Nearly a decade since the release of his last solo album, David Gilmour will return with a new full-length, Luck and Strange, this fall. The former Pink Floyd singer and guitarist will release the record’s first single, “The Piper’s Call,” on the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Thursday; a music video will follow on Friday. The album will arrive on Sept. 6.
Gilmour recorded and co-produced the album, which follows 2015’s Rattle That Lock, over five months in Brighton, England, and London with producer Charlie Andrew, whose credits include releases by Alt-J, Marika Hackman, and Wolf Alice. It contains eight new original songs and a cover of the Montgolfier Brothers’ song from 1999, “Between Two Points.”
The majority of the album’s lyrics are by Gilmour’s wife and longtime collaborator, author Polly Samson, who said in a statement that she appreciated Andrew wanting to know what the songs were about and relaying the messages to the musicians who played on the album.
“It’s written from the point of view of being older; mortality is the constant,” Samson said.
“We spent a load of time during and after lockdown talking about and thinking about those kind of things,” Gilmour said.
Gilmour said he found Andrew’s approach both startling and refreshing. “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 said. “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.”
The Gilmours’ son, Charlie, contributed to the lyrics of “Scattered,” and their daughter, Romany, plays harp and sings lead vocals on “Between Two Points.” Their son, Gabriel Gilmour, also contributes backing vocals. The family contributions on the album stemmed from livestreams the Gilmours made during Covid-19 lockdowns, which they billed as the Von Trapped Family.
“Polly and I have been writing together for over 30 years and the Von Trapped live streams showed the great blend of Romany’s voice and harp-playing and that led us into a feeling of discarding some of the past that I’d felt bound to and that I could throw those rules out and do whatever I felt like doing, and that has been such a joy,” Gilmour said.
Anton Corbijn*
The backing band includes bassist Guy Pratt, who played on Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell and Gilmour’s recent solo releases. Other musicians who contributed to Luck and Strange include bassist Tom Herbert, drummers Adam Betts, Steve Gadd and Steve DiStanislao, and keyboardists Rob Gentry and Roger Eno.
Keyboards recorded by Pink Floyd’s Richard Wright, who died in 2008, feature on the title track; he and Gilmour recorded them during a barn jam at Gilmour’s house in 2007.
The album, which features photography and design by Anton Corbijn, will be available in a variety of formats including digitally and on vinyl, CD, and Blu-ray. The latter two releases feature the bonus tracks “Yes, I Have Ghosts” and the original barn jam of “Luck and Strange.” The Blu-ray, which is audio only, adds orchestral versions of “A Single Spark” and “Scattered”; it also presents the album in high-res stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes.
In 2022, Gilmour reunited with Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason and Pratt to record a new Pink Floyd song, “Hey Hey Rise Up,” which featured vocals by Ukrainian singer-turned-soldier Andriy Khlyvnyuk. The song raised money to benefit charities that helped Ukrainians after the outbreak of Russia’s invasion.
In an interview with Rolling Stone a year earlier, Gilmour and Samson said they’d just begun formulating ideas for a new album. “There’s a number of things that come from before this whole period, from before my last album, which are the things that I’m playing with to some extent, as well as some new music, too, to get myself back into the mood for work,” he said.
Luck and Strange track list:
1. “Black Cat”
2. “Luck and Strange”
3. “The Piper’s Call”
4. “A Single Spark”
5. “Vita Brevis”
6. “Between Two Points”
7. “Dark and Velvet Nights”
8. “Sings”
9. “Scattered”
Bonus tracks:
10. “Yes, I Have Ghosts”
11. “Luck and Strange (Original Barn Jam)”
