Lost For Words (Pink Floyd Song) - Packaging

Packaging

The album feels much more home-made, very much as a band playing together in one space. I think that Rick in particular felt significantly more integrated in the process this time, compared to Momentary Lapse. It was nice to have him back.

To avoid competing against other album releases (as had happened with A Momentary Lapse) Pink Floyd set a deadline of April 1994, at which point they would begin a new tour. By January of that year however, the band still had not decided on a title for the album. The list of names being considered included Pow Wow and Down to Earth. At a dinner one night, writer Douglas Adams, spurred on by the promise of a £5,000 payment to his favourite charity, the Environmental Investigation Agency, suggested The Division Bell (used in the lyrics for "High Hopes"), and the name stuck.

Longtime Floyd collaborator Storm Thorgerson provided the album artwork. He erected two large metal heads, each the height of a double-decker bus, in a field near Ely. The sculptures were positioned close together, and photographed in profile, to give the illusion that not only were they either facing or talking to each other, they also presented the viewer with a third face. The sculptures were devised by Keith Breeden, and constructed by John Robertson. Ely Cathedral is visible on the horizon. The sculptures are now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

The album was released in the UK and US on CD, vinyl, and compact cassette, each with its own format and label-specific design. It was also available in mini-disc format. Two 7.5-metre (25 ft) stone sculptures were made by Aden Hynes for the cassette releases, and photographed in the same style as the metal heads. The artwork inside the CD lyric booklet revolves around a similar theme, with the image of the two heads formed by various other objects, such as newspapers ("A Great Day for Freedom"), coloured glass ("Poles Apart"), and boxing gloves ("Lost for Words"). Pages two and three portray a picture from the Chilean La Silla Observatory. The CD case itself had the name of Pink Floyd printed in Braille on the left front side.