RATTLE THAT LOCK

"Rattle That Lock" is David Gilmour's first solo studio album since 2006 and it came out less than a year after his Pink Floyd's "The Endless River". It features ten relatively short elegiac songs, half of them co-written with Gilmour's wife, the novelist Polly Samson. The major lyrical theme of "Rattle That Lock", which is titled for John Milton's second book in Paradise Lost, is "a day in the life" - the authors reflect on time passing and the urgency to live what's left to the fullest. As the primary architect of Pink Floyd's sweeping soundscapes, Gilmour has transposed them into his solo music which is highlighted with signature slow ride compositional developments, elegant melodies, bird-song sustains on guitar, piano figures evoking memories of Richard Wright, sighing vocal harmonies and mellow string orchestrations. The flow of moods is really striking here - from autumnal and pensive melancholy to delicate sensitivity and vigorous cheerfulness. David Gilmour is the most eloquent here as a song-writer, vocalist and guitarist here. So, "Rattle That Lock" sounds like the work of a true master of his craft.