Pink Floyd
The Division Bell

THE REVIEW

The first reunion of Pink Floyd after Roger Waters' departure produced a mediocre album (A Momentary Lapse of Reason) but, most importantly, cash that went on to fill the pockets of the 2 surviving members of the group. And this seemed enough to explain why the band didn't die at the command of the resigning bassist and lyricist.
In 1994, the release of THE DIVISION BELL was fueled by new sentiments: pride, the desire to make their mark in the '90s as much as possible, and the wish to prove that Roger Waters was terribly wrong. The extraordinary success of the record implied that the audience sided with Gilmour Wright and Mason: in almost thirty years of career, it was one of Pink Floyd's most successful works.
"In this album, Nick and Rick played everything they had to play: for this reason, according to me, it's the most genuine Floyd album since the time of Wish You Were Here," explained David Gilmour during an interview.

In fact, THE DIVISION BELL appears to be a meticulous record, the result of more than a year and a half of recording and the full-time reintegration of Richard Wright, with the characteristic graphic design by Storm Thorgerson and production by Bob Ezrin. The lyrics, also more solid (thanks to the contribution of Laird Clowes and Anthony Moore, but especially from Gilmour's wife, Polly Samson) helped recreate the atmospheres of the albums from the '70s.
Very close to being a concept, in the best tradition of the Waters era, with the central theme of communication. The inevitable ghosts of the past that Gilmour faces in person: the recent separation from his wife and his personal recovery (Coming Back To Life); the breakup with Waters (Lost For Words); the irreversibility of Barrett's condition (Poles Apart).
The album addresses the difficulties of communication not only on a personal level but also on a collective level (A Great Day For Freedom, Keep Talking, Take It Back). The best proof is undoubtedly the poignant High Hopes, an anthem that represents Gilmour's nostalgic return to the Cambridge years and a reflection on the passing of time.
The orchestral passages are directed by Michael Kamen. The musicians accompanying the Floyd are the same from Delicate Sound Of Thunder, with the important exception of Dick Parry replacing Scott Page on sax.

Precisely the confirmation of a team and an already winning idea is a sign that the group intends to move in continuity with the past, without proposing anything truly new. Gilmour, Mason, Wright do nothing but indulge the Pink Floyd myth turned into a sad cliché, creating sound arcs with no destination, solos behind which there's emptiness, suggestive and enigmatic images but vain and superficial.
Surely a warmer and more appealing work than the previous one, even if nothing truly significant happens, it's a glorious and rhetorical déjà-heard, a well-restored re-edition of the 30-year career of Pink Floyd.
Almost as if trying to rid themselves of Roger Waters, they created a poor copy, a Frankenstein-like monster assembled as best they could. Technically, it turned out well. As for emotions, fans only need the old and reassuring habits of always. But it satisfies only up to a certain point.