Album Review: David Gilmour, Luck and Strange

The Anton Corbijn album cover for Luck And Strange recalls that of David Gilmour’s eponymous, 1978 solo debut: autumnal, bucolic and a tad ominous. That album was recorded between the Pink Floyd LPs Animals and The Wall.

Featuring members of Jokers Wild, Gilmour’s pre-Floyd outfit, it was a bluesy, rocky album, something of a counterpoint to all things Pink. Luck And Strange occupies the dual territories of Jokers Wild and Pink Floyd, opening with ‘Black Cat’ and that Gilmour Strat sound. The title-track, meanwhile, features the distinctive sound of the late great Richard Wright, taken from a recorded jam between the two old Floyd muckers, a year before Wright passed.

Lead single ‘The Piper’s Call’ is a poignantly loaded title and, yes, we are deep in Floydian country, the solo exquisite, the soundscape marvellous. But this is primarily a Gilmour family affair, with the majority of the lyrics composed by David’s wife, Polly Samson – his collaborator and co-writer for over three decades.

Elsewhere, Gabriel Gilmour provides backing vocals, with Charlie Gilmour co-writing ‘Shattered’, and Romany Gilmour delivering a rather brilliant rendition of The Montgolfier Brothers’ ‘Between Two Points’.

7/10

Listen to/order the album here.