Release and Reception
... there's a sense that the band may have put more thought into its trademark audio gimmickry ... than it did into its songs this time around. ... Still, the band maddeningly manages a few moments of the old grandeur here and there. The Division Bell is not a great Pink Floyd album, but an all-too-fallible simulation.
“ ” Jerry McCully on The Division BellJust rubbish ... nonsense from beginning to end.
“ ” Roger Waters, giving his opinion of The Division BellOn 10 January 1994 a press reception to announce the new album and world tour was held at a former US Naval Air Station in North Carolina, in the US. A purpose-built Skyship 600 airship, manufactured in the UK, toured the US until it returned to Weeksville, and was destroyed by a thunderstorm on 27 June. Pieces of the aircraft were sold as souvenirs. The band held another reception, in the UK, on 21 March. This time they used an A60 airship, translucent, and painted to look like a fish, which took journalists on a tour of London. The airship, which was lit internally so it glowed in the night sky, was also flown in northern Europe.
The album was released in the UK by EMI Records on 28 March 1994, and in the US on 4 April, and went straight to #1 in both countries. The Division Bell was certified silver and gold in the UK on 1 April 1994, platinum a month later and 2x platinum on 1 October. In the US, it was certified gold and 2x platinum on 6 June 1994, and 3x platinum on 29 January 1999.
Despite strong sales the album received poor reviews. Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly gave it a "D", writing that "avarice is the only conceivable explanation for this glib, vacuous cipher of an album, which is notable primarily for its stomach-turning merger of progressive-rock pomposity and New Age noodling". Rolling Stone's Tom Graves criticised Gilmour's performance, stating that his guitar solos "were once the band's centerpieces, as articulate, melodic and well-defined as any in rock, he now has settled into rambling, indistinct asides that are as forgettable as they used to be indelible", adding that "only on 'What Do You Want from Me' does Gilmour sound like he cares". Nevertheless, the album was nominated in the 1995 Brit awards for the "Best Album by a British Artist", but lost to Blur's Parklife. In March the same year the band was awarded with a Grammy for the "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" on "Marooned". However, more contemporary reviews have been warmer towards the album. Writing as part of Uncut's Pink Floyd: The Ultimate Music Guide, Graeme Thomson felt that the album "might just be the dark horse of the Floyd canon. The opening triptych of songs is a hugely impressive return to something very close to the eternal essence of Pink Floyd, and much of the rest retains a quiet power and a meditative quality that betrays a genuine sense of unity".
Read more about this topic: The Division Bell
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