David Gilmour - ‘Luck and Strange’ album review (2024)

THE SKINNY: After raising hopes among fans with a one-off Pink Floyd charity single, ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’, in 2022, David Gilmour faded once again into the bliss of semi-retirement. Over the past decade, Gilmour has spent plenty of time with his family, especially during the Covid-19 lockdown period. Fortunately, they all seem to share music as a hobby, so it was only a matter of time before they pieced together another work of art for the former Pink Floyd guitarist’s sporadic solo career.

Luck and Strange arrives this week as Gilmour’s first solo studio album in nine years. Although Gilmour’s wife and longtime lyrical collaborator Polly Samson has patched together her material over the past decade, Gilmour entered the studio over five months in 2023 to create the final arrangements with vocal contributions from his daughter, Romany, bassists Guy Pratt and Tom Herbert, drummers Steve Gadd and Steve DiStanislao and orchestral arrangements by Will Gardner.

One of the many strong, tensile strings to this album’s bow is its discerning production value, thanks to a collaboration between Gilmour and Charlie Andrew, famed for his previous work with Alt-J. In press materials, Gilmour noted that Andrew’s lack of knowledge regarding his legacy with Pink Floyd was crucial to the album’s nuanced and eclectic sound, which flits between ethereal instrumental textures, grand anthemic passages and voluptuous blues-rock tracks.

The album is tortuous both sonically and emotionally, with moments of brightness, darkness, beauty and fear. As we make our way through this series of emotional undulations, however, Samson and Gilmour present omnipresent themes of ageing and mortality. Gilmour’s glory years with Pink Floyd are many years behind him now, but in this balanced, familial album, he proves he’s still got it.

For fans of: Existential literature, autumnal landscapes and escaping to the dark side of the moon.

A concluding comment from Alan Partridge: “The Gilmour family unit is the band that Pink Floyd could have been.”

‘Luck and Strange’ track by track:

Release Date: September 6th | Producer: David Gilmour & Charlie Andrew | Label: Sony Music

‘Black Cat’: This lovely instrumental piece, reminiscent of the introduction to ‘Echoes’, eases us into the record. Like acclimatising to a simmering hot tub, we anticipate a pleasurable submersion, but there is no rush here. [4/5]

‘Luck and Strange’: The title track makes splendid use of some keyboard recordings made by Richard Wright in 2008 and hears Gilmour’s voice for the first time on the album. Like a fine wine, his voice has grown into the blues setting perfectly. [4/5]

‘The Piper’s Call’: Offering some stylistic variety to proceedings, this track bears little resemblance to its namesake album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. With bluesy solos, folky acoustic rhythms and occasional slide work, this song works its way into a dramatic crescendo. [3.5/5]

‘A Single Spark’: The beginning of the song is musically uninspiring but saved by some evocative lyrics. Later, Gilmour does what he does best, laying down a protracted, emotive solo. [3.5/5]

‘Vita Brevis’: Following ‘Black Cat’, Gilmour marks the centrepoint of his new record with another pleasant instrumental. The ambient string textures are bright and transportive. [4/5]

‘Between Two Points’: This song has apparently been knocking around in the Gilmour household for several years. Gilmour now finalises it with a definitive recording, inviting his daughter Romany to sing the lead vocal. This is an indisputable highlight. [4.5/5]

‘Dark and Velvet Nights’: Following up Romany’s delicate, emotional vocal on the previous track, Gilmour picks things up a notch with a hard-hitting rock song. Samson’s lyrics, delivered by Gilmour, paint a vivid picture of a dicey night on the tiles. [3.5/5]

‘Sings’: Though the album isn’t a concept piece per se, Samson and Gilmour hold a lurking scent of mortality at its core. This essence is particularly potent in ‘Sings’, which opens: Darling turn back the clock / Give me time, make it stop / Let’s hold back the news / Stay inside this cocoon”. [4/5]

‘Scattered’: At seven and a half minutes, this epic is worth the journey. Orchestral strings and piano melodies frame some inspired poetry before another classic Gilmour solo. [4.5/5]

‘Yes, I Have Ghosts’: This song brings one final dimension to what has been a well-balanced and enjoyable record. In another heartwarming union of the Gilmour family, Samson brings one of her greatest lyrical displays to the album as Gilmour and Romany deliver a tender harmony through a folk-classical instrumental composition. [4.5/5]

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