1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

General discussion about Pink Floyd.
kjek1
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by kjek1 »

danielcaux wrote:I still think "Take It Back" is the better song. "Keep Talking" is just a "Sorrow" rehash with a Pigs 3DO talk-box thrown in to give it more of a "Pink Floyd" sound. At least with "Take It Back" they were trying new things for them...
The way you compare the tracks is a bit crap to be fair.

You're basically comparing OOTD to Marooned because they're both instrumentals, because other than that they're nothing alike, same with Keep Talking and Sorrow.

That would be like saying the full of 'The Final Cut' is just a watered down rehash of The Wall. Which it isn't
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rememberaday
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by rememberaday »

It's an okay album, High Hopes is nice, but extreme amounts of filler by PF standards.
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by ricky66 »

thefinalcut wrote:It´s all full of crap, except for High Hopes.
No surprises that you'd hate it if u use that album name as your username. That album, (TFC) is the biggest yawn of the entire PF catalogue IMO and the only album from the 'classic four' era that I don't listen to.

BTW, 'The Division Bell' is, IMO, superior to anything released by any of the members since 'The Wall'.
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by rememberaday »

ricky66 wrote:BTW, 'The Division Bell' is, IMO, superior to anything released by any of the members since 'The Wall'.
They only did TFC, AMLOR and Division Bell after the Wall. :D The Floyd went downhill ever since Animals.
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by ricky66 »

rememberaday wrote:
ricky66 wrote:BTW, 'The Division Bell' is, IMO, superior to anything released by any of the members since 'The Wall'.
They only did TFC, AMLOR and Division Bell after the Wall. :D The Floyd went downhill ever since Animals.

I hear ya, I like Animals and listen to it more than any other album, but, what I meant when I phrased it as 'members' instead of PF was to include all the solo releases of the 80's and 90's.
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by rememberaday »

Oh. I see.

By that logic, they went downhill ever since Barrett. :D
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by mrfeldman »

Not to fond of "lost for words",...However, the guitar intro on "coming back to life is typical (phenomenal) Gilmour, As well as the guitar on "wearing the inside out" (one of Rick Wrights last effrorts) & the ending of "High hopes" & "Great day for freedom,...of course "Marooned",the instrumental that actually earned Dave Gilmour a Grammy, is one of my Fav's. So I'd have to admit that I'm impressed with the Division Bell. And btw, "Cluster One" is an incredible ambient example of Floyd's melodic depth,.. I was lucky enough to see the tour in '94 at B.C. Place,.
Awsome Awsome Awsome show. I love how Pink Floyd doesn't waste time with an opening act. Plus it was cool to see "The Dark side of the moon" performed in its entirety. 8)
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by pffan0122 »

I think this album is quite good. The only reason I say that is because of 6/10 songs on the album - Poles Apart, Marooned, Coming Back To Life, Keep Talking, Lost for Words, and obviously High Hopes. This was one of the first PF albums that I had heard after the big 3 (The Wall, DSOTM, and WWYH). The lyric writing was a little better then AMLOR, which really only has 2 or 3 songs that aren't ruined by the 80's feel. I think its simplistic. Gilmour has some of his greatest solos on this album, and I think that alone is what draws me to it. There are messages about communication and how it can break people down or build them up depending on which side you look at it. I think that's the concept behind it (even though it isn't a concept album). It was just one of those records that spoke to me on a personal level, and I guess that's why I like it so much..
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by Creek »

I bought it on cassette as soon as it went on sale in the U.S., then later got the cd. To this day I still enjoy listening to it from start to finish.
I turned on some of my younger friends, who didn't know who Pink Floyd really was to The Division Bell, who became fans of them and their entire works, from Piper on.
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by Bigmanpigman »

For me I had the same thoughts about The Division Bell as I had about AMLOR. They both lacked the ability Roger had to put a truly iconic album together, and let's face it, Pink Floyd became a band whose fans expected something very special. I'm not saying that the post Waters albums were poor, far from it, but the mark had been set so high Dave was always going to struggle to get anywhere near it. On a personal note my sons absolutely loved AMLOR and TDB and when we went to the gig together at Earls Court 1994 my high high points were very different to their's - ah well maybe it's a generational thing.
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by Creek »

Atleast young people are listening to Pink Floyd. As long as they do, Pink Floyd will live on.
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by Bigmanpigman »

Just an observation - how times can change! I went to see The Wall with my wife in 1980. While walking up through the streets to Earls Court before the gig I was approached half a dozen times by people trying to sell me drugs. Fast forward 14 years to The Division Bell gig. Again I was approached half a dozen times......by guys buying and selling tickets. I thought to myself "What's happened in this country? Where is your average street corner drugs dealer these days? " and even more profound thoughts like "Is ticket touting more profitable than drugs?" and "Is this all down to Margaret Thatcher?" My head was in a spin. It's obviously a deeply disturbing issue and I'm sure you guys will have the answers.....
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by StarlightDragon »

I sort of feel like I'm playing devil's advocate here, but I LOVE The Division Bell.

Maybe, like someone above mentioned, it's a generational thing - I didn't grow up listening to the earlier albums with Waters and then have great expectations for anything Floyd would release, I listened to everything out of order and discovered all the eras at pretty much the same time. And while the Waters-led albums are so strong because of their amazing lyrics and the well-structured concepts, I don't feel like TDB is missing anything for not having these things. It's just different - which is what you'd expect, considering the leader was different. It's brilliant for the reason that it doesn't try to imitate Waters' style; it has its own strengths and is clearly a separate, but not necessarily worse, period for the band.
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by One Of These Bricks »

IMO TDB is one of their most melodic albums!

I first listened to it somewhere around 94-95 being 13-14 and previously being a fan of the big 4. It's really different from what they have done together, but it seems that launching his solo career Roger lost something too, do you want to try and compare TPACOH and RK to the aforementioned big 4? PF's TDB and Roger's ATD are on par with each other with better melodies on TDB and better lyrics on ATD. And of course it's not ATD vs TDB, i'm just saying that everyone here could agree with, PF were at their best when all were contributing to the process, not being driven exclusively by on of them members.
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Re: 1994 - Your Thoughts on The Division Bell Album?

Post by tjrrockandrollmaster »

I still listen to regularly or relatively so. It is my third favorite Pink Floyd album after Wish You Were Here and The Dark Side of the Moon and Meddle is behind The Division Bell.

When I heard the world premiere of the album, I loved the tracks Redbeard picked for the show immediately ("Keep Talking" had been played for almost two weeks constantly prior to the album's release).

My favorites are "High Hopes", "Wearing the Inside Out", "Poles Apart", "Marooned", "Cluster One", "Lost For Words" and "Coming Back to Life".

The rest of the album was excellent and were bettered on the PULSE album and film ("What Do You Want From Me", "Keep Talking", A Great Day for Freedom" and "Take it Back" and "High Hopes").

I will never forget the pilgrimage to Strawberries Records and Tapes to pick up the CD on the US release date and played that album regularly so by the time I would see Pink Floyd on 19 May, 1994 I'd be more than familiar with the album and wasn't disappointed. I also got the cassette a couple of days due to the alternate artwork and a blue cassette tape and helped push to #1 and then got the blue vinyl which I wound up unfortunately losing while moving to South Carolina (now worth $100 someodd).