plorentz's Full Review: On an Island by David Gilmour
David Gilmour has one of the sleepiest voices to ever grace a rock record - probably the only voice in rock history that could declare something along the lines of "I have become comfortably numb" and not give away the slightest hint that it's just an act. Even at his most fiery, as on the song "Dogs of War" from Pink Floyd's 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason (a Gilmour solo record in all but name), his bluesy howl isn't so much that of an arena rock frontman, but rather the emphatically miffed yawning and stretching of a prematurely un-hibernated bear. And in the last 20 years, his guitar-playing has increasingly followed suit, his solos hanging long, weepy high notes over horizon-less voids and gauzy orchestral mists like shimmery bits of Christmas tinsel.
As an artist, Gilmour now embodies that singular place where spacy, electric blues becomes Sunday morning new age broadcast; and if his recently released third solo album, On an Island is any indication, he's hitting the chamomile pretty hard these days. In truth, it's some of the earthiest music he's ever done - especially the second half, where we find songs like "This Heaven", whose woody beat (sampled from the reigning king of boring himself, Jack Johnson) and Kentucky-fried acoustic guitar licks give the song a creaky-rocking-chair-in-a-dusty-old-log-cabin vibe. But even at its rootsiest moments, there's a fundamental disconnect between Gilmour's voice and the song itself; so that even while he's singing about "the faith in his children's eyes", it comes off more as catatonic chant than singing. (Where's Oliver Sacks when we need him?)
Unsurprisingly, it's the songs that are more haunted-by-design that work better. The title track, featuring harmonies by Crosby & Nash, is a dazzlement of fuzzy memories, lunar haloes, dense autumnal fog and softly strummed guitars. And it isn't so much a melody that sticks in your head, but little chilly fragments. The first words he sings - Remember that night? - pose a question that is, at once, so specific and so vague, and Gilmour's delivery of it so inscrutably blank-faced, that it could be a lovely memory he's singing about as easily as it could be a tragic one. Was it a romantic night on an exotic beach, or was it the night Syd finally broke? The lyrics offer few clues, mainly because after awhile you forget to listen to them. (Sure, they're printed in the lavishly designed, but hokey-looking nonetheless, booklet; but that would spoil the mystery now, wouldn't it?) (Or would it?)
There's a similar, though less poignant, ambiguous prettiness to songs like "The Blue", and instrumentals like "Castellorizon" and "Then I Close My Eyes", featuring Robert Wyatt on cornet and typically disembodied, wordless vocals (a subtle reminder that Wyatt was a male Enya long before we were aware of the dangers of Enya-ness falling into the wrong hands). The album's only true rocker is "Take a Breath", whose primary hook is a gimmicky, monotone chant. Like much of the album, it's high on texture - is that a bass harmonica I hear, all over the place? - but a little skimpy on substance. On an Island isn't an outright success, but it gets by handily on sheer prettiness, lush production, and the warm familiarity of Gilmour's voice and guitar. It's just as unlikely to win over new fans as it is to be seen by old fans for what it is: that is a very tired-sounding, but nonetheless vaguely appealing, new age-y nostalgia trip - a trip more herbal than narcotic. You are getting very, very sleepy.
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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"On an Island" by David Gilmour
Columbia Records
Released 3/7/06
Produced by David Gilmour, Phil Manzanera, Chris Thomas
52 min.
SONGS: Castellorizon - On an Island - The Blue - Take a Breath - Red Sky at Night - This Heaven - Then I Close My Eyes - Smile - A Pocketful of Stones - Where We Start
On An Island is the third David Gilmour album and his first studio recording since Pink Floyd s 1994 multi-platinum The Division Bell. From the first ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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