Track Listing

1. Cluster One
2. What Do You Want From Me
3. Poles Apart
4. Marooned
5. A Great Day For Freedom
6. Wearing The Inside Out
7. Take It Back
8. Coming Back To Life
9. Keep Talking
10. Lost For Words
11. High Hopes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1483 in Music
• Published on: 1994
• Released on: 1994-04-05
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
As Roger Waters's solo career set into a sunset of suspiciously self-serving Wall revivals and compelling if modest-selling solo efforts, his former band became one of the few outfits in the soft live market of the 1990s to burnish its stadium-filling appeal. But their recorded output wasn't quite so rosy. As all post-Dark Side of the Moon albums must have a Big Important Theme, The Division Bell is vaguely about levels of separation (did you say, duh!?), with more than one not-so-opaque lyrical jab at the estranged Waters. But there's a sense that the band may have put more thought into its trademark audio gimmickry (well represented here by the actual sound of the earth's crust cracking--you don't get that on Rage Against the Machine albums!--and a "spoken" intro by Dr. Stephen Hawking, or rather his voice synthesizer) than it did into its songs this time around. The opening "Cluster One" has a hypnotic minimalist lure that dissolves all too quickly into the bluesy waffle of "What Do You Want From Me," while Floyd Mach III leader Dave Gilmour's usually lyrical guitar work is uninspired throughout, a definite Floydian slip. Still, the band maddeningly manages a few moments of the old grandeur here and there. The Division Bell is not a great Pink Floyd album, but an all-too-fallible simulation. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

A surprisingly fine return to form
When I picked this album up upon its release in 1994, I had not purchased a new Pink Floyd album since the time of The Final Cut. I was very pleasantly surprised with The Division Bell however, and the 1980s textures of Momentary Lapse of Reason were nowhere to be found. Indeed, although very modern sounding, references to their most popular albums released during the 1973-1979 timeframe are scattered across The Division Bell, along with fine songwriting and playing.

The instrumentation is classic Floyd and bits of analog sounding synthesizers and Hammond organ, along with acoustic and clean sounding electric guitars dominate the soundscape. I also noted that Dave (his playing is very tasteful throughout) uses what sounds like a guitar synthesizer of sorts, which yields an unnaturally high pitched guitar tone. It is pretty cool sounding. Dave's voice is in excellent condition and has changed very little since the time of Pink Floyd's "golden age". Rick Wright also makes a brief appearance on vocals too. My favorite tracks include the atmospheric instrumental pieces, although the vocal tracks are also very good.

This is a deeply personal album, with Gilmour taking on topics of his (at the time) recently failed marriage, the strained relationship with former member (bassist) Roger Waters, and the (late) Syd Barrett. The lyrics are pretty good; most of which were written by Dave and his girlfriend.

Overall, while very polished and modern sounding, this is a surprisingly fine return to form and should appeal to most fans of the older material.

A satisfying going-away present
Of the two post-Roger Waters studio albums made by Pink Floyd, this is clearly the superior effort. David Gilmour and Bob Ezrin were trying very hard to replicate 70s Floyd on Momentary Lapse, but Division Bell is a more satisfying and relaxed effort. Only a few moments ("Keep Talking", "What Do You Want From Me") consciously mimic earlier Floyd efforts.

Overall, the sound of this album echoes the more collective Floyd sound in the early 70s rather than the Waters-driven visions of the late 70s. There's a more modern sound, but much of the stuff here sounds like it could have cropped up on Obscured by Clouds, Meddle or Atom Heart Mother. Rick Wright makes a welcome return as a composer, contributing to approximately half the songs.

The best parts of the album lie in the beginning (the two instrumentals, "Poles Apart") and the end ("Keep Talking", "Lost for Words", "High Hopes"). The U2-ish "Take It Back" and "Coming Back to Life" are probably too upbeat and poppy for many Floyd fans, but quite enjoyable in their own right. The two duds are the bland "A Great Day for Freedom" and the turgid "Wearing the Inside Out".

One last word - if nothing else, check out "High Hopes" - a Floyd classic, one of the best tunes in the Floyd canon. Maybe this album doesn't match the heights of Floyd's best work in the 60s and 70s, but it ends their career on a solid note.

Best rock record ever featuring Stephen Hawkings
But after that, not much else to say. The second album under the Pink Floyd name without Roger Waters seriously misses his presence, especially in the lyrics division. The album is, conceptually, about relationships splitting apart ("Division Bell," get it?), and minus the subtext of Gilmour's acrimony towards Waters, you'd think this was a divorce album.

The bluesy "What Do You Want From Me" is the hardest song here. With a biting lyric and Gilmour's standard fluid guitar leads, it is probably the most obvious FU to the former band member. However, the concept strains itself and becomes too obvious by the time you hit songs like "Wearing The Inside Out" or "Lost for Words." If it weren't for Hawkings' voice on "Keep Talking," it would be a wholly forgettable song.

The best of the rest are "A Great Day For Freedom" and "High Hopes." "Great Day" finds our unhappy protagonist marveling at the fall of The Berlin Wall, yet forlornly wondering why inner peace is so far from his grasp. "High Hopes" looks back to the days of "magnets and miracles,' and then stares in the face of dashed hopes and disillusionment. The rest of "The Division Bell," however, doesn't measure up to previous full-band classics like Wish You Were Here or The Wall. Completists may need this, but others can proceed with caution.