It’ll mark the first original material David Gilmour has released since 2015’s Rattle That Lock, so anticipation is understandably high.
Luck And Strange will also be the former Pink Floyd guitarist’s fifth solo studio album, his first being his 1978 eponymous debut effort outside of the legendary progressive rock band.
Safe to say that Gilmour – especially considering his work alongside Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright – has helped create some of rock music’s most ambitious and timeless compositions.
None greater could be said, than Pink Floyd’s lauded concept album, The Dark Side Of The Moon, which raised the bar for what artists could conceive in the studio and later on the stage.
Now in a recent interview with Prog magazine, Gilmour has claimed Luck And Strange is “the best album I’ve made” since Pink Floyd’s landmark 1973 album.
Talking about his forthcoming record, Gilmour stated: “It’s over fifty years now since The Dark Side Of The Moon.”
“My feeling is that this album is the best album I’ve made in all those years since 1973 when The Dark Side Of The Moon came out.”
That’s certainly no faint praise, given that Pink Floyd released some of their finest work after that album such as 1975’s ruminative masterpiece Wish You Were Here, 1977’s Orwellian-inspired Animals, and the dramatic rock opera The Wall in 1979.
If his fans weren’t eagerly awaiting new music from Gilmour, they certainly would be now.
Though as he revealed during the same interview, it might not be much longer before he releases a follow-up to Luck And Strange.
“Our plan is just to get this one out and run it and then do another one straight away. I will be working with all these people again,” he added.
It seems that the new collaborative process Gilmour has been experimenting with throughout his new album has revitalised his enthusiasm for music-making too.
Along with some contributions from his late former Pink Floyd bandmate Richard Wright – re-using recordings from 2007 – Luck And Strange was made in collaboration with his family, his wife Polly Samson, and producers David and Charlie Andrew.
“We invited Charlie to the house, so he came and listened to some demos, and said things like, ‘Well, why does there have to be a guitar solo there?’ and ‘Do they all fade out? Can’t some of them just end?’.”
“He has a wonderful lack of knowledge or respect for this past of mine. He’s very direct and not in any way overawed, and I love that. That is just so good for me because the last thing you want is people just deferring to you,” he explained.
Luck And Strange was recorded over the course of five months in Brighton and London, with Sampson documenting the process on her personal Instagram.
The album will consist of eight brand new tracks – including the single ‘The Piper’s Call’ – as well as a reworking of The Montgolfier Brothers’ 1999 track ‘Between Two Points’ with his daughter Romany Gilmour.
