David Gilmour - On an Island
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Free Music Notes for On an Island
Free Music Review: Sweet Tranquil Beauty
Hit: 5 Stars
To me, the beauty of David Gilmour's guitar playing is his ability to do so many things incredibly well. Not just the technical capabilities to pull off these things, but the impeccable musicianship to merge these elements into a well-crafted, highly emotional sound. Sometimes his guitar is a gliding whisper, other times a forceful rage. But there is a balance there. A Gilmour guitar solo can start with an achingly beautiful melody that suddenly erupts into a cascade of squealing notes and feedback. His guitar sings, cries and screams...sometimes all within the same song...certainly throughout an entire album. It is this balance of delicacy and brute force that has always impressed me. I suppose the 12 year hiatus between Gilmour's last studio output (Pink Floyd's The Division Bell) and this, raised my expectations to ridiculous levels as I yearned for that magical sound. That's why my first listening to On An Island left me with a bit of a feeling that that balance had been lost. Too much of that power and aggression had been set aside. However, after digesting the album a couple more times, it became clear that...as always...Gilmour played exactly what was necessary for the songs he chose. Though his aggressive approach is not necessarily in the forefront, it IS still there. The power is in the subtleties.
As for the songs themselves, they are like wonderful snapshots of Gilmour's current state of mind and truly do represent his most personal work. The album appears to be reflections on life and mortality. More specifically David's life and his views on his life-long fears of death. Memories of wonderful times with friends now passed flow out of the title track, while songs like "The Blue" and "A Pocketful Of Stones" seem to indicate some sort of acceptance with the hereafter. At the same time, heartfelt expressions found on "This Heaven", "Smile" and "Where We Start", paint the picture of a man who has found a genuine sense of fulfillment in the here and now. The music itself is largely lush and tranquil, filled with gorgeous gentle melodies and sweet harmonies. The instrumentation used is not at all overbearing and, despite some of the intricacies, remains extremely digestible. Gilmour's guitar is as stunning as always, filled with brilliant melody, liquid lines, shimmering vibrato and gorgeous tone. What's more, the combination of music and lyrical content does...for ME at least...hit a wonderfully emotional chord. Whether it's the honesty and openness expressed, or merely the feeling that a dear old friend has found true contentment, the fact remains that this music strikes where it intends to.
Scanning through some of these other reviews, I came across several negative responses that seem like a quick dismissal. That's too bad because I really think this music grows deeper with each listen. Just try to drop your expectations and take it for what it is. This is a beautiful album meant to be heard all the way through without interruption. No party background noise for this CD. It is especially suited for a summer night under a star-filled sky. I would have bumped this up to five stars just to help balance off those senseless one star reviews, but thankfully this album has earned it all on its own. Like most works of art, what you get out of it depends greatly on how open to it you're willing to be. If your intent is to hate it, you'll probably hate it. If your sole purpose for buying this is in the hopes of finding lyrics about flying pigs and dead fathers, keep walking. But if you want to hear the maturing sounds of a world-class musician still in his prime, give this a chance. This is a blissful relaxed album filled with honest sentiment and brilliant music. Especially for fans of Meddle and Obscured By Clouds
Free Music Review: If you're a Floyd fan, this is a must-have.
Hit: 5 Stars
Gilmour proves that he doesn't need his bandmates to produce a fantastic album yet again with "On An Island". This album sounds like a new Floyd album. David Gilmour, unmoving to the current trends, instead sticks with the sound of classic Pink Floyd albums, enhancing them with his tremendous abilities on the guitar, piano, sax, vocals, etc. Gilmour shows with this album that despite the general credit going to Roger Waters, Gilmour was just as much the genius behind Pink Floyd as Roger Waters was. Though Pink Floyd may be gone, Gilmour has released his first solo album in 18 years and it certainly holds up to old Pink Floyd albums while holding up to Gilmour's previous solo works as well.
1. "Castellorizon" - Awesome guitar solo instrumental track along with a lot of orchestral arrangements involved with it. David Gilmour proves even in 2006 he can play the guitar just as well as in 1976. *****/*****
2. "On An Island" - Gilmour's guitar ability really stands out on it and it sounds really good. I'd place the guitar parts along the lines of A Momentary Lapse Of Reason and the vocal parts around Meddle. *****/*****
3. "The Blue" - Very Meddle sounding song and reminds me somewhat of "Fat Old Sun" from Atom Heart Mother. ****/*****
4. "Take A Breath" - Definitely place this with The Wall. It has similar arrangements to a lot of songs on that album. It's good though. *****/*****
5. "Red Sky At Night" - Shortest track on the album, but it's not filler. Gilmour shows off his brilliant saxophone playing in a haunting track. This really reminds me of the heavily sax dominated Dark Side Of The Moon. *****/*****
6. "This Heaven" - An odder sounding track compared to the others. Probably the least Pink Floyd song on the album yet but I like it. It sounds more bluesy than most Floyd or rock songs in general. ****/*****
7. "Then I Close My Eyes" - A very harmonic, melodic instrumental track. Unfortunately, it lacks a certain element the other songs had. It sounds a lot like The Division Bell. It sounds nice but it just doesn't have much of a drive to it. ***/*****
8. "Smile" - Another song that reminds me of "Fat Old Sun" and some of the Meddle tracks like "A Pillow Of Winds". It suffers from the same lack of energy that "Then I Close My Eyes" had yet it manages to make up for it better than that song with the other elements of it. ***1/2/*****
9. "A Pocketful Of Stones" - Another Meddle sounding track but with a lot more piano to it. A nice song with nice piano playing. Slowly, the song increases in heaviness and the lyrics become increasingly darker. Finally, around the five minute mark, Gilmour cuts in with a dark, depressing guitar solo that fits the song perfectly and leaves nothing more to be desired from what is a beautiful solo that finishes out the song. *****/*****
10. "Where We Start" - This one sounds like a mix of Meddle and Wish You Were Here. A slow, melodic song, it works well enough I suppose for the album closer though I feel that "A Pocketful Of Stones" would've worked better. ****/*****
Gilmour brings to the table a fantastic mix of every era of Pink Floyd but in particular combines the sounds of "Meddle", "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason", and "Wish You Were Here" to create a great album. Though Pink Floyd may be gone, David Gilmour is here with an album that will please most fans of Floyd and continues the traditions begun by his old band.
Free Music Review: Never Say Never, David returned
Hit: 5 Stars
Pink Floyd's guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour's new solo album On an Island is thus far the best album released this year so far.
This is Gilmour's first new recordings since the 1994 Pink Floyd studio effort The Division Bell and his first solo album since 1984's About Face.
The album was co-produced by Gilmour, Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera and Chris Thomas and this album's musical styles run from Floydish sounding tunes to jazzy to blues, it has it all.
Castellorizon is an awesome instrumental and what a way to start the album. I kind of subtitle it Let's Get Metaphysical Part 2 with DG's Strat duetting superbly with an orchestra about almost 2 minutes into the instrumental. We then segue into the title cut to On an Island. It is an awesome song and is already a masterpiece which would not have sounded out of place on a Pink Floyd record with Gilmour harmonizing with 66% of Crosby Stills and Nash being David Crosby and Graham Nash's superb harmonizing. Also, the guitar solos on this track of course are amazing. The Blue follows and is amazing with DG and fellow Floyd member keyboardist Rick Wright harmonizing on vocals very well. Gilmour's whammy pedal solos at the end of the track are amazing and cry shades of Marooned. Take a Breath follows and musically reminds me of Coming Back to Life and is a great song though some will scoff at it and has Gilmour pulling out the stops on both lap steel and Stratocaster. Red Sky at Night is an awesome instrumental and David kicks ass on sax showing he can play any instrument and he also does guitar effects here.
This Heaven follows and is a great jazzy shuffle and shows David can play any genre of music(as he had proven on his David Gilmour in Concert DVD when he sang an excerpt of a French Opera in French and also a version of the lullaby Hushabye Mountain). Then I Close My Eyes is a great instrumental in a different sort of tone, kind of reminds me of Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast's second section but with some cumbus, glass harmonica and bass harmonica and Robert Wyatt's cornet added. Smile, I always liked this song, always have since Gilmour first performed it in 2001 and now sounds complete with David playing some great dobro on this track. A Pocketful of Stones is a nice ballad which is hard to put into words, arguably the best solo ballad Gilmour has recorded. Where We Start is a great way to end the album in a nice relaxing tone and cries shades of A Pillow of Winds from Meddle.
On the versions that are initially sold at Best Buy, there is a bonus track of an almost 7 minute blues instrumental jam called Island Jam which is a great number.
If you go into this album with expectations ala David Gilmour's 1978 album or a Pink Floyd album then you will be slightly disappointed but if you are an unbiased fan and appreciate music, take a listen!
Highly recommended!
Free Music Review: Gilmour's 'Final Cut'
Hit: 5 Stars
1983 The Final Cut was released. A Pink Floyd album in name but a Roger Waters solo album in reality. Sure Gilmour played on every song but one, as did Nick Mason, but Waters contributed all the songs, which were deeply personal, and dominated the sessions to the degree that MAson and Gilmour would barely show up at all. Rooted in Waters' loss of his father in 1944 to the ravages of World War II, the album, which now includes "When The Tigers Broke Free" , is Waters' swan song as de facto leader and member of Pink Floyd. It was his own true Final Cut for the band.
And so, 23 years and two Pink Floyd studio albums later, "On An Island" is David Gilmour's goodbye to the band (or project as the case has been) he struggled so hard to retain the right to keep aloft after Waters' turbulent split. And as a farewell, it couldn't be any further from The Final Cut than Gilmour is to Roger Waters himself.
Where Final Cut is distraught, emotionally raw, vitriolic, political, and lyrically dense, Gilmour's new album is lush, at ease with itself, melodic, in love, accessible. There are tunes that could have been on Obscured By Clouds or Meddle ("The Blue"), motifs that have appeared before on Wish You Were Here (especially Gilmour's sax debut "Red Sky At Night" which is essentially a translation to woodwind of his monumental intro to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond") and sounds we've never heard from Gilmour (The cumbus intro to "Then I Close My Eyes", a variation of Fleetwood Mac's influential "Albatross"). Where Waters' lyrical dexterity ruled the shape of Final Cut, it's Gilmour's innate feel for space and aural sensuality captained by his still muscular, albeit less ginger, guitar solos that steers On An Island through its self sure, rolling cycle.
That's not to say that the album is perfect. It's very nearly great. I prefer the radio edit of the title track, and would like to have had a shortened version of "The Blue" --too much of a good thing with a lengthy guitar solo section at the end--. And the weakest track is perhaps the most directand personal, "Where We Start", the closing track for which Gilmour penned all the lyrics and played all the instruments save the drums (Andy Newmark, who played on Waters' PROS AND CONS OF HITCHHIKING and on "Two Suns in the Sunset" from Final Cut) but it lacks his presence or focussed attention in some weird way.
To conclude, for those looking for the anger and somewhat emotionally derailed narrative of latter day Waters-era Floyd, pick up the Final Cut. But if you're looking for a satisfying musical sail featuring the main voice (in better shape than Division Bell by a long shot), guitar, and I contend, sonic heart of Pink Floyd, "On An Island" will thrill you.
Free Music Review: Best of 2006: a jewel we weren't expecting to find
Hit: 5 Stars
When it has been so long since an artist hasn't released any new material (either solo or with his former band) you don't hold your breath over any new music from him. That is why "On An Island" came as such an unexpected surprise, since David Gilmour's most recent release was "Division Bell" (1994), where he worked alongside two of his longtime fellow Pink Floyd members on the last album ever released under the band's name... until this one.
You may be scratching your head. After all, this is not a Floyd album, but a solo recording by David Gilmour. However, while listening to it, the same feelings that Floyd's works evoke come and sit by your side. Perhaps the fact that former PF members and frequent collaborators of the band appear here helps mold that sound. Or perhaps it is David Gilmour's unmistakable voice and guitar signature sound, both of which come across as powerful and precise as you may remember them.
On this album you can hear longtime Pink Floyd keyboard player, Richard Wright, playing Hammond organ and doing backing vocals; pre-recorded PF member Bob Klose, playing guitars; Guy Pratt, main bassist for the band during the post-Roger Waters period; and Dick Parry, who is responsible for most of the legendary Pink Floyd saxophone solos you have ever heard. The list of collaborators goes on and seems more like a who's who of the music scene of the last 25 years, featuring Phil Manzanera on keyboards and co-producing; Crosby and Nash of CSN fame, doing backing vocals (listen to track #2 for sample); and Soft Machine legend, Robert Wyatt, playing cornet, to just name a few.
Starting with the gorgeous cover and the album title, this is a release that works on a very intimate level, one that seems to be in tune with the current take on life by a 60-year old Gilmour, as songs like "The Blue", "Red Sky At Night", "Then I Close My Eyes" and "Smile" seem to insinuate. The opening instrumental track sets the stage much like "Cluster One" did for "The Division Bell" and "Signs of Life" did for "A Momentary Lapse of Reason". Each song seems to take its time to tell its story. Gilmour doesn't seem to have a rush to get anywhere, which is consistent with the stories told by those who collaborated with him in "On an Island" -he took the time to record the songs exactly the way he wanted them to sound.
Except for "This Heaven" (which I have not been able to get to enjoy, even after numerous listens), the entire album is a precious work of art that I can only be thankful for and a jewel that we weren't expecting to find. Without a doubt, this is one of the best releases so far in 2006.