About Face [Import, Original recording remastered]

David Gilmour | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 22, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: EMI Europe Generic
• ASIN: B000GFLEWW
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #402,519 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Until We Sleep

2. Murder

3. Love On The Air

4. Blue Light

5. Out Of The Blue

6. All Lovers Are Deranged

7. You Know I'm Right

8. Cruise

9. Let's Get Metaphysical

10. Near The End

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Recorded following the fractious and unhappy sessions for Pink Floyd's The Final Cut, About Face represented a new start for David Gilmour. Freed from his tempestuous collaboration with Roger Waters, Gilmour was able to fall in love with the recording process all over again. The remarkably relaxed and confident About Face stands head and shoulders above anything Gilmour has done with the latter-day incarnation of the Floyd. With its dramatic crescendos and lyrics about "voices in your head," "Murder" is the most Floyd-like track on the album. Other highlights include the propulsive opener "Until We Sleep," the Dylanesque piano ballad "Out of the Blue," and the funky, horn-driven "Blue Light." The energy level flags a bit, but Gilmour's playing is dazzling throughout. It's an excellent effort, overall, and one which should appeal to more than just Floyd fans. --Dan Epstein

Product Description

David Gilmour, About Face
--This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars David Gilmour's second solo effort gets long overdue remaster treatment, November 10, 2007

By 

Terrence J. Reardon "Classic rock and old sch... (Lake Worth (a west Palm Beach suburb), FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: About Face (Audio CD)

Pink Floyd's singer and guitarist David Gilmour released his second solo album About Face in March of 1984.
The album was co-produced by Gilmour and Bob Ezrin (whom David worked with last on Pink Floyd's The Wall).
The album was recorded throughout 1983 in France and mixed at Mayfair Studios in London with engineers Andrew Jackson and James Guthrie respectively. The album was recorded after Pink Floyd disbanded following the completion of 1983's The Final Cut whcih saw relations between Gilmour and bandmate Roger Waters deteriorate.
In addition to David on vocals and guitar on About Face, he is joined by Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro, bass player Pino Palladino and keyboard player Ian Kewley (both from Paul Young's band). Plus there are guest appearances by Deep Purple keyboard player Jon Lord, Anne Dudley and Steve Winwood. Also helping on some of the backing vocals are Roy Harper, Sam Brown and her mother Vicky.
David wrote eight of the ten songs himself on this album including the pulsating opener "Until We Sleep", which is a great song. "Murder" is next and is the best track on the album with David pulling out all the stops on electric and acoustic guitars. "Love on the Air" is next and David wrote the music while Pete Townshend penned the lyrics to this song as well as the second half opening rocker All Lovers Are Deranged. The single "Blue Light" follows and is a good funky track. Steve Winwood plays Hammond Organ on this track as he did on Love on the Air. The only thing that dates Blue Light slightly are the horns but still a great track nevertheless. The ballad "Out of the Blue" ends the first half on a poignant note with the late Michael Kamen's superb orchestrations.
The US FM rock radio hit "All Lovers Are Deranged" kicked off the second half and is a great rocker. The anti-Roger Waters rocker "You Know I'm Right" follows and showed David was still angered and upset about Waters' ill-treatment to him during the torturous Final Cut sessions (who knew the two would reconcile in 2005). Next is "Cruise", which is apparently an ode to an MX nuclear-tipped cruise missile and a great song. The soaring classical music meets heavy soaring electric guitar instrumental "Let's Get Metaphysical" follows and beautifully blends Michael's orchestrations with some killer guitar work from Gilmour on his trusty Fender Stratocaster. The fittingly titled "Near the End" ends this album on a bittersweet but beautiful note and the ending acoustic then Stratocaster solos of Gilmour's at the end are some of his finest.
I first got About Face on cassette when I was 12 in February of 1988 and it is better on CD.
The album hit a modest #32 in the US and would eventually go Gold (500,000 copies sold) as a result.
About Face was finally re-released on September 12, 2006 on Columbia Records with digitally remastered sound, thanks to another Pink Floyd associate James Guthrie (who mixed the original album), and fully restored artwork.
The album is longer than either the original CD or original album as all of the tracks have fully restored endings and the sound on this is SUPERB!
I highly recommend this album to any Floyd fan!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gilmour takes control and delivers a terrific album, January 28, 2006

By 

Dave "missing person" (United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: About Face (Audio CD)

To put it real simply, Pink Floyd were having major issues in the mid-'80s. Roger Waters pretty much wanted Pink Floyd to himself, as 1983's "The Final Cut" shows. Seemingly fed up with Floyd, and with a reservoir of unused compositions built up, David Gilmour brought back Bob Ezrin as co-producer, recruited a whole bunch of extremely talented players (Pino Palladino, Jeff Porcaro, and Steve Winwood, to name a few), and went about making his second solo album, "About Face", originally released in March of 1984.

"About Face" is an interesting title for the album. It could be taken as a sly jab of sorts at Waters. It could also be applied somewhat to the music... Granted, you really can't expect to completely take the Floyd out of Gilmour's sound, but it's not like fans would desire that of him anyway. However, the album finds Gilmour in control and doing things his way--Pete Townshend wrote the lyrics for two of the songs ("Love On The Air" & "All Lovers Are Deranged"), but otherwise, Gilmour wrote all of the tracks on the album himself--and David does have quite a few surprises up his sleeve here.

One thing that's pretty revelatory is to discover that Gilmour could deliver such an incredibly funky, uptempo pop-rocker with "Blue Light". Using his patented guitar echo, Gilmour bases this song around a mind-blowingly infectious guitar riff, and the song is an absolute blast, with additional thanks to the punchy horn arrangement. Also notice his very humourous, albeit slightly self-righteous spoken voiceover toward the end of the song. Granted, you could argue that precedence was set by some of the stuff on "The Wall", but still, it's pretty hard to imagine hearing something like "Blue Light" cropping up on a Pink Floyd record.

Another striking element is that on a couple tracks, Gilmour sounds uncannily like Leonard Cohen, both in terms of the guitar-style and with the stately lead vocals. There's "Cruise", which is breezy and splendidly tuneful; and "Near The End", which is a hauntingly beautiful album-closing ballad, with acoustic guitar soloing neatly giving way to a soaring electric toward the end.

And there's more great stuff. The album-opening harmony-fest "Until We Sleep" is surprisingly reminiscent of psychedelic-era Beatles--a very catchy song that grooves along irresistibly. The roaring "All Lovers Are Deranged" is a brilliant, cathartic mid-tempo rocker with gloriously from-the-gut vocals from David on the chorus. "Murder" is an explosive 'power ballad' of sorts that starts off in Dylan-esque acoustic mode and features sumptuously melodic fretless bass guitar work. The contemplative orchestrated ballad "You Know I'm Right" is also excellent, with a rhythmically deceptive first verse, and a simple arpegiatted guitar part that recalls "Raise My Rent" from David's first solo album.

Others have complained about Gilmour's lyrics, saying things like "he's no Roger Waters" or that "writing lyrics isn't his forte". Granted, he didn't exactly make "About Face" an elaborate concept album, but regardless of this, his lyrics here are uniformly excellent--poetic and eloquently-written--and his precise renderings make the most of them.

One minor gripe is that Gilmour does have a bit of a tendency to get carried away with his wailing, effect-laden electric guitar work. Don't get me wrong, I realize it's a trademark of his, and on songs like "All Lovers Are Deranged", it simply rocks. Sometimes though, it does feels out of place in the context of the particular track--the most glaring example of this is on the instrumental "Let's Get Metaphysical" which has Gilmour wailing away backed by a full orchestra, and in this case, it's just not an appealing combination.

Overall though, this album is an excellent "About Face" for David Gilmour, and I think it's worth a try even if you're NOT a huge Pink Floyd fan. "About Face" is a must-have album for any serious listener.

(P.S. Listening to this CD version of the album, I notice a surprising amount of 'drop outs' on several of the songs which can be somewhat distracting, and it makes me wonder about the source that was used for this CD transfer. That said, this album could really use a nice remastering job.)

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars like an extra pink floyd album, A+ straight through, September 21, 2000

By 

Calvin93 "calvin93" (Fort Lee, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: About Face (Audio CD)

If you listen to About Face and Roger Water's Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking (relaeased a year earelier), you can HEAR the two components that once were Pink Floyd - Waters has all the concept and deep, biting lyrics, while Gilmour has the voice, is unbeatable with a guitar and makes the music SOUND good. Floyd purists will dismiss this album as too "pop", and it does depart sharply from the obsessiveness of The Final Cut, but no one can deny that this is ear candy (in a good way) straight through, with some of Gilmour's best guitar work, since he was free to do as he pleased. The opener, UNTIL WE SLEEP, sounds just like Pink Floyd would during Momentary Lapse and The Division Bell years - stunning guitar, haunting voice. The album has hit singles in BLUE LIGHT (i dont love the song but it did make radio and MTV airplay) plus hits waiting to be discovered in ALL LOVERS ARE DERANGED and CRUISE (i dont know why gilmour bothers to try his hand at a political statement when he knows roger waters does it better). There are some lighter, but enjoyable tracks in. LOVE ON THE AIR and OUT OF THE BLUE. Two of the more haunting, standout tracks (in addition to the excellent UNTIL WE SLEEP) are MURDER and NEAR THE END. If you liked Pink Floyd after Waters left the band, you will LOVE this album (and if you only like Roger Waters, of course you won't). It was nice to hear Gilmour get to lighten up a bit out of the constraints of the Pink Floyd that Waters ran like a dictator, and this album previews what Floyd would do in the late 80s and 90s. Great guitar work in almost every song, a short intrumental treat in LET'S GET METAPHYSICAL, overall a fine album.