The perfect desert island disc (On An Island - David Gilmour)

Member Name: Lakerfanster

Product:	On An Island - David Gilmour
Date:	20/07/09 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gorgeous guitar, instrumentation

Disadvantages: None

**Introduction**

Following on from my brief detour due to an unforeseen fart related incident I will now carry on with my planned music reviews and here is the one Which I was due to review. David Gilmour's On An Island. Let me start by saying that I am a massive Pink Floyd fan so I could either write a review giving this album high praise for being as good as the best Pink Floyd material or I could say what is David Gilmour doing?? this will tarnish his legacy. So which one is it I hear you type. well read on and you will find out just what I think of this album.

**On An Island**

Remarkably only his third solo album, On An Island was released on his 60th Birthday on 6th March 2006. Much of the album was recorded in Gilmour's private studio aboard his houseboat Astoria which is on a part of the River Thames near Hampton Court. There are some very notable musicians on this album including Jools Holland and former Pink Floyd band mate Richard Wright. Providing vocals on the album are Robert Wyatt, And of course David Crosby and Graham Nash. And finally Orchestrations on the album were arranged by noted Polish film composer Zbigniew Preisner and conducted by Robert Ziegler

1.) Castellorizon
2.) On An Island
3.) The Blue
4.) Take A Breath
5.) Red Sky At Night
6.) This Heaven
7.) Then I close my eyes
8.) Smile
9.) A Pocketful of Stones
10.) Where We Start

**My View**

Opening things is the track Castellorizon, It opens with some lovely orchestral sounds which bring in the track very well. It moves on and results in a great opener. Next up we have the title track and this is a fantastic track which opens well and then improves throughout until you get some really quite brilliant guitar work from David Gilmour. This track has a superb flow which really shows you how to build up to the guitar solo. There really are some dreamy moments here courtesy of Gilmour's guitar work. Crosby and Nash also add a nice touch with their backing vocals.

Track 3 now and "The Blue" comes in with a gentle guitar and drum part which is soon joined by Gilmour's relaxed vocals. This follows the same direction as On An Island with a great build up to the climactic guitar work towards the end of this track. You will know when the guitar solo is about to come in as the mood of the music changes, Close your eyes and sit back and be amazed by the beauty of the guitar work. Just brilliant. Now onto track four and we have "Take A breath". This is a catchy track which has the feel of later Pink Floyd from "The Wall" onwards. It's a very good track but as it does not have the feel of the rest of the album it may be missed out.

"Red Sky at night" is next up and this is the biggest example of the overall musical talent of David Gilmour as he plays a lovely Saxaphone part to open this short track. This is a very good little ditty. Next up we have "This Heaven" This is a very flowing track which has the oldest feel of any of the tracks on the album. This shows the versatility of David Gilmour as the style is very different to his stuff with Pink Floyd and on this album too.

Then I close my eyes is up now and this is has a different feel thanks to the opening which is led by David Gilmour on a cümbüş which is a Turkish instrument which is much like a Banjo. This track then develops well and results in another very fine track. Now we come to Smile and this is a very good track indeed. This has a stripped down Beatles feel to it with David Gilmour's vocals sounding like Paul McCartney if the former Beatle could sing.
This blends into the two closing tracks on the album.

We end the album with two tracks which are both exceptionally good. First up is track nine "A Pocketful of stones" This opens like On An Island but has a lighter guitar tone which sounds really beautiful and the vocal from Gilmour proves he can still sing. This is another track that has such an amazing build up to the exceptional guitar work that it's almost dreamy. As Gilmour's guitar gets more to the fore the beautiful orchestral backing blends extremely well and gives the guitar an amazing platform. We close with "Where we start" which as a closer is about as good as you are likely to get. This is just a superb closer to what has been a beautiful, remarkable album.

**Overall**

This is a really beautiful album. this not only shows David Gilmour's capability on the guitar but also as a multi instrumentalist and a composer. There are probably four remarkable tracks on this album that stand up to anything he did with Pink Floyd. His guitar playing is as good as ever and his voice still holds up the majority of the time. If you like Pink Floyd and have yet to buy this then you really need to. This is a remarkably beautiful album it really is. Don't just take my word for it, go and listen for yourself.

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