Album Review: Pink Floyd- The Division Bell (20th Anniversary Reissue)
At some point, bands reach a point where they transcend
their own music, and they become a brand. Acts like The Beatles and The Rolling
Stones are obviously the main two that come to mind here—go to any Target and
in the men’s clothing department, you’ll find faux vintage, pre-distressed
t-shirts with the stupid Stones tongue logo on it, or the album cover for Abbey Road. This also happens with more
contemporary bands as well—The Wu-Tang Clan and Nirvana are two acts from the
last twenty years that have been…fortunate….enough to have their logo and
likenesses placed on cheap department store shirts.
Another “classic” act that is nearly synonymous with being a
brand more than a band is Pink Floyd.
They entered the “bro intellectual” canon with the poster of the naked
women, sitting poolside, with classic Floyd album artwork painted on their
backs. So between that, and Dark Side of
The Moon pajama pants, it’s pretty easy to forget that Pink Floyd were, in
fact, at one time, a group of musicians that put out albums that people liked.
And by people, I mean, “your parents.”
That was my first exposure to Pink Floyd—my parents. Growing
up, I remember that in my parent’s vast LP collection, there were many a Floyd
records. I specifically recall seeing Wish
You Were Here and Animals. So in
1994, when the band released The Division
Bell, it was a big deal to my father, who purchased it on compact disc from
the Sam Goody at the mall nearest our rural Illinois home.
Because nostalgia and because cash grabs, The Division Bell has been reissued to
commemorate its 20th anniversary—offered in a lavish and spendy
boxed set, it includes fancy 12” single replicas, HD audio transfers of the
album, and an alternate mix by engineer Andy Jackson; but the real selling
point here is the full length album on a 2xLP set for the first time.
Apparently, in 1994, with vinyl being a dying format, the songs were trimmed
down so it could fit on a single LP. But now, with vinyl fetishists clamoring
for things pressed on 180-gram wax—it’s the right time to hear The Division Bell in all of its glory.
Except not really.
Critically skewered upon release, twenty years later, it’s
easy to see why. Look, I’m no expert at Pink Floyd’s discography. I don’t claim
to be. I’m not even a fan of the band. I bought a copy of Dark Side of The Moon in 1998 with the intent of doing that thing
where you synch it up to The Wizard of Oz
and I never did it. And when my father bought The Division Bell in 1994, I have no memories of actually listening
to it in the house.
In listening to this reissue of it now, I can see why it was
not well liked—it’s laughable at best; the kind of album that takes itself too
seriously, and comes off like the punch line to a joke that hasn’t been told
yet. It’s melodramatic in tone, and musically, it has not aged well at all.
Somewhere between “progressive” rock , adult contemporary, and new age, every
song drowns under its own meandering weight.
There are times when the guitar playing seems a bit like
it’s straight out of the soundtrack for a made-for-TV movie about undercover
cops in someplace steamy like Miami, or just possibly music from a Zalman King production—looking
specifically at the noodling on the album’s instrumental opening track, “Cluster
One.” But hell, nearly every song has a similar sound.
Not helping any are the vocal stylings (or lack thereof) of
David Gilmour, who steps in as Floyd’s frontman on The Division Bell, handling lead vocal duties. While he is known
for singing on two of the band’s biggest hit songs, “Wish You Were Here,” and
“Comfortably Numb,” here he wears out his welcome as soon as his mouth opens. His
voice on the record is incredibly flat and boring, but you can tell in his
delivery that he thinks he is full of pomp and bravado. It was about the time
that I reached “Take it Back” that I realized it sound like Gilmour is doing a
horrible Jesus Jones impression—and “Take it Back” is so similar in it’s “vast”
and “sweeping” sound, I was actually expecting “Right Here, Right Now” to start
playing.
That would have much been preferred, honestly.
In reading up on the history of this album, much was made
about the lyrical content, which has an overarching theme of “communication,”
apparently. And that some of the lyrics can be viewed as shade thrown in the
direction of former Floyd frontman Roger Waters; specifically the line in
“Poles Apart”—“You were always the golden
boy,” and “The day the wall came down,”
in “A Great Day For Freedom.”
But releasing a dis record roughly ten years following the
demise of Pink Floyd, then reissuing it twenty years later doesn’t make it any
more relevant or urgent, musically speaking or otherwise.
I’m sure somewhere in the dark recesses of the Pink Floyd
fan base, there is a subculture of folks that The Division Bell was never given a fair shot, or that it is
“music’s most underrated album.” Those people are probably beside themselves with
joy at this timely reissue. And maybe there is someone that could discover this
for the first time, deeming it a “lost treasure” or sorts.
For me, however, The
Division Bell is easy forgettable. It’s an uninteresting and limp album,
and sticking with it (for all 66 minutes) was an absolute chore.
Somewhat unrelated to this reissue was the recent appearance
of a Division Bell-era tour t-shirt
in an episode of “True Detective,” worn by Woody Harrelson’s character Marty
Hart. After listening to this reissue, I have to wonder if that was just
something used by the costume department to remind viewers that part of the
show took place in 1995, or if it was meant to imply that Detective Hart would
be a Pink Floyd fan—specifically of this album, or of the band’s mid to late
70’s popular canon?
Or as the internet is leading me to believe, there is some kind of deeper meaning about "communication" here, between the characters.
I suppose this, as well as why a festering pile of trash
like The Division Bell was reissued
at all, would be mysteries left to be solved for #TrueDetectiveSeason2.
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