5 Dec 2009 by Chris     No Comments    Posted under: Entertainment

Albums of the Decade: No.16

On An Island by David Gilmour

“Would this do to make it all right?”

The last Pink Floyd album was released in 1994, but such was David Gilmour’s influence on the last two Floyd albums that his 2006 solo offering On An Island might as well have been one too, especially as it fleetingly features keyboard player Rick Wright. It’s a very relaxed affair, with plenty of great guitar solos but nothing which would disturb the neighbours. As a bookend to the Pink Floyd story, it has plenty in common with the early seventies stuff like Meddle, and makes the bombast of the last two or three albums with Roger Waters increasingly seem like a temporary aberration in the band’s history. On his 2006 tour, which was documented with two albums, music from that era blended seamlessly into the new material.

On An Island meanders, to be sure, but in a gentle way like the Cam at Grantchester Meadows. It never gets remotely risky, but neither Gilmour nor his fans would want it to, and in the end, that was all that the critics seemed to be able to level at it. Most just enjoyed it for what it was, a rare outing from a national treasure.

• Albums of the Decade: No.17
• Albums of the Decade: No.18
• Albums of the Decade: No.19
• Albums of the Decade: No.20

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