[Today: David Gilmour steps out...]
Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour released his debut solo album in May of 1978, between the release of Floyd’s Animals and The Wall. Like both of those albums, this music is shimmering yet tense, and features Gilmour’s lilting/biting guitar. But Gilmour’s vocals here are relaxed (as opposed to then Floyd-mate Roger Waters’ aural tantrums), and his lyrics contain none of the Mommy/Daddy histrionics that Floyd was starting to dabble in. Gilmour would contribute ‘Comfortably Numb’ to The Wall, and that song’s fevered, gauzy sense of longing runs the length of David Gilmour.
As Gilmour explained during an interview just after the album’s release, “This album was important to me in terms of self respect. At first I didn’t think my name was big enough to carry it. Being in a group for so long can be a bit claustrophobic, and I needed to step out from behind Pink Floyd’s shadow.” The specter of Floyd certainly looms over parts of this album – during ‘It’s Deafinitely’ Gilmour coaxes a rumble out his guitar that’s a dead-ringer preview of the sound that would drive ‘Run Like Hell’ on The Wall. In fact, enough riffs here are reminiscent of various Floyd tunes that this album sounds more like vintage Floyd than the last few albums released under that band’s name. [Suggested alternate album titles: The Softer Side Of Pink and A Kinder, Gentler Floyd.]
Gilmour has such a signature guitar style that it’s somewhat inevitable that this would sound like a Pink Floyd side project. But because it was his first solo album, it sounds more like Floyd than even his later solo works – just one reason it’s the best album released under his name. Side One is nearly perfect, as winding instrumental ‘Mihalis’ leads into claustrophobic ‘There’s No Way Out Of Here’, which segues into ‘Cry From The Streets’, a tough, cool song that fades into the tender ‘So Far Away’. It may lack the conceptual and theatrical panache that drives so many Pink Floyd albums, but David Gilmour interlocks as well as any of them. Who needs the drama?
Listen: Mihalis
Listen: There’s No Way Out Of Here
Listen: Cry From The Street
Listen: So Far Away
Tags: David Gilmour, Pink Floyd
