THE DIVISION BELL

The Division Bell is the album that really got me into Pink Floyd, and it's still one of my favorites. In fact, if someone were to cast a spell on me so that I weren't able to hear any music from '71-'73, I'd probably call it their best album. Every song is carefully tailored over, and you can tell there was a lot of time spent on the songwriting, the arrangements, the performances, the production, enginneering, and album art. David Gilmour is quite possibly at his best here, with highly expressive and inventive guitar playing, with great attention to both tone and emotional depth, especially in the instrumental "Marooned" and the solo at the end of "High Hopes," (though all of the solos are great), and while he'd already exhibited incredible control over his voice in songs like "Dogs" and "Comfortably Numb" and the later A Momentary Lapse of Reason album, his singing has developed even more on this album to a degree of stunning beauty, highlighted most brightly on the majestic, airy, "Coming Back To Life." Richard Wright gives a fine final studio perfomance for the band with some of his most ornate and descriptive synth and organ work, a great song in "Wearing The Inside Out", and his vocals are just as strong as they've always been, if not maybe a little more beautiful than before. Nick Mason provides just the right drum parts for the songs, coming up with a very effective hybrid of the soothing ride cymbal work he did on Dark Side of the Moon and the thundering tom fills he gave to The Wall. I could go on and on in great detail about the many, many things I love about each one of the songs, but to hear the album is really the only way to experience it. Take my word for it, from a devoted Pink Floyd fan, The Divsion Bell is an essential masterpiece of progressive rock, and a must have for anyone into the band.