DAVID GILMOUR

And when "The Final Cut" ended up breaking an already fractured relationship between Waters and the rest of the band, Gilmour focused on developing his second solo album "About Face". A work that precisely reflects his attempt to express himself musically and without going beyond the mere fact of transmitting sensations, whether comforting or melancholic, which are generally very accessible.

Passages of sensitive and warm beauty mark the general spirit of the album, such as the initial acoustic chords of "Murder", or the luminous "Love on the Air" supported by the keyboard of Steve Winwood, one of the guests to collaborate in "About Face", or the emotionality of "Out of the Blue", or the jubilant harmony of "Cruise" with a final section of unexpected reggae rhythm.

The contrast comes with "Until We Sleep" and "All Lovers Are Deranged" (written by Pete Townshend), both songs with keyboards with a significant 80s industrial tone and Gilmour's very active electric guitar and, of course, being a member of Pink Floyd, one of the most influential bands on the rock planet, it was difficult for him to remain aseptic to all that this implied, and both "Blue Light" with its initial airs of "Run Like Hell" and the conclusive "Near the End", could fit perfectly in 'The Wall'.

Without being a masterpiece and without claiming to be one, "About Face" is a breath of fresh air from Gilmour to clear at least for a while an atmosphere full of conflicts.

3/3.5 stars

Not anymore. Triggered by the upcoming release of Roger Waters' DSOTM Redux, I decided to go back to check out what David Gilmour has done in the last two decades, and the best thing I can think of is this release.

Well, in short: It's bad. I'm giving it a sub-par rating because it has a few nice moments, but also some horrible blunders and is, for the most part, boring and unfocused. Too bad, since I'm a huge fan of what Gilmour did with Pink Floyd in the 70s. On this release he is "talking" a lot with his guitar, but not saying much. Less is more, an important concept in music which he built a reputation for with Pink Floyd.

If you disagree with me and think this is really good, please compare it to releases by Shpongle and Ozric Tentacles, who do similar experiments with much more musical cohesion.

Track Comments:

1. Metallic Side (2 stars): This starts out ok, the first part is actually kind of nice.

All starts to break down a Gilmour-like voice (who I recently learned is actually Graham Nash) sings "If you believe in justice, if you believe in freedom, stand up for human rights ..." in a flat, whiny thin head voice. That's about 10 minutes into the track, the section is called "Hymns to the Sun". It's a laid back section with sparse typical Gilmour backing guitars, the "Another Brick" heavy delay chops type.

Next up is "Black Graham" which starts with horrible acoustic guitar. As it turns out, this is not David's fault, since it is Marcia Mello playing. This is the lowest point of this longtrack.

Finally, the last four minutes are kind of decent electronic semi-ambient music. In the last two minutes we even finally get to hear a well-fitting contribution by David Gilmour.

2. Spheres Side (2.5 stars): Starts out quite well! The first section ("Es Vedra") is a nice two-chord vamp. Unfortunately it gets boring soon, and Gilmour's slide playing gets quite repetitive. It's also whiny and insecure - one wonders where his confidence went. What is he afraid of?

Then of course the horrible vocals from the first track appear again (Hymn of the Sun "Reprise"). I wonder who can listen to them and not cringe with embarrassment.

The next part is introduced by a goofy jaw harp - because reasons. Apart from that it's actually quite nice - as far as ambient electronic goes, one of the highlights. The last two parts are also kind of nice. Too late to salvage the album though.

Originally published at awesomeprog.com/reviews/98336

In 1984 Gilmour released his second solo album About Face which I concider terribly lacklustre in its straight, progless pop-rock. Naturally this Hammersmith gig from 30th April 1984 concentrates heavily on the then-new album. But that's not the only reason for the overall weakness. The visual quality is rather poor and the camera work uninspired. Obviously the filming equipment wasn't of very high quality. The cheap nature of this DVD is evident the very minute you start viewing it. The irritating and criminally too long publisher's insert (Crime Crow; the cartoon figure snapping its fingers to blues music) is directly followed, in a clumsy VHS manner, by the beginning of the first track of the live set, 'Until We Sleep'. Both that song and the next one, 'All Lovers Are Deranged', totally failed to interest me much. Two songs from the debut David Gilmour (1978) improve things a bit. It's nice to see Roy Harper joining David on their collaboratively written 'Short and Sweet', even though the song itself is pretty boring. The audio quality is OK and the musicians do their jobs just fine, but as I said, don't expect any prog finesse. The sax and keys are very much of the time. Even the lead instrument, Gilmour's guitar, is not as impressive as on later DVD's.

'Run Like Hell' understandably receives enthusiastic applause from the audience; The Wall had only a little earlier been a mega success for Pink Floyd. The song certainly brings some needed spark here. Three more songs from About Face, and the main body of the set is over. The encore 'Comfortably Numb' is musically the ultimate highlight, and Nick Mason enters behind the drum kit.

I can't seriously recommend this DVD to anyone except for a completionist and a diehard Gilmour fan who greatly enjoys even his weakest solo output. What's best here, ie. the two concert favourites from The Wall, are present on most other Floyd/Gilmour DVD's. As for the About Face stuff, well, you either have the studio album or you don't care of it enough to own it, and in both cases this live set is not that necessary to get.

There are only three instrumentals but all worth repeated listening. "Mihalis" reminds me slightly of Camel; just that guitar playing is more dominant here. "Raise my rent" has a Floydian guitar and playfulness. Absolutely tasty playing and smoking solos. "It's deafinitely" is the most prog-sounding composition but at the same time, compositionally rather weak. It's dynamic pace sets guitar/synths/drums at the same winning position.

The sung tracks are melodic, allow more space for keyboards and even harmonica. My favourite is "So far away" especially when the guitar and female vocal reach the climax. It has the typical laid-back PF feeling.

Despite quite a convincing output, I think this is not an essential piece of prog.

Agreeably 'Shine On... (Parts 1-5)' doesn't function very well as a ripped down acoustic version (all the time I expected David soon to switch to an electric guitar), but on the other hand it's interesting to have this different version. Dick Parry joins on saxophone during the piece. The live line-up at its fullest features also Michael Kamen on piano, beautiful Caroline Dale on cello, Nic France on percussion, Neill MacColl on acoustic guitar (dual guitars are obviously much needed especially on 'Wish You Were Here') and a gospel choir led by Sam Brown. The choir is another key factor to bring heartfelt sincerity to the performances. Songs such as 'High Hopes' and 'A Great Day for Freedom' have enjoyable, more intimate versions here.

In addition to a few other songs of Pink Floyd and Gilmour's solo output such as 'Smile' which some years later was included in the album On an Island (2006), the set contains some interesting surprises. 'Je crois entendre encore' is a melancholic opera aria from Georges Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles and suits pretty well for this line-up. 'Dimming of the Day' is a serene Richard Thompson penned song originally sung by his wife Linda Thompson, and 'Terrapin' and 'Dominoes' are Syd Barrett's songs. As nice as it is to see Robert Wyatt guesting on 'Comfortably Numb', his vocals in it are only so-and-so. In the end -- taken from another live date -- the same song is guested by Bob Geldof (the main actor in Pink Floyd The Wall movie), who does a more convincing participation. And of course Rick Wright (r.i.p. 2008) coming to sing and play 'Breakthrough' from his 1996 album Broken China is a memorable moment.

The bonus materials are diverse and well edited. On 'Shakespeare's Sonnet 18' Gilmour only sings to Kamen's piano. I like that. 'Home Movie' shows David in his home studio rehearsing the Bizet aria with the gospel choir, and so on. Pretty down-to-earth stuff, further widening the contrast to the mentioned Pink Floyd DVD's. This DVD is an excellent and unique addition for anyone wanting to have a good selection of Floyd and related.

There's one funny photo of her and his father on the web, and before this single this was the only clue that I had of her existence.

Well, other than guitar, as probably obvious, she plays harp. This is her instrument in the single. She has a very nice voice and harmonizes perfectly wit dad's baritonal singing.

Not a bad song, also. Surely not a masterpiece but it could easily feature in any David Gilmour's album as it's quite in line with the mood of his last one. A song like this would have been really better than the rubbish remix used to fill the last album.

So it's a 3-stars song and hopefully the beginning of a great career for Romany.