Pink Floyd - The Division Bell (25th Anniversary)

Released in the U.S. 25 years ago on March 28th, 1994 (April 4th in the U.K.).

With a main theme of communication, what are your thoughts on the fourteenth studio album by Pink Floyd? Has your opinion changed over time?

David Gilmour
Nick Mason
Richard Wright

The Division Bell - Wikipedia

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

 

I like it, I always felt though it lacked a hard edge and almost sounded like a Moody Blues album. Not that sounding like the MB is bad but I missed the dark atmosphere of Lapse of Reason. I don't think Lapse gets enough credit for having a sustained mood throughout the whole Album that I really enjoy.

High Hopes and Coming Back to life are classics. Good album but just wish it was darker.

 

My opinion hasn't changed over time. I think this album is in my PF top 5 and is as good for you today as it's always been.

 

My opinion is the same. A good enjoyable album overall with a Floyd masterpiece: High Hopes. High Hopes is so great that is a pitty they made TER removing HH as the last PF song. That was a perfect ending to their discography.

 

I love High Hopes, Coming Back To Life and especially What Do You Want From Me on Pulse too.

 

This was «my» Pink Floyd album. I was almost 16 and had become a fan the last 3 years. Waiting for a new album and being able to go to a show was a dream come true. I adored the album then. Now I still enjoy it but think it could have been trimmed a bit (like most CD era albums). Still think that it belongs in top 5 of the Pink Floyd albums.

 

The Division Bell is the best thing Dave Gilmour has done across both his solo and PF material since The Final Cut.

 

The first Floyd album that I bought and still my favourite.

 

“High Hopes” really is a masterpiece but it's the only reason that I revisit the album.

 

A good but not great album,prehaps a little mellow for it's own good.

Having said that High Hopes is one of the best Floyd songs and one heck of a closer.

 

That's why i love it. IMO, before the Division Bell, the last mellow album by them was Echoes. They did enough dark, cynical, dreary albums as is.

 

Masterpiece. My favourite album of all time.
I listen to it pretty much every week, especially on the break of spring, exactly this time of year.
I have pretty much every iteration of the album ever released and a mega London-tube-sized poster signed by David, Nick and Rick. My most prized possession.

Here are a few of my copies



Nuno Bento on Instagram: “The story of "The Division Bell" É com orgulho que vos apresento o meu maior tesouro: a minha colecção do "The Division Bell" e a sua…”

 

When the lp came out in '94, I had drifted a bit from Floyd as I was into indie music at the time. I felt TDB was bloated and a bit bland. After drifting rather easily back into PF, TDB finally clicked with me as I grew older and maybe...a bit more mellow? Maybe I needed to be closer to Gilmour's age when he recorded the album?

It is now the PF album that, along with Wish You Were Here and Atom Heart Mother, I listen to the most. I never would have predicted that 25 years ago.

 

I know this is trivial but until TER there was the fun fact that the first and last voice heard on Pink Floyd's albums was their manager - Peter Jenner on Piper and Steve O Rourke on TDB.

 

Muito bom. Grande colecção.

 

And that was taken 2 years ago

 

What are the new aquisitions then?

 

Blimey so many threads on pretty much the same subject so to avoid repeating myself from a day or so back...IMHO only 'Marooned', 'Wearing the Inside Out' and 'High Hopes' are really good or interesting enough or really sound like PF.

Pink Floyd - The Later Years (Official!)

Less than 50% of it sounds vaguely Floyd-y - 'Coming back to Life' and 'Take it back' are just terrible, no place on a PF album, and the riff from 'What do you want from me?' is lifted straight from David's debut solo album.

There is one upside to this release - it showed the importance of Rick Wright, as it sounds way more Floyd-y than A Momentary Lapse of Reason.

 

It’s a classic, no idea why it isn’t regarded as so.

Is it because it’s quite moody/bleak in parts? Then again so is The Wall

 

not particularly liked it then, not particularly like it now - prefer Momentary.

High Hopes is indeed more than OK, but I wanted to offer something I never found like minds for: there are two tracks I love on it, more so than High Hopes in fact, and those are: Cluster One, and Poles Apart.
those would be my own picks for personal PF best-ofs, if I'd include Division Bell material.

 

I have never warmed totally to it.
It has great songs but it’s too long.
As the Gilmour-era only released 3 studio albums, it’s the natural highlight of those.

That said, “High Hopes” is a bonafide classic and one of their few later songs that can stand to be compared to the the bands golden era.

 

Gilmour’s playing on the album is masterful and really makes the songs soar in many places, especially Poles Apart.