Album Review: David Gilmour – The Luck and Strange Concerts

Following on from my review of Roger Waters’ latest…

David Gilmour and Roger Waters differ in many ways. One quality both men share is their non-prolific nature. Since closing the books on Pink Floyd in 1994, Gilmour has added to his two-album body of studio solo work with only three albums: 2006’s On an Island, 2015’s Rattle that Lock and Luck and Strange from 2024. Like Waters, he has, however, seen to the release of multiple live albums. Compiled from dates on his limited (but wildly successful) 2024 tour, The Luck and Strange Concerts is his latest.

Whereas Waters’ post-Floyd career has been marked in part by an effort to build upon and expand from his previous work – specifically, lyrical themes and concepts – David Gilmour has seemingly directed more energy toward moving beyond his old band. So while his distinctive, instantly-recognizable guitar tune is a component of much of his solo work, so too is a sense of musical exploration that serves up songs well outside a style that could be thought of as explicitly Floydian.

To that end, while this new concert document does inevitably include some songs from his Pink Floyd days, Gilmour largely focuses upon his solo catalog. Three songs from The Dark Side of the Moon, one from Wish You Were Here and one from The Wall are nearly all that represent the Waters-era Floyd. One of Gilmour’s earliest compositions, the lovely “Fat Old Sun” is featured, as are several songs from the “Gilmour era” of Pink Floyd, represented on A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. Though its seems unlikely, it’s almost as if the Waters and Gilmour camps negotiated to make sure their 2025 live albums didn’t feature any of the same songs apart from “Comfortably Numb” and “Wish You Were Here.” Notably, the songwriting on those two songs is credited to both Gilmour and Waters.

Instead, as the title makes plain, The Luck and Strange Concerts focuses upon songs from Gilmour’s excellent recent studio album. The album features all but one of that record’s songs. With the Luck and Strange tour, Gilmour endeavored – quite successfully indeed – to place the musical emphasis on music that he composed, songs that he sang.

Gilmour’s Luck and Strange studio album showcased not only his musical skills, but his comfort and ease with collaboration and even ceding the metaphorical spotlight to other artists. The Luck and Strange Concerts leverages that egalitarian quality. As scintillating as Gilmour’s guitar and vocal work remains, some of the most moving moments on The Luck and Strange Concerts come when he steps into the shadows.

One of The Dark Side of the Moon’s undisputed highlights is Clare Torry’s wordless vocal turn on “The Great Gig in the Sky.” In concerts throughout the Pink Floyd era and beyond, Gilmour has generally adopted a very faithful approach to the song’s original recording. For this tour, however, he struck out in a bold new direction, one that is emotionally true to the original while strikingly different. A meditative vocal chorus delivers the song in a kind of cross between Torry’s approach and the Beach Boys’ elegiac “Our Prayer.”

Another high point of the consistently rewarding live album is “Between Two Points,” a song featuring Gilmour’s daughter Romany. She opens the song by playing its signature harp figure, soon adding her sublime, emotionally rich lead vocal. The song itself is a cover of a rather obscure 1999 song by the Montgolfier Brothers, but in the Gilmour family’s hand, it’s truly a thing of beauty. Romany’s heart-rending vocal delivery is set against an atmospheric and tasteful instrumental backing, with only the subtlest of additional vocal work from the ensemble. Dad takes over for the song’s final two minutes, peeling off a soaring solo in his inimitable style.

The majestic character of “Between Two Points” is no outlier; that quality extends to the entirety of the performance, whether Gilmour and band are serving up classics from decades ago (“Marooned,” “Sorrow”) or finely-crafted songs from the new studio record. At age 79, Gilmour’s musical facilities are still very much in fine form. The Luck and Strange Concerts shows him in a kind of serenity, seemingly having come to terms with his back catalog, able to present a splendid evening of music that acknowledges – but neither exploits nor leans too heavily upon – his Pink Floyd roots.