Do you want my blood, do you want my tears?

Continuing my trip back through the 1994 album charts.

15/05/94 : The Division Bell - Pink Floyd


Our sixth visit with the Floyd and it's been a mixed bag so far with nothing approaching TDSOTM for me yet - but you never know, this may be the one to convert me into a Floydian (which Google tells me is the most commonly used phrase, although apparently "fans of Pink Floyd" is also common).

Sigh - it's fine. I'm sure there are plenty of people who will tell me I'm missing the point to it and it's actually a profound work of genius, but on first listen, I'm afraid it's just fine and, well, a bit boring. I'm not expecting to make myself popular here, but it's really not a million miles away from Chris de Burgh - yes, they jazz things up with noodly guitars and backing singers but they're basically decent enough songs that struggle to hold my interest. Next!

We're at #4 in the charts this week on their seventh week of a 55 week run, with it having spent the first four weeks at #1 - hmmm is all I think I have to say about that. Unlike many albums from this time, it has been back in the charts recently(ish) though having popped in for a couple of weeks in '14 and one in '19 (20th and 25th anniversary releases, obviously)it . The rest of the top five were Deacon Blue (I'm intrigued so many people bought their best-of - it spent its first eleven weeks in the top three), Crash Test Dummies, Eternal and, quite obviously, a Dusty Springfield best-of with the highest new entry being The Pretenders (#8).

As expected Wikipedia has a load of old guff about this (554 milliPeppers) which tells us this is their fourteenth album, their last with completely new material, their last with Richard Wright (who died in 2008), the name was suggested by Douglas Adams and a load of the lyrics were written by Polly Samson, the novelist who just happens to be Mrs David Gilmour. I wasn't surprised to see that the artwork was done by Storm Thurgerson, but I didn't expect to read it's a photograph - the heads were the height of a double decker bus and set up in a field in Cambridgeshire, with Ely Cathedral in the background. Critically, the reviews generally liked bits of the album but overall they weren't massively impressed - but they were kinder than Roger Waters who said it was "just rubbish ... nonsense from beginning to end". Commercially, however, it was (as always) critic proof getting to #1 in nineteen of the countries Wikipedia bothered to list including Australia, Germany and the US - only Hungary (#6) and France (#7) were relatively immune to their charms. 

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent version for three quid but if you want the 20th anniversary box set (complete with teeshirt) which was apparently limited to 500 copies, then it's going to set you back £525.31 (along with £250 shipping costs!) which makes this the most expensive album of the year so far. And well, you're welcome to it - it's not dreadful but I'm pretty sure I won't be revisiting it.

08/05/94 - One I didn't remember in the slightest
22/05/94 - Not as bad as it could have been

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