David Pratt

Former Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is not prolific. Rattle That Lock is only his fourth solo studio album (though it follows his late band's final album, The Endless River, by only ten months). Gilmour recorded some 35 songs for this set, some dating back 18 years. Trimming them to ten couldn't have been easy. Titled for John Milton's second book in Paradise Lost, Rattle That Lock is structured as an informal song cycle to reflect the sometimes random, sometimes weightier thought processes of a typical person in a single day. It begins, appropriately, with the instrumental "5 A.M.." Orchestrated by Zbigniew Preisner, Gilmour's signature slow, bluesy, Stratocaster sting enters just 30 seconds in, followed by fingerpicked acoustic guitars, gentle synths, and electric piano amid chamber strings to announce the title-track single.

Luck and Strange is David Gilmour's fifth solo record and only his third of the 21st century. The Pink Floyd guitarist clearly understands his life's privilege; he has made some of rock's most memorable music, toured its biggest stages, and been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He could easily coast along for the duration of his career. Instead, he has continued to tour, collaborated widely, advocated for numerous just causes, and donated the money from selling his home and guitars to charity. If he wants to make just one album per decade, he's earned the right. Appearing nine years after 2015's Rattle That Lock, Luck and Strange brings together a supporting cast that's both fresh and familiar, and also familial.

Former Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is not prolific. Rattle That Lock is only his fourth solo studio album (though it follows his late band's final album, The Endless River, by only ten months). Gilmour recorded some 35 songs for this set, some dating back 18 years. Trimming them to ten couldn't have been easy. Titled for John Milton's second book in Paradise Lost, Rattle That Lock is structured as an informal song cycle to reflect the sometimes random, sometimes weightier thought processes of a typical person in a single day…

Luck and Strange is David Gilmour's fifth solo record and only his third of the 21st century. The Pink Floyd guitarist clearly understands his life's privilege; he has made some of rock's most memorable music, toured its biggest stages, and been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He could easily coast along for the duration of his career. Instead, he has continued to tour, collaborated widely, advocated for numerous just causes, and donated the money from selling his home and guitars to charity. If he wants to make just one album per decade, he's earned the right. Appearing nine years after 2015's Rattle That Lock, Luck and Strange brings together a supporting cast that's both fresh and familiar, and also familial.

Luck and Strange is David Gilmour's fifth solo record and only his third of the 21st century. The Pink Floyd guitarist clearly understands his life's privilege; he has made some of rock's most memorable music, toured its biggest stages, and been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He could easily coast along for the duration of his career. Instead, he has continued to tour, collaborated widely, advocated for numerous just causes, and donated the money from selling his home and guitars to charity. If he wants to make just one album per decade, he's earned the right. Appearing nine years after 2015's Rattle That Lock, Luck and Strange brings together a supporting cast that's both fresh and familiar, and also familial.

David Gilmour's two concerts assembled for Live at Pompeii mark the first time that the amphitheater has hosted a rock gig since Pink Floyd played there in 1971. They didn't play for an audience, however, they were filmed for Adrian Maben's documentary Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii. Gilmour's gigs – some 45 years after Floyd – bests their gig historically: It hosted a paying audience assembled from all over the globe, and it was the first time an audience had occupied the site since 79 AD. This double-disc set is the movie's soundtrack. Pompeii was just one of the historic sites Gilmour played on the tour, others included amphitheaters in Verona and Nîmes, Circus Maximus in Rome, a chateau in Chantilly, and five nights at London's Royal Albert Hall, none of which held quite the weight of history like this one.

Former Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is not prolific. Rattle That Lock is only his fourth solo studio album (though it follows his late band's final album, The Endless River, by only ten months). Gilmour recorded some 35 songs for this set, some dating back 18 years. Trimming them to ten couldn't have been easy. Titled for John Milton's second book in Paradise Lost, Rattle That Lock is structured as an informal song cycle to reflect the sometimes random, sometimes weightier thought processes of a typical person in a single day. It begins, appropriately, with the instrumental "5 A.M.." Orchestrated by Zbigniew Preisner, Gilmour's signature slow, bluesy, Stratocaster sting enters just 30 seconds in, followed by fingerpicked acoustic guitars, gentle synths, and electric piano amid chamber strings to announce the title-track single.

David Gilmour's Live in Gdansk was recorded and filmed in 2006 at the Polish city's shipyards, the very same historic location where Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement began its populist assault on the country's repressive Soviet-installed regime in 1980. By all accounts of the time it was a truly awesome multimedia spectacle. But there are strange and sad ironies that accompany this release as well. For starters, it was released in the U.K. exactly a week after the death of Richard Wright, Gilmour's longtime bandmate in Pink Floyd, and his keyboardist here. Secondly, it appears during a period of increased tension between Russia and the United States over the latter's proposed missile defense system to be placed in Poland (by the U.S.) and the country's membership in NATO…