Luck And Strange. David Gilmour

Does the world need another David Gilmour album? Ever since his first solo album in 1978(?), I tend to say no, it doesn't. In all honesty, I stopped listening to new albums a long time ago. I decided to give Luck And Strange a chance because I liked the single released last spring, 'The Piper's Call'. Not that I became excited, it felt simply good to hear him sing and listen to his characteristic guitar style.

I feel exactly the same listening to Luck And Strange. This is an album by an old man for older men like me. His voice clearly isn't what it was any more and yet fully o.k. Except for the odd moment here and there, Gilmour does what he is still capable of and thus raises the song by his presence which is still undeniably there.

Listening to the album more often I start noticing something which may explain me liking this album. On all his solo records and the two Pink Floyd albums after the split with Roger Waters, the songs always sounded forced to me. As if Gilmour was in a competition that he knew he couldn't win but kept trying anyway. Luck And Strange feels natural and is smooth flowing. Then add the familiar guitar sounds here and there and even that not everywhere, to lift the album. The result is an album that is good to listen to, to have it playing and immediately feel better. Should music be a competition, which is isn't, David Gilmour easily won this time compared to Roger Waters' rehashing of old themes on 'Is This The Life We Really Want?'.

For a Pink Floyd fan who came on board in 1975 with 'Wish You Were Here', Luck And Strange is the kind of album you want to hear 49 years later from your old hero. The record delivers. On the side Gilmour helps his daughter Romany into the saddle by giving her the lead spot in 'Between Two Points', a cover from a band called The Montgolfier Brothers. With a very Pink Floyd style guitar solo it grows into a beautiful song.

The biggest surprise is that Rick Wright plays on the album. The title track features his playing when the two were jamming in 2007 in Gilmour's study, in the year before Wright died. Gilmour developed it into a song recently, honouring the Pink Floyd's keyboardist.

There's nothing more you need to know. If you like Pink Floyd you will enjoy Luck And Strange. It may sound like a contradiction but exactly because, perhaps for the first time, David Gilmour is not trying to be Pink Floyd, he delivers his strongest solo album to date.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght