POP ALBUM REVIEW : Floyd Familiar, If Not in Pink

PINK FLOYD

“The Division Bell”

Columbia

** 1/2 “To martyr yourself to caution is not gonna help at all,” sings David Gilmour; he’s talking about the ways of love, and we know what he means. Had he only heeded his own words when it came to this, Pink Floyd’s first album in seven years, the hallmark of which would have to be caution aplenty. (It’s due in stores today.)

Ever since Gilmour reconvened the band in the wake of the acrimonious split with Roger Waters, Floyd has been busy going about the business of being Floyd--that is, re-creating best-remembered sonic elements without anything like the artistic leaps from album to album that characterized the band’s ‘70s prime. Thus you get the slightly funky “What Do You Want From Me,” which feels like “Have a Cigar” redux, or “Keep Talking,” which employs “Another Brick”-like riffing, plus several “Shine On”-style instrumental passages.

That’s a comfortingly wistful sound, and Gilmour’s airy singing and economically bluesy guitar leads are perennially lovely, if drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Rick Wright are by now dead weight. Gilmour’s lyrics focus on the personal politics of separation with a mixture of sweet-seeming, regretful idealism and semantic clumsiness.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).