David Gilmour About Face CD

Personnel: David Gilmour (vocals, guitar); Barbara Snow, Roddy Lorimer, Tim Sanders, Simon Clark (horns); Steve Winwood (piano, organ); Ian Kewley (piano, Hammond b-3 organ); Bob Ezrin (keyboards); Jon Lord, Anne Dudley (synthesizer); Pino Palladino (bass guitar); Jeff Porcaro (drums, percussion); Louis Jardin, Ray Cooper (percussion); Vicki Brown, Roy Harper, Sam Brown, Mickey Feat (background vocals).
David Gilmour released his second solo venture in 1984, following the apparent dissolution of Pink Floyd. He had released a record on his own in 1978, but About Face is much more accessible. Gilmour has a stellar band backing him, including Jeff Porcaro (drums), Pino Palladino (bass), and Anne Dudley (synthesizer). The songs on About Face show a pop sensibility that Pink Floyd rarely was concerned with achieving. Although the album didn't attract the attention of a Floyd release, several cuts did manage to get airplay. "Until We Sleep" is rife with shimmering synthesizers and cavernous drums, and "Blue Light" was a minor pop hit, with Gilmour's trademark delay-drenched guitar giving way to a driving, horn-laced rocker. Pete Townshend wrote two of the tracks: "Love on the Air" and the propulsive "All Lovers Are Deranged." Of course, there's more than enough of Gilmour's fluid guitar playing to satisfy, including the gorgeous "Murder," a gentle acoustic track that explodes with some fiery organ by Steve Winwood and concludes with a fierce coda. About Face is well-honed rock album that is riveting from beginning to end. ~ Tom Demalon
This follow-up to David Gilmour's late '70s debut is a Bob Ezrin-produced post-WALL effort, and as such it incorporates the harder sounds Gilmour had become accustomed to during the WALL sessions. Written and released around the time of Roger Waters' exit from Pink Floyd, this album foreshadows the Floyd's future musical direction.
Combining layered vocals with a heavily looped guitar sound, "Until We Sleep" begins ABOUT FACE with an almost Byrds-like quality, while the gentleness of the acoustic opening to the ballad "Murder" disguises its homicidal subject matter. Both "Love On the Air," and "All Lovers are Deranged," are distinguished by lyrics written by Pete Townshend, and "Blue Light" is an attempt at funk with a Floydian flavor. Gilmour's strength at ballad writing is evidenced in "Out of the Blue," while the obligatory instrumental is "Let's Get Metaphysical." The album closer is, appropriately enough, the song "Near the End." All in all an essential album in any Floyd fan's collection.