ON AN ISLAND

After a very long hiatus (both as a solo artist or with Floyd), Dave came back in 2006 with the hyped ''On A Island Music''. Reviews from the press were raving and the album had pretty decent sales numbers.

In terms of music, I would say that both the spacey ''On A Island Music'' and the languishing title track have a deep Floyd sound. They could have both easily fit on ''Momentary Lapse'' or ''Division Bell''. Actually, these two numbers are probably the best you can get out of this album.

The problem is that one has to swallow songs as ''The Blue'' as well: it is a melancholic and pretty uninspired track which shines thanks to a fine guitar solo from the master. But after all, isn't a great guitar player more than a song writer?

If needed, he demonstrates it once again during a harder ''Take A Breath''. It is a dual song (one more) of which the repetitive opening part conveys some dullness, but the closing is again very good. As if Dave could only write halves songs!

I like the atmospheric ''Red Sky At Night'' very much. Superb and emotional sax play from dear old Dave himself! This is another good track from this work which alternates between good and average (the heavy bluesy ''This Heaven'') too frequently.

This album has some more weaknesses (''Smile'') and plus points (''A Pocketful Of Stones'', ''Where We Satart'') but I can hardly call this an excellent album. If one would except some great guitar moments, there wouldn't be much to write home about.

A pleasant album but no more. Three stars.