“It pulled the whole album together”: How Pink Floyd made High Hopes

Pink Floyd developed “High Hopes” during the sessions for 1994’s *The Division Bell*, with David Gilmour and Polly Samson writing it together. Producer Bob Ezrin said the song brought the album together and gave the band a central idea for its wider themes.

The band recorded early material at Olympic Studios in 1993, then continued work aboard Gilmour’s houseboat, the Astoria. Gilmour, who was less confident writing lyrics, began seeking Samson’s views; she went on to co-write most of the album’s lyrics, despite some initial unease within the band. “High Hopes” drew partly on Gilmour’s childhood and adolescence in Cambridge, and its lap steel guitar solo and orchestral arrangement echoed elements of earlier Pink Floyd songs.