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Pink Floyd - The Division Bell CD (album) cover

THE DIVISION BELL

Pink Floyd

 

Psychedelic/Space Rock

3.74 | 2263 ratings

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SouthSideoftheSky
Special Collaborator
Symphonic Team
4 stars The ringing of The Division Bell had begun!

I might be the only one holding this opinion but I think that The Division Bell is actually Pink Floyd's best album. I have never been a big fan of the band, but I find this album excellent. The material here is very strong and very melodic.

Some say that this is more of a David Gilmour album than a Pink Floyd album, and it is true that Gilmour dominates this album with his vocals and guitars, but for me that is just what makes The Division Bell so great. Gilmour has both a distinctive singing voice and a very distinctive guitar sound that really comes to the fore on this album. This music is unmistakeably Gilmour and therefore unmistakably Pink Floyd.

But we should not forget Richard Wright's role in the band. His keyboards are also a part of the sound of The Division Bell, perhaps more so than on many other Pink Floyd albums, especially The Wall and The Final Cut. Wright even sings one track on this album, Wearing The Inside Out. This song is exactly similar in style to the material on his solo album Broken China. In my view this is the least good song on the album and slightly out of place, but still good. Wright has a much more anonymous voice.

Music is a lot about expression and emotion and there is a lot of instrumental and vocal expression in these songs. The lyrics are great and it is clear that they care about what they are singing. All the songs are very good, but A Great Day For Freedom, Coming Back To Life and High Hopes are my particular favourites. High Hopes is really a Symphonic Prog masterpiece! The acoustic and the steel guitars are fantastic here.

While I think that Pink Floyd is a good but overrated band overall, this particular part of their career - encompassing The Division Bell and the previous Momentary Lapse Of Reason, culminating in the excellent live album PULSE, containing songs from these two albums as well as older classics - is underrated.

Highly recommended!

SouthSideoftheSky | 4/5 |

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