While Roger Waters stewed over the pitfalls of stadium rock and labored over two very personal potential concept albums, David Gilmour took off with a couple of friends to record his first solo album. Using a core rhythm section along with his own instrumental contributions, the result was a lean, satisfying listen.David Gilmour sports vocals on six of the nine tunes, with the others showcasing the guitar sound kids have come to love. The opening instrumental “Mihalis” and “Short And Sweet” (written with Roy Harper of “Have A Cigar” fame to Floyd fans) use the same delayed D-strums that would eventually anchor “Run Like Hell”. The best, and most Floydian song, the radio hit “There’s No Way Out Of Here”, wasn’t even written by him, but it’s still pretty killer. “Cry From The Street” is mostly a groove that gives him a chance to stretch outside a Waters lyric—when you can understand what he’s singing—while “So Far Away”, anchored by a piano, is just lovely. The instrumentals “Raise My Rent” and “It’s Deafinitely” [sic] bookend “No Way” to deliver some tougher sounds, while “I Can’t Breathe Anymore” begins quietly enough before exploding into a big finish.
It would be a long time before he considered himself anything of a worthy lyricist, and most of his efforts here aren’t very exciting. That only makes the guitar work more welcome, and on David Gilmour he certainly lets the music do the talking. Without a concept to tie all the tracks together, it’s an underrated album that provides some respite from the more ponderous entries in the Floyd-related catalog. (Also, the current remastered CD and streaming version feature longer edits for most songs, increasing the total playing time by about two minutes.)
David Gilmour David Gilmour (1978)—3½
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