What I know about
Animals is Battersea Power Station, which features on the cover, so I will give the album a go as you two think it's a good one.
As for later Floyd albums, I thought
Final Cut was good, but it's more about Roger Waters, songwriter, than about the spacey instrumental excursions of Gilmore and Wright.
(Also helps if you share Roger Waters' preoccupation with linking post-war Brits back to their WWII past.)