THE DIVISION BELL

I must say I was quite surprised by this album when I first heard it several years ago. 1st becuase I did not enjoy "Momentary Lapse of Reason" at all... and 2nd because of all the "Bad Rap" it got from a lot of my family, and friends. I simply discarded it before even hearing it. One day, by chance, my girlfriend at the time was shopping at an obscure record store, and was looking through the old cassetts. She stumbled upon "Division Bell", remembering that I was an extreme Pink Floyd fan. Boy do I thank her today. At first I was just going to leave it sit in my glove compartment, never even bothering, because I just didn't feel I had the time or patience to sit down (in my car) with it. But I figured I better give it a try, seeing as she spent $3 on the thing.

I began to listen to it for about 20 minutes at a time on my way to and from work. I quickly grasped it (or should I say, IT grasped me). I got hooked on it, for the next 2 or 3 weeks it was the only thing I listened to while I was in my car, it was just so sweet, and I just didn't feel like taking something so sweet out of my car's cassett player for something else... (not even Foxtrot)

Anyways, enough about my relationship with the album. To the Music. It clearly returns to many of the same musical roots of previous albums. For some reason this album really reminds me of The Wall, my personal Pink Floyd 'fav'. The Vocals on this album are very "clear" and melodic. From a prog point of view, the musicianship is lacking. Though it is still very enjoyable rock music. Mind you, there are still strong progressive elements in song such as "Cluster One", "Marooned", and "Coming back to Life" Many of the songs seem to have somewhat of a longing emotion, almost nostalgia. Atleast thats how I feel when I listen to this album. Overall, a very good listen for old fans of the band, which I'm sure are many.

Highly Recommended to any Pink Floyd fan (no matter what anyone trys to tell you)

Final Verdict : 4-1/2 out of 5 *'s