THE DIVISION BELL

Roger Waters is no longer the creative force of Pink Floyd, and it shows. However, that is not to say that THE DIVISION BELL is completely worthless or inferior to the golden years of Pink Floyd's career. On the contrary; it is quite good.

While Waters' intelligent lyrics are of course no more, everything else feels pretty much the same, as I was never a huge fan of Roger's bass playing, and musically, the Floyd still sounds rather intact. In fact, the only thing that alerts fans of Waters' absence is the lack of good lyrics. Otherwise this album could be compared to any of the Waters-era Floyd records and be non-discernable to the untrained Floyd fan.

What the that exactly mean? Well, it means that, while the lyrics contained within THE DIVISION BELL are quite lackluster, the musicianship and overall orchestration is still amazing, rivalling any of the other top Floyd records without question. The band hit a couple of low points with Waters' final outing with the Floyd in THE FINAL CUT, and then with the first Waterless album ever, A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON, both of which were nowhere near the caliber of say, ANIMALS or WISH YOU WERE HERE. Not by a long shot. But you know, THE DIVISION BELL is perhaps the first really good Pink Floyd album since THE WALL. If you can forget the fact that Waters isn't there anymore and just listen to it with an open-minded ear, I whole-heartedly believe that you will be quite pleased with the result of three fourths of classic Floyd busting their asses to create a genuinely good album. I think they succeeded in this, but that sentiment is not sjared by everyone, I understand. All I can say is to at least give this album a chance before casting it aside as trash.

David Gilmour has always been one of my favorite guitar players ever, and he really shines on this one, now armed with new freedom to go any direction muscially that he wants, and the result is quite pleasing to me. There are many beautiful, ambient and atmospheric moments as well as some fresh new jazzy licks, not to mention the hard rockers Pink Floyd became known for after DSotM. There are even a couple of soft rock ballads that b\flirt with pop a bit, and while this may not be enjoyable or acceptible for some die-hard Space-Rock fanatics, I personally find this change of pace a much-needed departure. A breath of fresh air, if you will. This album actually breathed new life into Pink Floyd as a whole entity. It is truly a shame that no other albums were made (at least as of this writing, and probably never again), because I personally heard new potential in THE DIVISION BELL's new yet familiar soundscapes, yet it was apparantly not to be.

The ambient sections are borderline Progressive Electronic a la Brian Eno, while the softer tracks actually have a slight U2-ish vibe to them, but not overwhelmingly so. Personally, I don't think the Floyd has ever left the Prog genre once, even in this album. Indeed, amongst the more conventional tracks are some truly Psychedelic ventures that are true to calssic Floyd style, and will be sure to satisfy the die-hard fan of the olden days. In some ways, this album is actually the most Psychedelic and Spacey record since DSotM in terms of just raw, true to form trippiness that was gradually lost over the course of the Waters takeover. While I like both eras, the Space-Rock days have always had a special place in my heart, so the return to more soaring guitar parts was quite welcome with me.

Roger Waters can't really say much about this one, though he may have been the truely creative one of the bunch. This fact still does not stifle the glaring truth that Gilmour was the composer when it came to what the music sounded like, and Waters' lackluster bass playing is not missed in the slightest. I always looked at Waters and Gilmour as the Lennon and McCartney of Pink Floyd-- where as one of them may have been great at coneptual thinking and poetic lyric writing, the other was the skilled musician, capable of bringing the artist's vision to fruition. In this case, I think what is proven here is that Waters was John Lennon in the Floyd, and Gilmour was Paul McCartney. Now that Waters, the paltry musician but brilliant songwriter, is gone, we are left with Gilmour, the superb musician but primitive lyricist. Because opf these reasons THE DIVISION BELL loses some marks from me. Gilmour had to request hep with writing the lyrics, and they still didn't turn out all that well.

Aside from the obvious lack of intelligent wording, everything else is just like the old days, and because of that, I say that the magic returned for Pink Floyd's last studio effort-- much more than I can say for the bulk of past Prog masters, who died a horrible death with their last dich efforts at something great falling considerably short of expectations. Luckily this didn't happen with Pink Floyd, as THE DIVISION BELL is a very good, solid studio work; and one that I think Gilmour, Wright and Mason can be truly proud of. Best tracks are: ''Cluster One'', ''Poles Apart'', ''Marooned'', ''Wearing the Inside Out'', ''Coming Back to Life'', ''Keep Talking'' and ''High Hopes''.

Happy listening. Good stuff, and worthy of any serious progger's collection, truly. The best post-Waters album by far. And that is all I have.