Break Up Your Band

Pink Floyd - “Take It Back”
The Division Bell, 1994
(Video from Pulse, 1995)

Look, say what you want about post-Waters Pink Floyd. For the most part you are right. Those records are really pretty much David Gilmour albums with Mason & Wright (or in the case of Momentary Lapse of Reason, just Mason) along for the ride. And with the lyric writing responsibilities falling mostly on Gilmour we get to see what a cringe-worthy lyricist he can sometimes be (see “What Do You Want From Me,” “Poles Apart”, “A Great Day For Freedom” shit man see them all, they’ve all got their moments). But there is just something, for me at least, about a piece of plastic with the words “Pink Floyd” on it that contains a round piece of plastic with the words “Pink Floyd” on it that holds data that comes out of my speakers in the form of Pink Floyd songs. Pink Floyd songs are like family members to me. Even if I don’t really like some of them, even if I think they’re terrible and annoying and would never want to hang out at a party with them, I kind of just like knowing they’re around. Sure this album largely stands as a definitive statement that the band should be retired as a generator of new material but there are a couple of passable entries into the catalog and “Take It Back” is one of them.

Also, this is a good album to fall asleep to. Certainly one of the highest forms of praise you can give a band. “Your record lulls me to sleep.”

I would’ve posted the official video but it is bad bad bad (almost as bad as the lyrics “On the day the wall came down/The ship of fools had finally run aground”). Besides, Pulse was an absolutely phenomenal live show. I saw it at Giants Stadium, it was my first time seeing Floyd and the third concert I’d ever been to. To this day it’s the second best live show I’ve ever seen.