The album David Gilmour saw as a continuation of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’
At the dashing age of 79, David Gilmour has had a hard time slowing down. His creative output with Pink Floyd can easily match that of his solo endeavours, but his latest album, Luck and Strange, rekindles a spark of nostalgia for his bandmate days.
His first work as a solo artist since Rattle That Lock in 2015 is a deep meditation on the human condition and is nothing short of what Gilmour had already brought into the world. The Floyd alumni was tenacious at keeping himself relevant, with music that batters the consciousness of his listeners with incomparable guitar solos and a spark of optimism that renews itself with the times.
Under the watchful mastery of Charlie Andrew, the producer behind Alt-J’s rise to recognition, Gilmour pushed his work away to new creative places. He got to working differently because of “my acceptance of what [Andrew] was showing me and the direction he was proffering. It all just helped move things in a different direction that felt like a liberation to me.”
Yet to the Cambridge-born guitarist, his 2024 album evokes the same emotions that his best record with Pink Floyd had done: Luck and Strange, he admits, is the best thing he’s done since The Dark Side Of The Moon. “The album feels like a solid body of cohesive work,” he told Classic Rock about his proudest work in 2025.
“It’s the cohesiveness of the whole thing – the writing, the work, the thrill it still gives me to listen to it all the way through as an album.”
It’s easy to understand why he’s so passionate about the album that had the world falling in love with Pink Floyd, but it’s a bold claim to place a very different sound so closely. “There’s a consistency of thought and of feeling that runs through it that excites me in a way that makes me make those sort of comparisons,” he continued. Luck and Strange does have scope, and it’s exciting to see a rock icon of Gilmour’s tenure still be so excited at the thought of new projects.
The magnetic pull of Dark Side of the Moon for artists on the existentialist side is enshrined in Gilmour’s latest work, with a similar focus on life’s big questions and comparable use of atmospheric soundscapes to engulf the listener. Floyd veteran Guy Pratt also accompanies Luck and Strange, stringing his bass along on a venture to drop Easter eggs for Pink Floyd fans throughout the album.
His creative triumph was achieved by shedding the skin of ambition and just allowing himself to find the shifting chords and twisting riffs. Collaborating with his young daughter and son, too, brought a newly personal touch, along with warming lyrics that invite the listener into a more intimate relationship with its performer.
“In past years, there was a lot of thinking about the career and wanting to achieve success. It’s sort of turned into something more calm and less ambitious in my later years,” he told Classic Rock. The gliding strings behind ‘Another Brick In the Wall’ has indeed announced his retirement from large-scale live performances – that is, only after completing his ‘Farewell Tour’ in 2026 at the spanking age of 81.
