The Division Bell
RELEASED: March 28, 1994 / LABEL: EMI (UK) • Columbia (US) / CHART: 1 (UK) • 1 (US)
With its theme of communication, Floyd’s much-underrated second album without Roger Waters arrived amid a bitter war of words with their former captain...
IREALLY LIKE THE Division Bell, although I wouldn’t say it’s an immediate album,” said David Gilmour. Be that as it may, Pink Floyd fan sites which claim The Division Bell can only be fully enjoyed after reading Norbert Wiener’s Cybernetics And Society: The Human Use Of Human Beings are overstating the case: enigmatic the album’s lyrics may be, but much of its music is deliciously visceral.
While the band photograph on the inside sleeve of A Momentary Lapse Of Reason had featured just Gilmour and Nick Mason, the follow-up saw keyboard player Rick Wright reinstated as group member/co-writer proper. Gilmour, meanwhile, had fallen for journalist and writer Polly Samson and, prior to their marriage that July, the couple collaborated on a number of The Division Bell’s key lyrics. With further writing assistance coming from former Dream Academy linchpin Nick Laird-Clowes and the album’s producer, Bob Ezrin, among others, the resultant record offered further proof that Pink Floyd could triumph sans Roger Waters.
For while a Gilmour-led Floyd’s musical credentials were never in doubt, this album is conceptually strong, too. Communication – the failure to do so; different ways of doing so; what happens when people don’t communicate – is its constantly recurring theme.
The album’s title (it refers to the bell sounded to alert members at the Houses Of Parliament to attend a vote) was reportedly down to Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Gilmour and Mason had attended a talk Adams was giving about rhino conservation but, as their new album needing christening the following day, the pair’s thoughts were otherwise preoccupied. Over dinner, Adams said, “OK, I’ll give you a title, but it’ll cost you a £5,000 contribution to the Environmental Investigation Agency.”
When he alerted the Floyd to a phrase buried in the lyrics to album closer, High Hopes, Gilmour’s response was: “Hmmmm, well, seems to work.” The die was cast and the EIA duly received their donation.
By Floyd’s own admission, The Division Bell was written with a weather eye on their illustrious past. So, while instrumental opener Cluster One begins with noises occurring beneath the earth’s crust recorded by Californian seismology buff G William Forgey, it also features liquid lead guitar à la Shine On You Crazy Diamond. The groove of What Do You Want From Me, meanwhile, all beefy class and gospel-influenced