Division Rock

Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
Working as a school psychologist in 1986, Richard Caudle saw the need for multi-sensory learning programs using the styles of music that kids love. He teamed with his younger brother Brad, an accomplished musician, to record their first program to teach multiplication facts. Richard and Brad continue to produce many more audio and video programs featuring "cool music that teaches" covering math, phonics, early learning, languages, science, social studies, and more.

Album Description
Fun rockin' songs help teach division facts through 9. Separate songs for each set of facts. By singing along with the facts (in mixed-up order), students develop quick and accurate recall. 30-minute audio CD and book help students learn in a format similar to shuffled "musical flash cards." Book includes puzzles and math mazes. Ages 9 & up.

Tracks:

Cluster One
What Do You Want From Me
Poles Apart
Marooned
A Great Day For Freedom
Wearing The Inside Out
Take It Back
Coming Back To Life
Keep Talking
Lost For Words
High Hopes

Amazon.com

As Roger Waters's solo career set into a sunset of suspiciously self-serving Wall revivals and compelling if modest-selling solo efforts, his former band became one of the few outfits in the soft live market of the 1990s to burnish its stadium-filling appeal. But their recorded output wasn't quite so rosy. As all post-Dark Side of the Moon albums must have a Big Important Theme, The Division Bell is vaguely about levels of separation (did you say, duh!?), with more than one not-so-opaque lyrical jab at the estranged Waters. But there's a sense that the band may have put more thought into its trademark audio gimmickry (well represented here by the actual sound of the earth's crust cracking--you don't get that on Rage Against the Machine albums!--and a "spoken" intro by Dr. Stephen Hawking, or rather his voice synthesizer) than it did into its songs this time around. The opening "Cluster One" has a hypnotic minimalist lure that dissolves all too quickly into the bluesy waffle of "What Do You Want From Me," while Floyd Mach III leader Dave Gilmour's usually lyrical guitar work is uninspired throughout, a definite Floydian slip. 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 McCulley

Customer Reviews:

excellent.......2007-06-13

Great companion CD to the Pulse DVD. Must have.

Comfortably Numb.......2007-05-17

Purists will argue that Pink Floyd without Roger Waters, is a bit like Beatles without John Lennon. Some unkind souls might even go further to say that it's a bit like Beatles without John or Paul. Without Roger, gone is the confrontation, the poetry, seismic visions of a world teetering on the brink of moral collapse. Gone is the intellectual bite, the naked anguish, the bile, the howling and the ultimate catharsis of the final track. What's left is good intentions, sleek musicianship, a hip brand, and a reassuringly expensive, car-stereo-friendly sound.

That's not to say that the Division Bell is a bad record, per se, some of it captures the old magic. The Gilmour, Wright & Mason partnership still know a good tune when they hear one, and David Gilmour can still work the magic with his guitar. But the thing is, without Waters' artistic vision and wit to provide a thematic backbone, the resultant music is comes across as high-quality sheen and veneer. To me this sounds more like a David Gilmour solo album than a Pink Floyd work. And I say that as a long-standing fan of the group.

This may sound uncompromising, and this isn't a bad album - but somewhere you have to draw the line between what is really good and what is merely passable; what qualifies as art and what is marketed as product. Fortunately, the general public seems to have given Pink Floyd the benefit of the doubt; the sympathy vote came into play after nasty old Roger Waters left the ship, taking his rough edges and intellectual pretensions with him, leaving nice David Gilmour and the unfairly sidelined Wright and caught-in-the-crossfire Nick Mason to continue flying the Floyd flag. This goodwill, coupled with the eternal hipness of the Pink Floyd brand, have combined to give Floyd a new lease of life and cash-register-eyes album sales.

Musically, the band retreads old ground on much of the album. On Cluster, it's back to Wish You Were Here and the group tries to breath new life into the atmospheric intro formula of Shine On You...part 1. On 'What Do You Want From Me?' we revisit Dark Side of the Moon territory, completely with gospel backing vocals, trademark DG solo à la Time. Here again, it all gels together quite nicely, with David Gilmour handling guitar and vocal duties with aplomb. But it's bathed in so much reverb that the groups sounds like it's playing down the far end of the Grand Canyon.

On Take it Back, Pink Floyd come on like a cross between U2 and Dire Straits, while on Great Day for Freedom, tired imagery and a pedestrian melody remind us once again how important Mr. Waters was the formula.
High Hopes probably constitutes the quality core of this record, an impressive dirge that captures the spirit of Comfortably Numb, though even this song is let down by a tediously repetitive middle-8, sure sign of lack of artistic urgency.
To sum up, this record sounds big and expensive and sold in bucketloads, but for me, it lacks the substance and inventiveness to satisfy the 'serious' Pink Floyd fan.

There is nothing wrong with this album. It's all in your mind........2007-04-23

Pink Floyd has always been great "head music". A lot of time had passed by since their high water mark, 1973's Dark Side of the Moon and this album (1994). If it had been released 20 years earlier in 1974, it would have been hailed a masterpiece. I've listened to this album very closely and still found them to be the best purveyors of head music. I can't understand the cynical and disrespectful comments about this album, mostly from folks who weren't even alive when Dark Side came out. Bottom line: If you like Pink Floyd's weird sounds, and surreal soundscapes, you'll love this album. If you're hopping on the latest bandwagon, keep the negativity to yourself and stick to American Idol. Real Pink Floyd fans know "The Division Bell" is really a very good album even without Roger Waters.

A good solo album from David Gilmour.......2007-03-05

I have to agree with many reviewers this time. We are light year away from a true Pink Floyd album, the spirit is not here and the music is quite near to pop sometimes. We have some good tracks hidden in the cd, the best one is "High Hopes", the other interesting cuts are intrumental, "Cluster One" and "Marooned" The other track are just OK but far from memorable composition. "Wearing the inside out" is a real joke.

Not One of the Floyd's Best Efforts.......2007-03-01

This CD brings back memories from my junior high days and is the first Pink Floyd CD that I ever listened to. I do like the album overall, but in relation to their complete body of work this has to rank among their bottom. The only other albums that may be worse are Ummagumma or A Saucerful of Secrets.

But this does contain some great songs. Such as: High Hopes, Wearing the Inside Out, Keep Talking, Coming Back to Life, and Poles Apart. The songwriting and guitar playing could have been better though. Hopefully this isnt their last recording and they will reunite and make one last great album.

Average customer rating:

Lounge with spunk
In Love With This Album!
Brilliantly different...
Relaxing AND Catchy!
Mixed bag gives bossa nova swing to olde inde faves

Nouvelle Vague
Nouvelle Vague
Manufacturer: Luaka Bop
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0007YMVOW
Release Date: 2005-05-03

Tracks:

Love Will Tear Us Apart
Just Cant Get Enough
In A Manner Of Speaking
Guns Of Brixton
This Is Not A Love Song
Too Drunk To ****
Marian
Making Plans For Nigel
A Forest
I Melt With You
Teenage Kicks
Psyche
Friday Night Saturday Morning
Sorry For Laughing

Amazon.com

Recycling the 1980s sound has been in vogue lately, so it's no surprise that the producing team known as Nouvelle Vague would find yet another way to mine the nostalgia for the early `80s, post-punk era. They're doing it bossa nova style.

The disc opens with a rendition of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." It's a charming start, and with a breathy chanteuse on vocals, it's exactly the kind of sound that has some music critics proclaiming (admittedly with a touch of sarcasm) that Nouvelle Vague is the ironic dinner music for the new millennium. Unfortunately, this CD is somewhat less winning as it wears on. "Guns of Brixton" is annoying when done in a loungey mood, and sitting through "Too Drunk to F**k" in the wrong company could certainly ruin the amuse bouche. Nevertheless, the entertaining tracks do outweigh tiresome ones on this release. If this concept sounds like an interesting idea to you, you're bound to get a smile from the execution. --Leah Weathersby