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Whilst checking out some Pink Floyd, I came upon this great old David Gilmour album. It is a GREAT LP. Highly recommended! It is just as good as most Floyd...
To put it real simply, Pink Floyd were having major issues in the mid-'80s. Roger Waters pretty much wanted Pink Floyd to himself, as 1983's "The Final Cut" shows. Seemingly fed up with Floyd, and with a reservoir of unused compositions built up, David Gilmour brought back Bob Ezrin as co-producer, recruited a whole bunch of extremely talented players (Pino Palladino, Jeff Porcaro, and Steve Winwood, to name a few), and went about making his second solo album, "About Face", originally released in March of 1984.
"About Face" is an interesting title for the album. It could be taken as a sly jab of sorts at Waters. It could also be applied somewhat to the music... Granted, you really can't expect to completely take the Floyd out of Gilmour's sound, but it's not like fans would desire that of him anyway. However, the album finds Gilmour in control and doing things his way--Pete Townshend wrote the lyrics for two of the songs ("Love On The Air" & "All Lovers Are Deranged"), but otherwise, Gilmour wrote all of the tracks on the album himself--and David does have quite a few surprises up his sleeve here.
One thing that's pretty revelatory is to discover that Gilmour could deliver such an incredibly funky, uptempo pop-rocker with "Blue Light". Using his patented guitar echo, Gilmour bases this song around a mind-blowingly infectious guitar riff, and the song is an absolute blast, with additional thanks to the punchy horn arrangement. Also notice his very humourous, albeit slightly self-righteous spoken voiceover toward the end of the song. Granted, you could argue that precedence was set by some of the stuff on "The Wall", but still, it's pretty hard to imagine hearing something like "Blue Light" cropping up on a Pink Floyd record.
Another striking element is that on a couple tracks, Gilmour sounds uncannily like Leonard Cohen, both in terms of the guitar-style and with the stately lead vocals. There's "Cruise", which is breezy and splendidly tuneful; and "Near The End", which is a hauntingly beautiful album-closing ballad, with acoustic guitar soloing neatly giving way to a soaring electric toward the end.
And there's more great stuff. The album-opening harmony-fest "Until We Sleep" is surprisingly reminiscent of psychedelic-era Beatles--a very catchy song that grooves along irresistibly. The roaring "All Lovers Are Deranged" is a brilliant, cathartic mid-tempo rocker with gloriously from-the-gut vocals from David on the chorus. "Murder" is an explosive 'power ballad' of sorts that starts off in Dylan-esque acoustic mode and features sumptuously melodic fretless bass guitar work. The contemplative orchestrated ballad "You Know I'm Right" is also excellent, with a rhythmically deceptive first verse, and a simple arpegiatted guitar part that recalls "Raise My Rent" from David's first solo album.
Others have complained about Gilmour's lyrics, saying things like "he's no Roger Waters" or that "writing lyrics isn't his forte". Granted, he didn't exactly make "About Face" an elaborate concept album, but regardless of this, his lyrics here are uniformly excellent--poetic and eloquently-written--and his precise renderings make the most of them.
One minor gripe is that Gilmour does have a bit of a tendency to get carried away with his wailing, effect-laden electric guitar work. Don't get me wrong, I realize it's a trademark of his, and on songs like "All Lovers Are Deranged", it simply rocks. Sometimes though, it does feels out of place in the context of the particular track--the most glaring example of this is on the instrumental "Let's Get Metaphysical" which has Gilmour wailing away backed by a full orchestra, and in this case, it's just not an appealing combination.
Overall though, this album is an excellent "About Face" for David Gilmour, and I think it's worth a try even if you're NOT a huge Pink Floyd fan. "About Face" is a must-have album for any serious listener.
(P.S. Listening to this CD version of the album, I notice a surprising amount of 'drop outs' on several of the songs which can be somewhat distracting, and it makes me wonder about the source that was used for this CD transfer. That said, this album could really use a nice remastering job.)
David Gilmour's "About Face" is a glimpse of what the "Final Cut" could have been, had only David Gilmour some input on the final product. This was released at about the same time as Roger Waters' solo album "The Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking", and I find the Gilmour solo project more listenable. Song highlights on "About Face" include "All Lovers Are Deranged", "Murder", "Blue Light" (even though some Floyd fans seem to hate this one), and "Until We Sleep". I only wish that Waters & Gilmour had been able to pool their creative resources together during this time, as the 1970's Floyd material proved superior in my opinion when the band collaborated. Alas, it was not to be. Although the Pink Floyd reincarnation of the late 80's and 90's was decent, one only wonders what could have happened. I still like this album, although it is a bit dated - but that doesn't mean it's bad.
Great guitar work with more of the tone, effects and style of playing more familiar in the Pink Floyd recordings (Dark Side and later). I listen to this more than his first solo recording of 1978. Opening cut "Until We Sleep" opens with thunderous drum beat and Jan Hammerish vibrato rhythm. Growling guitar interspersed throughout. The bridge is hit with those flanged chimey chords so familiar to us from The Wall. "Murder" starts out as a nice acoustic/vocal piece with instrumentation provided by a synthesized bass. It ramps up to full volume with organ kicking in with some nice electric guitar work following. "Love on the Air" is based on a fanfare riff and is supported by some nice background vocals. This song would be most likely be the one selected for airplay in the old radio days. Echoplex mania and horns are the dominant theme of "Blue Light" This is what it would sound like if Pink Floyd collided with Gloria Estefan's Sound Machine in the Hadron Collider. Pretty cool! Sounds like it was finished off with David's old Tele. When you need a fix of maudlin "Out Of The Blue" fits the bill with reflection on the ravages of time and how oftentimes our lives comes to an unexpected end. Mint anyone? When you want to make a highway driving compilation where you can sing a the top of your lungs while pounding on the steering wheel you MUST include "All Lovers Are Deranged" Just don't swerve along with the whammy divebomb ending which concludes with the sounds of crash much more than just a Fender bender. "You Know I'm Right" starts with an enticing "Little Black Egg" guitar intro which quickly gets heavy. Vocals go from high to falsetto in the chorus. Easy listening with horn interlude and some great outro guitar work that will have you thinking "Division Bell". "Cruise" is my least favorite song on the album with a nursery rhyme-like quality I would expect to be featured in a chocolate milk television commercial. And with a Reggae interlude to boot! OK then - make it a goat's milk commercial. The most pure Pink Floyd sounding song is unquestionably the instrumental "Let's Get Metaphysical". Exquisite guitar work. The album concludes with "Near The End", a fitting conclusion to a great album with nice background vocals and David's stellar acoustic and electric guitar work.
I've been a huge Pink Floyd fan for years and love Gilmour's voice. The first 7 songs are really good with a couple that are great. Favorite on this CD is Murder. Great addition to my music collection.
Very pleased but not surprised that this another great David Gilmour CD! To think I was 16 at the time this was released, and I hardly knew it! (I was a Beatlemaniac teenager, but, David's "Blue Light" was always on Mtv, so I must have known about it!). I am kind of new to David Gilmour and Pink Floyd. I have always love classic rock however, and it's been great to hear something from David from this era. About face has really great songs, and my current fave is Near the End.
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