1984keepers 1
keeper avg. 100
Gilmour's second solo album presents more in the way of fleshed-out songs than his first, which relied on several instrumentals and several musical bits that are shared with songs he wrote for Pink Floyd. This time heavy-handed hard rock 80's production takes the place of sonic similarities with his other band, starting with the pounding album opener "Until We Sleep." The delayed, phased guitar and scatting horn section in "Blue Light" could be part of the appropriate backing for any aging male solo artist in the 80's (Clapton, Collins, Townshend), and "All Lovers Are Deranged", one of two tracks with lyrics penned by Pete Townshend (I knew the very mention of love is a little too direct to have been made by Gilmour), sounds like it may as well be Bryan Adams. The mellower songs do sound less dated but also less interesting; "Murder" sounds kinda cool until I noticed that the main hook of the song is a just couple emphasized tinks on the ride cymbal in the chorus (which Gilmour probably didn't have anything to do with). "You Know I'm Right," one of the few interesting tracks on the album, is an arpeggio-heavy mid-tempo rocker that breaks down to a dramatic/ bombastic version of a similar part in Todd Rundgren's "Can We Still Be Friends." The drippy "Love Is In The Air, the second song with Townshend's lyrics, and lightweight "Cruise", which annoyingly has the same melody from the opening guitar line throughout most of the song, and some unnecessary white reggae (being no reggae expert I couldn't say if it's bad or not), sit at the bottom of the barrel. The slow, predictable "Out Of The Blue" sounds like Wall outtake, and the most Floyd moment comes in the coda (and bridge) of "Near The End"****, the last song, as float-y and melancholy descending chords wind the album down to its conclusion, with a Gilmour solo that subtly morphs from acoustic to electric.
Comments