By Josephine Lisa Buckley

It finally happened. After three years of “I’m totally making another album, trust me guys!” David Gilmour has finally announced his fifth solo album, Luck and Strange. And today (as I’m writing this, April 25, 2024) he has just released the album’s lead single, The Piper’s Call. And today, I will also be giving my thoughts on the new single, his first in four years. Luck and Strange will also be his first album in nine years, after 2015’s Rattle That Lock.

Readers of my blog will know that I’m not really a fan of David Gilmour’s solo music. I’m more of a Roger Waters fan, and more of a fan of Gilmour’s work with Pink Floyd. However, I will be trying to listen to this song with an open mind.

This isn’t related to the single itself, but holy Christ this album cover looks appalling. Seriously, whoever signed off on the cover really needs to be fired.

First Impressions

I listened to this song maybe five or six times in preparation for writing this post, so that I could properly digest it and its qualities. My first impressions will be detailed below.

The song begins with an overall pleasant sounding ukulele introduction, one that sets the mood for the rest of the song. One thing I can say about Gilmour’s modern solo work is that it’s very peaceful and relaxed, with sparse instrumentation. This song is no exception. The only instruments I can identify are the ukulele, Gilmour’s vocals, the backing singers, his guitar, the bass, the drums, and what sounds like a pedal steel or slide guitar.

Gilmour’s voice is noticeably withered, though this is to be expected from a 78 year old man who had a nasty smoking habit in his 20s. However, his singing ability itself is not diminished at all. He was never the greatest singer, but his voice fits his material like a glove.

The lyrics are not bad, a rarity for Polly Samson (Gilmour’s wife.) The meaning has yet to be revealed, but I immediately assumed upon hearing the title that it would be a song about Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd’s early frontman, Gilmour’s classmate, and the brains behind Pink Floyd’s debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I seem to have been correct judging by the lyrics. The song isn’t very lyric-heavy either way, instead choosing to focus on the music itself. This is the way I prefer Gilmour’s music, he was always a superior musician compared to a singer-songwriter anyway.

The main takeaway from this song for me is its ending guitar solo. Guitar solos are one thing that Gilmour never skimps on, and this one lasts a fifth of the entire song. I don’t really have much to say about it that I wouldn’t also say about any other Gilmour guitar solo, but it really is incredible.

Conclusion

Overall, The Piper’s Call is a strong song. I prefer it to pretty much every song from Gilmour’s previous effort, Rattle That Lock, except maybe Faces of Stone. It’s a simple, peaceful track that concludes with yet another of Gilmour’s signature slow, moody guitar solos.

I’m looking forward to the new album, which will be releasing on September 6, 2024 (Roger Waters’s 81st birthday. Coincidence?) My gut feeling is that it will most likely be Gilmour’s last solo album. The man is 78 years old, averages less than one album per decade, and the entire effort just screams “last album.” The callback to Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the fact one track will apparently feature late Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright via archive footage… All this to say, odds are this will be the last time we get to experience a new solo album from David Gilmour (I’m somewhat confident that Waters will make at least one more, so I hesitate to say “last time we’ll experience a new Pink Floyd solo album”) so I’m going to enjoy it while I can.

My final rating for The Piper’s Call is 8/10. A great late-career effort that outdoes Gilmour’s previous solo album.

As always, I hope you enjoyed reading. If you would like to send me feedback on my blog, please see this page for information on how to do so. I appreciate all feedback, even if it’s just to tell me that I’m clearly a moron for preferring Roger Waters’s solo albums.