David Gilmour Returns After 9 Years With 'Luck and Strange'

David Gilmour is back with his first solo album in nearly a decade. Luck and Strange is due on Sept. 6, and will be advanced by the single "The Piper's Call" on Thursday.

His late Pink Floyd bandmate Richard Wright appears on the title track, which makes use of elements from a 2007 jam at Gilmour's house. But Luck and Strange was initially defined by the more recent quarantine era.

"It's written from the point of view of being older. Mortality is the constant," Gilmour's wife and lyrical collaborator Polly Samson said in an official statement. Gilmour added: "We spent a load of time during and after lockdown talking about and thinking about those kind of things."

Luck and Strange is available for preorder now. The artwork and complete track listing, along with bonus tracks, can be found below. Included are eight new songs and a cover of the Montgolfier Brothers' "Between Two Points."

READ MORE: David Gilmour's 10 Best Solo Songs

Charlie Andrew takes over as co-producer on Luck and Strange, after Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music helped with Gilmour's most recent pair of solo projects. Andrew is best known for collaborations with the alternative artists ALT-J and Marika Hackman.

Gilmour said Andrew brought an exciting new perspective to the sessions: "He has a wonderful lack of knowledge or respect for this past of mine," Gilmour said. "He's very direct and not in any way overawed, and I love that. That is just so good for me because the last thing you want is people just deferring to you."

Andrew also creatively challenged the long-standing songwriting duo. "He wants to know what the songs are about," Samson said. "He wants everyone who's playing on them to have the ideas that are in the lyric informing their playing. I have particularly loved it for that reason."

Gilmour had hinted at the prospect of new music earlier this week on social media channels. In his first post since New Year's Day, Gilmour could be found playing guitar in the studio – before stopping abruptly to say, "I'm ready."

Watch David Gilmour's Teaser for 'Luck and Strange'

Featured contributors include frequent Pink Floyd collaborator Guy Pratt, Steve Gadd and Roger Eno, among others. The cover image is by Anton Corbijn, best known for U2's The Joshua Tree, and was inspired by a lyric written by son Charlie for the album's final song, "Scattered."

That's not the only personal connection: Romany Gilmour is featured on harp, while handling lead vocals on "Between Two Points." Gabriel Gilmour sings backing vocals. Elements of the album were also derived from pandemic-era live streams that Gilmour and family members performed in 2020 and 2021.

"Polly and I have been writing together for over 30 years and the Von Trapped live streams showed the great blend of Romany's voice and harp-playing," Gilmour said, "and that led us into a feeling of discarding some of the past that I'd felt bound to and that I could throw those rules out and do whatever I felt like doing, and that has been such a joy."

New David Gilmour LP Follows Lengthy Hiatus

News about Luck and Strange began trickling out years ago. Polly Samson confirmed that sessions were underway back in 2022 during an interview with a Romanian publication. She's been sharing photos on Instagram showing Gilmour in the studio, as well.

His most recent solo album was 2015's Rattle That Lock. An international Top 5 hit, the LP became Gilmour's second consecutive U.K. No. 1, following 2006's On an Island. Otherwise, he's only issued a pair of stand-alone singles, 2020's "Yes, I Have Ghosts" and 2022's "Hey, Hey, Rise Up." "Yes, I Have Ghosts" will be included as a bonus track on the compact-disc version of Luck and Strange.

"Hey, Hey, Rise Up" actually arrived under the Pink Floyd banner as a benefit single for war-torn Ukraine. Gilmour noted, however, that he wasn't getting the band back together. "I thought this could be something that we use our platform for, for enormous good," Gilmour later argued. "When I spoke to [former bandmate] Nick [Mason] and he said he was willing to do it as Pink Floyd, it seemed like a no-brainer."

In the meantime, Gilmour could be heard on the career-spanning Live at Pompeii concert recording in 2017, the belated remix of Pink Floyd's Animals in 2022, and an expanded 2023 reimagining of his collaboration with the Orb titled Metallic Spheres in Colour.

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David Gilmour's 'Luck and Strange' Track Listing
"Black Cat"
"Luck and Strange"
"The Piper’s Call"
"A Single Spark"
"Vita Brevis"
"Between Two Points"
"Dark and Velvet Nights"
"Sings"
"Scattered"

CD BONUS TRACKS
"Yes, I Have Ghosts"
"Luck and Strange (original barn jam)"

BLU-RAY BONUS TRACKS
"Yes, I Have Ghosts"
"Luck and Strange (original barn jam)"
"A Single Spark (Orchestral)"
"Scattered (Orchestral)"