David Gilmour – ‘On An Island’ (EMI) Released 06/03/06

Claiming ‘On An Island’ as his best work yet, it's clear that Gilmour is sprinkling LSD on his cornflakes again. How he can claim that this grandiose pile of crap is better than anything that Floyd came up with is beyond insanity. Let’s face it though, to sit here and slate the legend would be blasphemy in its most pure of sense, but to go out and buy ‘On An Island’ would be a waste of ten quid if you are looking for another ‘Division Bell’ surprise comeback theme, let alone think that it would even stand close to the likes of ‘Animals’, ‘Meddle’ or even ‘Dark Side…’.

Oh no this is not even reminiscent of Floyd or even any of the good parts of Gilmour’s other solo efforts. This is Gilmour stepping away from his past and becoming what all aging rock stars and fans of those stars fear…self reflective. ‘On An Island’ is a completely self indulgent album that borderlines on selfish, as every song just kind of moulds into one another as they are constantly samey with Gilmour soloing for ages, so much that any kind of special moments are forgotten as soon as boredom sets in (which doesn’t take long). For those who love artists like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, this album is going to appeal to you as terrible lyrics and overly drawn out guitar solo’s smother this album. None of his usually exceptional guitar work complements any of his songs, and it feels as if they are just there for the sake of being there. One would have to come to the conclusion that Gilmour suspects he has something to prove on this record, as these uncharacteristic boring riffs and licks are crammed in anytime he isn’t singing and detract from any song structure and numb any effort that he has made to try and make these songs just that…songs.

The man can play better than most people on the face of the planet, but he doesn’t need to hammer it home so much. Trying to show diversity by attacking many different types of genres all at once probably sounded like a good idea at the time as he takes on jazz, folk, blues, rock and even orchestral, but it just doesn’t work, as once again everything sounds samey and tired. Even his debut on the saxophone during ‘Red Sky At Night’ just drags, giving off no atmosphere whatsoever and bordering on b-movie soundtrack music. Promising tracks like the bluesy ‘This Heaven’ and the Kashmir rip off ‘Take A Breath’ show a flutter of finesse and even opening instrumental track ‘Castellorizon’ has it’s moments but it is sad to say that not even these can save this over indulgent and weary album. Oh how the mighty have fallen.