Luck and Strange (2024)

"Luck and Strange" was recorded over five months at David Gilmour's Medina Studio and Salvation Studios in Brighton; and at Mark Knopfler's British Grove Studios in London. It was Gilmour's first album of new material since 2015's "Rattle That Lock."

Ironically (and coincidentally), the album dropped on Roger Waters's birthday, Sept. 6.

Produced by Gilmour and Charlie Andrew (alt-J, Marika Hackman), the album contains eight new tracks, as well as a cover of "Between Two Points" featuring Romany Gilmour, daughter of Gilmour and his wife and writing partner Polly Samson. The original recording was released in 1999 by indie pop duo The Montgolfier Brothers on their "Seventeen Stars" album.

Gilmour told Prog magazine, "My feeling is that this album is the best album I've made in all those years since 1973 when 'The Dark Side of the Moon' came out."

Musicians contributing to "Luck and Strange" include Guy Pratt and Tom Herbert on bass; Adam Betts, Steve Gadd, and Steve DiStanislao on drums; Rob Gentry and Roger Eno on keyboards; with string and choral arrangements by Will Gardner. Most of the album's lyrics are by Samson.

The title track also features late Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright, recorded in 2007 at a post-tour jam that took place in a barn at Gilmour's home. "What was going through my addled brain I don't know," Gilmour recounted to Prog. "It was fucking freezing in that barn. The first jam we did on the Monday morning was the one that became that song."

That original jam, as well as "Yes, I have Ghosts," originally from the audiobook of Samson's "A Theatre for Dreamers," are included on some versions of "Luck and Strange" as bonus tracks.

Some recordings on "Luck and Strange" were taken from live streams Gilmour and his family performed during the Covid 19 lockdowns of 2020 and '21.

"Polly and I have been writing together for over 30 years," Gilmour says, "and the Von Trapped live streams showed the great blend of Romany's voice and harp-playing 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."

The album's cover image, photographed and designed by Anton Corbijn, is inspired by a lyric written by Gilmour's son, Charlie Gilmour, for the album's final track, "Scattered."

"Luck and Strange" debuted (and peaked) at #10 on the Billboard 200 album chart. In the U.K. it debuted at #1 on the Official Album Chart, making it his third #1 after "On and Island" (2006) and "Rattle That Lock" (2015).

At time of the album's release, Gilmour was already planning his next. "Our plan is just to get this one out and run it and then do another one straight away," he told Prog.

Time will tell.