I hear musical originally made by criminal monster (6)

I believe the answer is:

animal

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'monster' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

I cannot understand how the remainder of the clue works.

(Other definitions for animal that I've seen before include "Source of meat" , "Creature having voluntary movement" , "Mammal" , "I''m Alan (anag) - a wild, crazy person" , "swine" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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