David Gilmour - On An Island

[Keith Jordan]

This thread is to discuss David Gilmour's On An Island and is linked to from the Pink Floyd Discography section.

Feel free to discuss the album!



01. Castellorizion
02. On An Island
03. The Blue
04. Take A Breath
05. Red Sky At Night
06. This Heaven
07. Then I Close My Eyes
08. Smile
09. A Pocket Full of Stones
10. Where We Start

[Yucateco]

well that album... ... .... ... .... sorry, fell asleep for a moment while thinking about it.... the title track is ok. The rest makes me really tired everytime and then i dream of elevators. But hey it gave him a reasaon to tour and play Echoes live again, so i can´t rate i too bad. And you can buy about 25 different versions of it, so he makes money, i guess that is good... somehow.

[Keith Jordan]

I think it is a great album, but not one for a Saturday Night before going out! Did you get to see/hear it played live? It was brilliant at Manchester, England.

[Yucateco]

yes i saw it live in Munich at Königsplatz (Richards Birthday with the crowd singing for him ). While it was better/more energetic than the studio album, i was still happy when the first half of the concert was over.

[moom]

Imho, it's quite a good album. 4 stars will do. But not 5, because at times it gets a wee bit boring.

[thehumanzoo]

Whilst I would fall short of calling it a bad album, it is undisputably tedious and dull in far too many places for me to call it good. This is not a criticism of the album, but the phrase "self-indulgent" does come to mind. However, it did start an excellent tour. I would definitely recommend the live albums to anybody, because I would not want to listen this on its own without the 2006 Echoes, Fat Old Sun, Astronomy Domine and High Hopes to look forward to.

[Twid]

I do like it better live, but the studio album is a bit ...... mellow

[Real Pink in the Inside]

Remember the scene in This is Spinal Tap where Marty DiBergi said, "The review for Shark Sandwich was merely a two word review which simply read Shit Sandwich"?

Well, somebody should have done a review of On an Island that was merely a three word review which simply read On an Elevator. At least Gilmour played some great tracks on its supporting tour...

[moom]

Remember the scene in This is Spinal Tap where Marty DiBergi said, "The review for Shark Sandwich was merely a two word review which simply read Shit Sandwich"?

Sorry for an offtopic, but is Shark sandwich a reference to Black Sab's Rat Salad ?

[Real Pink in the Inside]

Remember the scene in This is Spinal Tap where Marty DiBergi said, "The review for Shark Sandwich was merely a two word review which simply read Shit Sandwich"?

Sorry for an offtopic, but is Shark sandwich a reference to Black Sab's Rat Salad ?

It's possible, but only the scriptwriter knows for sure...

[snifferdog]

It's not awful by any means but it's too one-paced for my liking. It sounded better live - that seemed to put a bit of fire into proceedings. If he'd mixed it up a bit and put in some faster songs, it might stand up better to repeated listening. That might be why Take A Breath became so popular live. To my ears, it's a mediocre rocker but if you're sitting through the album in a concert hall and starting to nod off, this would have come as a welcome reprieve. A bit like when you're sitting through a boring meeting and next thing you hear the welcome sound of the tea ladies bringing in the hot beverages

[Damn!t]

Saw him play it in Milan.

This album is one big Gilmour ode to his now wonderful wife and other dear people who surround him.
He felt more assured in his abilities to do something on his own, without wanting to know what would
Floyd/his fans want to hear. A sort of family album, at least thats how I see it....life is slowly but surely coming to an end
and I'll bloody well do what I want to do, not what others want me to do like it happend many times before.
And I want to be mellow and sentimental and just play my lovely guitars.
While the album sounds a bit sleepy to a average Floyd fan (including me), I cant really blame him for doing that.

If you think that it's crap, you dont have to listen to it, I did this for myself.
The man proved with his previous hard work that it is maybee a time for a gentle, family lullaby in the end.

[snifferdog]

Interesting take, though I do hope it's not the last album he ever makes

[Eclipse]

I like dreamy music, but it needs to have some monsters once a while too, to avoid making me go to sleep. It has a terrible song: Take a Breath. Besides that, it is a good album, but his debut remains my favorite.

[PublicImage]

Imho, it's quite a good album. 4 stars will do. But not 5, because at times it gets a wee bit boring.

"Quite good" does not equate four stars!

I'd give it two, personally. Not dreadful, and better than OBC, but far from great.