David Gilmour has shared The Piper’s Call, the lead single from his upcoming album, Luck and Strange, which is set to be the electric guitar hero's first solo record in nine years.
Luck and Strange was announced yesterday (April 24), with Gilmour revealing he had teamed up with Alt-J producer Charlie Andrew for an LP that promised to push him far outside his comfort zone.
This new approach even saw Andrew encourage a new attitude to arrangement, and question Gilmour whether the humble guitar solo – so often a crux of the Stratocaster master’s compositions – should be given the same prominence.
“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?'” Gilmour explained.
Of course, Luck and Strange was never going to ditch the solo completely, and despite Andrew’s sentiments to shake things up, The Piper’s Call features plenty – and we mean plenty – of tasty lead lines from Gilmour.
In fact, there’s one-and-a-half-minutes of all-out outro soloing, which taps into the guitarist’s varied playing arsenal: there are some swampy double-stops, a healthy dose of pentatonic licks, and a series of hair-rising bends.
He may have wanted to push the boat out on his new record, but for The Piper’s Call, the Pink Floyd legend rolls back the years for what is a rather mighty comeback, putting his storied chops front and center.
There’s nothing too radical about it, which is a good thing for Pink Floyd fans: it’s quintessential Gilmour. That’s not to say the rest of Luck and Strange will follow suit. After all, when recording the album, it sounds like Andrew and Gilmour had fun tearing up the rulebook.
“He has a wonderful lack of knowledge or respect for this past of mine,” Gilmour added of Andrew. “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.”
Luck and Strange will arrive September 6. It was recorded over a five month period with the help of Guy Pratt and Tom Herbert on bass; Roger Eno and Rob Gentry on keys; and Adam Betts, Steve Gadd and Steve DiStanislao on drums. Will Gardner provided string and choral arrangements.
It will also feature the contributions of late Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright, who recorded his parts on the title track back in 2007 while jamming with Gilmour.
The full tracklisting can be found below:
- Black Cat
- Luck and Strange
- The Piper’s Call
- A Single Spark
- Vita Brevis
- Between Two Points - with Romany Gilmour
- Dark and Velvet Nights
- Sings
- Scattered
- Luck and Strange is available to preorder now ahead of its September 6 release.
