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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gilmour takes control and delivers a terrific album, January 28, 2006
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.)
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
like an extra pink floyd album, A+ straight through, September 21, 2000
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.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Floydish, May 6, 2003
You can take a guy out of Floyd, but you can't take the Floyd out of the guy. That's probably an unfair statement since Floyd is, in part, what David Gilmour brings to the band. Gilmour's sound is unique and easy to recognize. Clear phrasing and astral sound are his trademarks. His solos are perfect, works of art that elicit images and emotions. "About Face" is different from a Floyd album, and at the same time very similar to one. This was he first release after the demise of the band, allowing him to experiment and do his own thing without having to clash with others. It is this freedom that separates this album from the true Floyd sound."Murder" is a good resume for Gilmour's talent. The song begins with acoustic strumming before a fretless bass solo marks the transition to a heavier feel. The solo is powerfully Gilmour. As the solo progresses it turns more into something that sounds like it was cut from "The Wall", a bit "Young Lust"-ish. The surprising song on the album is "Love On the Air", one of two on this album penned by Pete Townsend. Again, Gilmour takes center stage with his guitar, but there is some pretty good Hammond organ going on in the background. "All Lovers Are Deranged" is the other Townsend song. This one is quit heavier, and Gilmour's playing a bit on the dirty side. "Out of the Blue" borrows heavily from the Floyd arsenal. Gilmour gets a lick back on Waters with "You Know I'm Right". Overall, this is a decent solo release from Gilmour, which is a precursor to revitalizing most of Floyd for "Momentary Lapse of Reason". It's a good showing, but not his best work. He proved that he could work without Waters on his first solo release (self-titled), and did again with the subsequent releases from Floyd.
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