David Gilmour solo albums: the essential guide

David Gilmour (Harvest, 1978)

Gilmour’s self-titled debut solo album is the one that finds most favour with Floyd fans, largely because it’s probably the one, along with 2006’s On An Island, that reminds them most of Pink Floyd. The album was recorded in the lull following the band’s In The Flesh tour in the same French studio – Super Bear in Nice – where his great Floyd mate Richard Wright recorded his debut solo Wet Dream.

With members of Gilmour’s pre-Floyd band Joker’s Wild, Rick Wills (bass) and Willie Wilson (drums) on board, one track that didn’t make the final cut ended up as Comfortably Numb, while Short And Sweet, written with Roy Harper, has strong echoes of Run Like Hell.

About Face (Harvest, 1983)

With Pink Floyd’s future looking decidedly grim, Gilmour took the opportunity to make what he said would be "a really good album" and "get the best musicians in the world that I could get hold of to play with me." To that end, he enlisted the likes of Jon Lord, Jeff Porcaro, Pino Palladinio, Steve Winwood and Anne Dudley, and wrote with Pete Townshend and Roy Harper.

About Face is a great album, although it suffers from an 80s production sound that dates it severely. Poppy in places yet featuring some of Gilmour’s heaviest guitar work, the pointed You Know I’m Right, with its opening line, "You can scream and shout with all your might", was a direct dig at you know who.

On An Island, (EMI 2006)

Having fronted Pink Floyd from 1984 through to their 2005 Live 8 performance, Gilmour released his third solo album, On An Island, the following year, stating that Floyd had run its course. It was a mere 22 years since About Face and 12 since Floyd’s The Division Bell.

The album continued Gilmour’s tradition of opening the post-Waters Floyd albums with a guitar-led piece, a quirk he has continued in his solo work. In this case, it was Castellorization, leading into the gentle drift of the title track, which set a template not just for the album but also for his subsequent releases. Hitting stores on his 60th birthday, it gave Gilmour his first No. 1 album in the UK.

Rattle That Lock (Columbia, 2015)

Working with his good friend and Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, who co-produced with Gilmour and plays Hammond organ and acoustic guitar, Rattle That Lock opened with the dazzling instrumental 5 A.M, which still opens his live show.

Rattle That Lock is more varied than its predecessor. The Boat Lies Waiting is an emotive tribute to the late Richard Wright, and the excellent In Any Tongue – featuring Gilmour’s son Gabriel making his debut on piano – is a strident anti-war message that was a highlight of his 2024 tour. The title track is built around the four-note jingle played before passenger announcements by France's SNCF railway company, while the smoky jazz sentiments of The Girl In The Yellow Dress were possibly a bit too much for some Floyd purists.

Luck And Strange (Sony, 2024)

Nine years after his previous solo album, Gilmour’s fifth gave him a deserved third number-one album in a row. It was, bassist Guy Pratt aside, a case of out with the old as in came young producer Charlie Andrew – best known for his work with experimentally minded indie trio Alt-J – and a new cast of backing musicians.

A reinvigorated Gilmour delivered a strong set of new material, bolstered by a quite wonderful cover of Manchester dream pop duo The Montgolfier Brothers’ Between Two Points, on which Gilmour’s harp-playing daughter Romany took lead vocal. The late Richard Wright’s keyboard playing (recorded in 2007) graced the title track, while Dark And Velvet Nights showed that Gilmour could still rock out when he wanted. Overall, Luck And Strange is the sound of a man growing into the autumn of his years with grace.