Pink Floyd

The Division Bell

The Floyd at their best!!

Review Score:

(10/10)
I have been a Pink Floyd fan for years, and I am also a Roger Waters fan (inlcluding his solo works). Therefore, I believe I can say without bias that this is truly a masterpiece. While it's true that this is not the same Pink Floyd many fans are accustomed to (particularly those who grew up in the 70's), the remaining three members put together a work of art which would not have been possible with Waters present. Waters was very restrictive of the band's work (ever seen Live at Pompeii?) and forced his own ideas (while very interesting) into the foreground while pushing everything else the band wanted to do aside. He even went as far as to force Richard Wright out of the band and this produced terrible results (the Final Cut is less than satisfactory in my opinion).

This album starts off with a spacey track titled "Cluster One". It sounds like radio static or something of the like, but it's very ambient. Other favorites include "Poles Apart", which appears to be written for Syd Barrett (including a nice little segment of carnival music--very good for expressing the idea of insanity, it comes accross well), "Wearing The Inside Out", a taste of Richard Wright's melancholy ambience, "Take It Back", a beautifully passionate piece, "Coming Back To Life", which has a very nice guitar solo and deep lyrics (Dave and Polly really did an awesome job here--It's amazing what can happen when two soulmates work together on a musical piece--it gives it a spiritual element that can't be reached any other way), "Lost For Words" which sounds as though it was written for Roger Waters, but only Dave can answer that, and last but certainly not least, "High Hopes", a song every Pink Floyd fan knows and loves. The slide solo on this track is nothing short of amazing.

If you enjoyed Momentary Lapse of Reason (another awesome album), then this is definitely for you. These two albums almost fit together--Momentary Lapse is about coming together, whereas The Division Bell is about growing apart. They really ought to release these two as a 2-CD set. Excellent Job to Dave (and Polly), Nick, and Rick! Shine on!

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