David Gilmour Details New Solo LP ‘Rattle That Lock’

Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour will release his new solo album ‘Rattle That Lock’ this September, with a small U.S. tour planned for 2016. Photo courtesy Illas Katsouras/Flick user eliosk/CC BY-SA 2.0

After briefly reviving and then saying goodbye to Pink Floyd in 2014, David Gilmour will return this September with Rattle That Lock, a new album and the guitarist’s first solo studio LP since 2006’s On an Island. “Rattle That Lock,” the album’s title track and first single, will be unveiled July 17th, at which time the LP will become available for preorder at David Gilmour’s official site. The album arrives September 18th.

The 10-track LP features lyrics largely penned by Gilmour’s wife, novelist Polly Samson, as well as contributions from Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, who co-produced Rattle That Lock with Gilmour. According to Gilmour’s official site, the album’s first single “Rattle That Lock” “begins with the four notes, created by [sound designer] Michaël Boumendil, which precede announcements at French SNCF railway stations which David recorded on his phone at Aix-en-Provence station. Polly’s lyrics were inspired by Book II of John Milton’s Paradise Lost.”

The Rattle That Lock cover was created by The Creative Corporation’s Dave Stansbie under the creative directorship of Aubrey Powell from Hipgnosis, the company that designed many of Pink Floyd’s most iconic album covers.

Rattle That Lock will be available in a variety of different formats, from digital download and heavyweight vinyl to a deluxe box edition featuring four Barn Jam films, four non-album audio tracks, four documentaries and two promo clips. The deluxe edition, which will be available as both a CD/DVD and CD/Blu-ray, will also house “two hardback books, a double-sided poster, a postcard in a dedicated envelope and a David Gilmour plectrum,” the official Gilmour site writes.

Last October, Gilmour told Rolling Stone that, following the release of Rattle That Lock, he hoped to embark on “an old man’s tour, not a 200-date sort of thing.” The guitarist stuck to his word, announcing four North American shows in 2016: March 24th at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl, March 31st at Toronto’s Air Canada Center, April 8th at Chicago’s United Center and April 11th at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Tickets for all four shows go on sales July 17th at Ticketmaster; ticket buyers will also receive a CD copy of Rattle That Lock.

Rattle That Lock marks Gilmour’s fourth solo album, following his self-titled 1978 debut, 1984’s About Face and On an Island. In 2014, Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason revisited music they recorded with keyboardist Rick Wright during Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell sessions to create the band’s farewell LP The Endless River.

“I think we have successfully commandeered the best of what there is [and] I suspect that it is,” Gilmour said of Pink Floyd. “It’s a shame, but this is the end.”

Rattle That Lock Track List

1. “5 A.M.”
2. “Rattle That Lock”
3. “Faces Of Stone”
4. “A Boat Lies Waiting”
5. “Dancing Right In Front Of Me”
6. “In Any Tongue”
7. “Beauty (Gilmour)
8. “The Girl In The Yellow Dress”
9. “Today”
10. “And Then…”