Milk for everyone: David Gilmour's solo album “Luck and Strange”

Wenn man die Musik von David Gilmour hört, könnte man meinen, die elektrische Gitarre sei eine Axt für das gefrorene Meer in uns. Keiner kann mit den Klängen einer Stratocaster, einer Les Paul, wahrscheinlich aber auch mit einem besaiteten Besenstiel so an die Emotionen rühren wie er. Ja, er ist ein Virtuose, aber keiner von denen, die sich mit demonstrativer Fingerfertigkeit in jene Nische spielen, wo sich nur noch die Kenner, Könner und Kollegen untereinander verständigen. Seine Soli auf den besten Alben von Pink Floyd sind Weltkulturerbe.

Lang ist’s her; inzwischen ist Gilmour ein vielfacher Großvater von achtundsiebzig Jahren. Und nun die Überraschung: Er hat ein starkes neues Album vorgelegt, das deutlich frischer und in sich schlüssiger klingt als sein letztes Werk „Rattle That Lock“ von 2015. Weil Gilmour sphärische Hintergründe braucht, um die akustischen Kathedralen seiner Soli zu errichten, sind seine Lieder seit je meist elegisch und manchmal langsam bis zum Schleppenden. Zum gewohnten Schwermut-Ton kommt auf „Luck and Strange“ in einigen Stücken aber auch ein fester Biss, etwa beim wuchtigen R&B-Song „Dark and Velvet Nights“. Die Produktion ist von manchen akustischen Altlasten befreit und wirkt trotz des reichlichen Einsatzes von Chor und Orchester nicht überladen.

Er wolle nicht mehr nach Pink Floyd klingen, hat Gilmour gesagt. Zum Glück gelingt ihm das auch diesmal nicht wirklich. Zu unverkennbar ist sein singender Gitarrenton. Während die Soli in der Rockmusik üblicherweise nach dem zweiten Refrain kommen, bilden sie bei Gilmour meist das Finale, eine oft mehrere Minuten lange Klimax, die das Lied auf eine andere Ebene hebt. Danach lässt sich nicht einfach zu einer weiteren Strophe oder zum Refrain zurückkehren. So ist es bei fast allen Stücken des neuen Albums.

And Gilmour's voice, another trademark, still sounds surprisingly smooth, while his arch-rival Roger Waters is only capable of hoarse singing, as shown by his last album “Dark Side of the Moon Redux” – a kind of audio book version of the 1973 classic With their grumpy murmurs and restrained instrumentation, they undercut the original so resolutely that it's almost interesting again. Otherwise, in Waters' Wikipedia entry, the section on political controversies is now twice as long as the one on musical achievements.

With Pink Floyd, Waters stood for the big concepts, for catchy songs like “Money” and political anger, while the melodic Gilmour is more at peace with himself and society. At Gilmour we work together harmoniously. His wife, the poet Polly Samson, writes the lyrics, and their twenty-two-year-old daughter Romany sings on two songs on the new album, which provides additional variety. The bonus track “Yes, I Have Ghosts” is a touching folk ballad sung together by father and daughter. In “Between Two Points”, a very atmospheric cover by the Montgolfier Brothers, Romany takes on lead vocals. As if he didn't want to show off too much compared to her young, fragile voice, Gilmour keeps the sound material very simple in the solo; plays gently and almost haltingly, but with a tone full of reserved power.

“It was a fine time to be born,” sings the post-war boy born in 1946 in the title song: “Free milk for us all.” Although the British colonial empire collapsed, the empire of pop and rock music developed in parallel, and Gilmour was one of its emissaries. Looking back, there is little to regret, and so there is an age-mild level-headedness in the song lyrics. The fact that Gilmour doesn't write it himself may also be a nod to a certain bass player who makes himself important with political and social messages: “Roger, we are musicians, we leave the lyrics to others!”

Gilmour has repeatedly tried to give due credit to Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright, who died in 2008 and was a very reserved character. He dedicated the last Floyd album “Endless River” to him, and on “Luck and Strange” you can hear a long jam with Wright from 2007 at the end, which became the basis for the title track. Perhaps such beautiful gestures are also a signal to a certain control freak: “Roger, I can do friendship! It wasn’t my fault!”

There is always a song on Gilmour albums that is particularly deeply emotional. On “Rattle That Lock” it was the anti-war song “In Any Tongue”, on “Luck and Strange” the pathos pearl is called “Scattered”. With echosounder-like keyboard sounds, the seven-minute song first conjures up the Floyd classic “Echoes”, in the middle it has a swirling orchestral part that is a bit reminiscent of “A Day in the Life” by the Beatles, and it naturally culminates in a multi-stage solo, first wonderfully effortless on the acoustic guitar, before the Stratocaster takes off into orbit. Surprisingly, the singer then speaks again in a gentle tone with a few lines about transience: “Time is a tide that disobeys and it disobeys me. It never ends.” Sounds as if they were the master’s last words. Meanwhile, the old man has announced that he wants to return to the London houseboat studio straight away after the tour for the album, which this time doesn't start in Pompeii but with six performances in the Roman Circus Maximus. Go ahead.

David Gilmour: “Luck and Strange”. Sony Music