Hi-Res Downloads

96kHz/24-BIT FLAC, Warner Music Group 29326 (supplied by www.highresaudio.com)

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell, the band’s final studio album: released in March ’94. It was largely met with critical disdain at the time, although this didn’t prevent loyal Floyd followers hungry for anything new ensuring it went to the top of the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Whether you consider it a true Floyd work or, like 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason, more a David Gilmour solo outing with contributions from Wright and Mason I’ll leave you to decide. Meanwhile this HD download sounds really lovely, albeit only marginally more open and expressive than the original CD. Floyd fans unwilling to invest £110 in the commemorative deluxe box set (which includes a Blu-ray disc and 2LP 180g vinyl edition remastered by Doug Sax) might consider this download an essential addition to their music library. JB

Sound Quality: 85%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

Recorded 20 years ago, The Division Bell is a mix of synthesised and analogue instrumentation. The latter is worthy of resampling at 96kHz but much of the former [Graph, trk 9] suggests the synths were operating at 44.1/48kHz. PM