all of the members had begun growing in their musicianship, with guitarist
taking on a much bolder, bluesier voice on his instrument and keyboardist
developing a sound as distinctive as that of his predecessor,
Alan Price
. Part of
was cut in Los Angeles under the aegis of
Frank Zappa
, who arranged (and probably played on) the opening number,
"All Night Long,"
a surging traditional blues song, and who also worked on the album's ominous rendition of
"The Other Side of This Life."
Sam Cooke
's
"Shake"
is treated to a restrained
Burdon
vocal and superb musical acrobatics by
Valentine
and
Rowberry
, while
B.B. King
"Rock Me Baby"
becomes the vehicle for a virtuoso workout by
, and a thunderous performance by
Chandler
Jenkins
.
"Smokestack Lightning"
is the most successful cover the group ever did of a Chicago blues number (unless you count their version of
Donovan
"Hey Gyp,"
which is also here in all of its
Bo Diddley
-inspired glory), and
"Hit the Road, Jack"
represents the best work that
ever did with a
Ray Charles
number. ~ Thom Jurek