David Gilmour : "Luck and Strange"

 

At 78 Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, is not fading away. The title track of his new album rivals almost any Pink Floyd song that is not on "Animals". It's some of Gilmour's best guitar work. Even his voice sounds great, he's not afraid to reach up into his head register for a few notes here and there. This is the last recording keyboardist Richard Wright appears on before his death. But the challenge is, will the rest of the album live up to this? This question is what we seek to answer in this review. Even regular readers Pink Floyd is one of my favorite bands. 

Gilmour's wife, Polly Samson, wrote most of the lyrics. The ambling "The Piper's Call" has more movement than the single. What he did with Pink Floyd is true without being confined to it. While I have not listened to much of Roger Water's more recent solo work, it's hard to imagine it being more like Floyd than the jams this song goes of into to highlight Gilmour's playing. Thus lies the question what makes you think of Pink Floyd more Gilmour's playing or Water's sardonic wit. I accept both "Momentary Lapse of Reason" and "Division Bell' as great Floyd album, so Gilmour's playing is what defines it to me.  Lyrically his wife penned the theme to explore aging and death. At his age, it's a closer reality, though I certainly expect him to outlive Ozzy, as he looks healthier in recent clips. "A Single Spark" is the first song you can hear the age in his voice. 

His daughter Romany sings on "Between Two Points".  She has a decent enough folk voice. The song is mellow and flowing.  'Dark and Velvet Nights' is a grooving blues tune, that allows him to rip out honey-sweet lick with an immaculate tone. The only thing about solo albums is you will find a foray into more conventional songwriting without Waters or Wright to balance him out, thus the song "Sings" , which nothing is wrong with it just sounds like your average middle-of-the-road meandering ballad. 'Scattered' is closer to something Pink Floyd might have done. His lyrical style of guitar soloing is highlighted in this song. The last song is just a more folk-inflected ballad to his daughter also lends her voice, which works well enough. The strong moments from this album and his stellar playing make me give this album a 10. He continues to amaze me. 

pst593