David Gilmour
Rattle that Lock
(Columbia)
Two stars
It's been a good 12 months for Pink Floyd fans. First, in November, came The Endless River, a reconstructed swan song that marked the band's first LP in 20 years.
Now “the voice of Floyd”, guitarist David Gilmour, releases his first album in nine years. Unfortunately, his fourth solo album is a middling and patchy piece of work that reaches for many things but grasps few.
The tone is set with opener 5 A.M., one of three atmospheric instrumentals, that see Gilmour's trademark, echo-laden blues licks bursting out of yawning ambient soundscapes. A few months shy of 70, there's a heavy sense of mortality weighing at the album; the folk-flavoured Faces of Stone details a day spent with Gilmour's mother after she was diagnosed with dementia.
A Boat Lies Waiting is about Rick Wright and opens with a recording of the late Floyd keyboardist talking about death.
The cluttered pop-funk of the title track and Today sit uncomfortably in such heavy company, while the jazz jaunt The Girl in the Yellow Dress sounds like actual pastiche.
rgarratt@thenational.ae
