David Gilmour

David Gilmour’s fluid guitar style defined Pink Floyd throughout the 1970s and this first solo album, released in 1978, features many of the Floyd’s instrumental trademarks in its dreamy yet passionate soundscapes. Pink Floyd were heading further into epic territory at this point with the extended workouts of <i>Wish You Were Here</i> and <i>Animals</i>. <i>David Gilmour</i> never strays far from the basic Floyd schematic and is actually far easier to digest, as the songs average around the five to six minute mark. Much of the material here, recorded with bassist Rick Willis and drummer Willie Wilson, could easily fit on a proper Pink Floyd album, as the unhurried pace of the opening instrumental, “Mihalis,” and the gentle, melancholic organ-guitar strain of “There’s No Way Out of Here,” “Cry From the Street” and “So Far Away” immediately suggest. Gilmour’s lyrics are never as pointed or deliberate as his Floyd teammate Roger Waters, though the album’s closer, ‘I Can’t Breathe Anymore,” does an admirable job of capturing the alienated weight of the group’s best work.