DAVID GILMOUR

PINK FLOYD is a good example of a band in which the musical magic is a sum of many parts, and the relatively modest solo discography of its members underlines that fact. Think of Rick Wright: Broken China (1996) is sonically pretty interesting but in the end terribly boring. The winner of the foursome is undoubtedly the main songwriter Roger Waters, even if there had been only Amused to Death (1992) and the new album. And what about David Gilmour then? russellk's two-star review of this eponymous debut hits the nail by saying that Gilmour offers Pink Floyd "accessibility, professionalism and excellent guitar skills", and that this album "also shows us that Gilmour hasn't got a lot to say".

Which indeed doesn't mean it wouldn't be a fairly pleasant listen. Gilmour, practically teamed only with the rhythm section, does a good job as a musician and producer. The weakness lies clearly in the songwriting. The opening instrumental 'Mihalis' sounds good but it doesn't really go anywhere. Nor the sung songs are very memorable. Perhaps the most solid one 'There's No Way Out of Here' wasn't even written by himself. The strong lyricism of Waters is deeply missed here. The typically tidy Gilmourian blues flavour is well audible, for example on [another song!] 'No Way'. By the way, a Finnish-language adaptation of 'Short and Sweet', co-written with Roy Harper, appeared three years later on the album of singer-songwriter Hector.

The progressive aspect of this album remains sadly quite minimal. The relationship to the music of Pink Floyd can be recognized. On the nicely named instrumental 'Deafinitely' one hears some echoes from 'Sheep', or to be more precise, from its fanfare-like final section. (I happened to hear it live last Saturday on a wonderful prog covers -oriented gig, in which that composition was actually the least interesting one.) All in all, "David Gilmour" is a justified, if rather forgettable, addition to your Floyd-related stuff, but I'd rather recommend the more atmospheric On an Island (2006). 2½ stars rounded upwards.