What's the big deal? (TDB)

Why does everyone make such a big deal of TDB?

Why does everyone say it was a return by the Floyd to their classic 70's sound?

Why do so many people rank it so highly?

I think it's a thoroughly underwhelming album, with a few good pop songs (What Do You Want From Me? for example). The eighties production is far too sheeny and glossy, and the album has no true feeling. Everyone states that it shows that Gilmour didn't need Roger, but I'd argue that it showed that Gilmour and a host of session musicians could just about do well without Roger.

because its good

because it was

because thats what it deserves

I think it's great, cause every song is great, and it's one of those cd's I have to listen to, start to finish, no exceptions. I just started listening to it 2 years ago, I owned it for 6 or 7 years b4 I heard it the 1st (my peticular cd) time, it just sat on the shelf, too busy I guess. Oh, and also what Steechy said, goes for me too!

Fulgy could probably do this thread more justice than anyone else could, I think he digs this album more than I do.

A few good songs, there are more than a few here. No, I wouldn't consider them pop, though. The album is full of great songs--from the beginning all the way to the end--the album is very good; we also hear the return of Mr. Wright.

I think this album recieves it's high status because it shows us a band who we love, and who has matured throughout the years. We have been with Pink Floyd through the good and the bad. We have watched them build up and grow, and we have also seen the wall knocked down.

If this actually is the end of the Pink Floyd sound, I would not be disapointed, this was a great way to end thier career. IF, however, they do decide to make another studio recording, The Division Bell would certainly be a tough act to follow.

My question is why did you start a new thread?
http://www.pinkfloydfan.net/t2102-15-1.html

I think basically it's that those who like Dave's guitar work like TDB. Those who prefer Roger's whining for his dead dad and his angst about war don't like TDB.

i desperately want to like the Division Bell, and some of it is good, but every time I hear it it just doesnt quite do it for me. High Hopes is very good, I like Wearing the Inside Out (though I dont like that fact that Rick got someone else to write the lyrics) and Coming Back to Life and A Great Day for Freedom are OK, as are the intrumentals. Its much more listenable than AMLOR (which for all I know is an OK album - but I just cant stand the production - BLAHHHHHHH!) but something about it frustrates me. For starters, I just dont think Gilmour is a very attractive lyric writer (and yes i know that his wife helped him with the lyrics) and I say that as someone who REALLY wants anything he does to be great. I just find his attempts to be profound with his lyric writing to come off as just that, a man trying to be profound. And his singing on the album fails to bring the lyrics to another level.

I mean the Final Cut may have been a depressing whine about Roger's political views and his father, but the lyrics were powerfully written and they were sung with enthusiasm. I know TDB is closer to the kind of Floyd album most fans would want the band to make (and i guess im in the same boat - I liked the bands output pre 1977 much more than the Waters dominated stuff) but personally, i'd take a well executed album with subject matter that i didnt necessarily like (such as the Final Cut) over an album like TDB where the intentions are good, but it just isnt anywhere near as good as it was supposed to be (in my opinion, of course).

But thats just me. With any music i listen to, the first thing I look for is that its completely genuine and preferably original. I don't find these qualities in TDB. I wish I did.

Personally, I would have rathered they went even further back with TDB and made an album more like Meddle, where they're experimenting with all sorts of different styles of music - basically just doing whatever the hell they felt like rather than trying to make it 'sound like Pink Floyd'. They ARE Pink Floyd! Why do they have to try?

the way i see it, its not that they "tried" to be like they were back in the day. Theres no trippy sound effects, i just am able to see how the members and how the music have evolved and matured over time. its safe to say that no 2 of their albums sound the same. i feel the same goes for TDB. at heart, i feel it is a genuine pink floyd album.

i can tell the 3 of them were really working together.

Because it is a great album.
Because it sounds great.
Because it has great songs.
Because Pink Floyd is working as a band.
Because Rick Wright is back with some awesome music.
A classic.


DDT anyway.

I dislike it because I invested a lot of time and thought into "getting" it, just as Dave told me to, and got nothing but frustration in return. I'm still very bitter about this. Plus, it fits to a tee the laundry list for telltale signs of a crap album.

1. The lyrics are deliberately vague and obtuse... "the rain fell slow, down on all the roofs of uncertainty", what the hell is that supposed to mean? Nothing. Exactly.

2. A lot of the melodies are really really blatant ripoffs. Examples: the fadeout motif in "High Hopes" is stolen from "Stairway to Heaven;" the acoustic riff in "Lost For Words" is very very very close to "Wish You Were Here;" the guitar solo from "WDYWFM" is swiped from one of Dave's own solo records; etc.

3. The production is dull and uninteresting, and at parts laughably stale (that middle section of "Poles Apart," and the whole song "Take It Back" spring immediately to mind). Nothing jumps out at you, it's glossy and slick but never overwhelming.

4. The drums sound like shit. Nick Mason became a shadow of his former self after pounding away at the same stuff every night for three years on the road next to the technically perfect but soulless Guy Pratt and Gary Wallis. The rhythms are clean and precise but never full-blooded enough to make you want to headbang. The extra percussion flourishes are murky and superfluous.

5. Instead of bothering to mix and master it with some pananche or invention, Guthrie & co. made a CD-era sounding record that's perfect for modern FM radio: all-but-one volume, nothing surprising, everything ready to get used in a car commercial. Which brings me to my last point.

6. It sold a lot of Volkswagens.

It's just an unevenly written, lifelessly performed, pushover LP with nothing redeeming for me.

I don't think very much of it. It doesn't even sound like Pink Floyd, more like Dave and a whole bunch of other people trying desperately to re-create the Floyd sound. Which is all it is. And they did a poor job. The guitar solo on Coming Back to Life is the only decent thing about it, the lyrics are plain horrible. Nowhere near as bad as MLOR though.

Quiet you.

wow, i didnt think people hated it THAT much

Like they say, it's a true story.

I like The Division Bell, just as I like A Momentary Lapse of Reason. I always will. To those who cannot bear them, it is too bad that you cannot experience these albums for what they are: great pieces of work.