ON AN ISLAND

I approached this CD with caution, since it seems that all David Gilmour solo stuff is quite diffferent from his works in his main band. So much so that I didn´t really lik his previous one (About Face of 1984). However, since PF is now history after the passing of the great keyboards player Rick Wright (who also plays on a couple of tracks here) I decided to give it a try. Somehow I felt this album would sound like a mix of both Pulse era Floyd and a ´proper´ solo work. I was right.

I remember when this much hyped CD came out in 2006. I´m glad I didn´t hear it then, for I guess I would be a little disappointed with it. Don´t get me wrong, I like On An Island, but for so much praising, this is not what I expected for. It´s a good prog/rock/pop album, with a very laid back feel on it and few surprises. I guess David Gilmour has nothing more to prove after his long and productive years with Pink Floyd. He was always seem to be more confortable as a player than a songwriter and this CD confirms tha premise. Not that the songs here are bad, not at all, they are quite good. But few tracks do remind us of his main band (Take A breath is one).

It´s all very well done and performed of course, with several beautiful and distincitve solos that reminds us of the talented and grounbreaking guitarrist Gilmour always was. His voice might not be as strong as in the past, but it is still pleasant. The real interesting thing about this CD is the fact that he manages to play a saxophone solo on the instrumental Red Sky At Night and he does it very well! He is over 60 years old and still surprises us with his musical gifts! Still much of the great musicians that play on this record are underused, specially the David Crosby/Graham Nash harmonies on the title track, for instance. They really don´t make that much differentece, which is a pity. That goes for much of the other guests here. The one exception to this rule is Robert Wyatt´s beautiful cornet solo on the instrumental Then I close My Eyes (one of the highlights of this album).

The production, as expected from such perfeccionist as Gilmour, is spotless.

Conclusion: a nice CD. If you like the PF´s quiet moments, without much experimentalism, you´ll probably love this album. In the end, although not up to the prasing it got when came out., I found On An Island to be very good. I sounds like it was indeed written on a tropical island, under star filled night skies and sunny beaches. Not much prog here, ok, but good anyway. 3 stars.