First long form review I have done in some time.
The album starts out with a beautiful orchestral instrumental called "Five A.M." Besides the strings decorating the surrounds, once the acoustic guitar comes in from rear right, you know you're in for an immersive experience that only a fantastic mixing engineer like Andy Jackson can provide! Gilmour's guitar is perfectly placed in the front with its exquisite tone that we have all come to know and love.
Then instead of continuing on in a mellow manner like "On An Island" did, we jump into the jaunty title track. Andy's surround mix of this track reminds me of some of Elliot Scheiner's surround mixes with clear, defined, and discrete positioning for all the instruments in the arrangement.
After that song though, the album returns to a mellower vibe with the song "Faces of Stone". This song reminds me of music out of "The Godfather", and once I figure out why that is, I'll let you all know! This is also one of two songs on the album that David wrote the lyrics for himself, and it's a touching tribute to the decline of his mother in the latter years of her life.
Next up is another poignant song, this time about his deceased Pink Floyd bandmate Richard Wright. "A Boat Lies Waiting" features a piece of piano music originally recorded as a demo by Gilmour almost 20 years ago, and it's this exact recording that is used as the bed for this song, which features fantastic vocal harmonies by David Crosby and Graham Nash. This is another great surround mix with the harmonies placed all around the listener. It's quite a treat!
Then we get to my favorite songs on the album "Dancing Right in Front of Me" and "In Any Tongue". The former has a great musical motif that complements Gilmour's wistful melody and lyrics. The latter is probably the darkest song on the album and features Gilmour's most impassioned singing and guitar playing that will just send chills down your spine. This song also features Gilmour's son on piano, which further adds to the poignancy of this song.
Following those two is another great instrumental entitled "Beauty". This one features more discrete surround placements to start with piano on one side and guitar on the other. It's probably my favorite of the three instrumentals on the album.
Next we are onto what is probably the most eclectic song on the album "The Girl in the Yellow Dress". This song probably belongs more on a Diana Krall album with its slow and sultry jazz club feel to it, but Gilmour delivers it in a wonderful style, and the song features great piano playing from Jools Holland. Many will also love the saxophone emanating from rear right.
The last song with vocals and lyrics on the album is "Today". It starts off somewhat mellow, but it's not long before it kicks into full force with another fun and discrete surround mix that suits the action of the song. This song not only features more great guitar playing from Gilmour, but the orchestral and backing vocal arrangements on this song really help to even further lift the music along.
The album then finishes off with the final instrumental "And Then…" which takes musical themes from the opening track "Five A.M." and expands on them with drums and more. It's a great way to close off a very satisfying album.
This entire experience for me (music and surround mix) is more in line with the same satisfactory feeling I got listening to something like "The Division Bell", which also had very strong music complemented by a strong mix. If you were disappointed with albums in surround like "The Endless River" (with most of it lacking vocal melodies and lyrics) or "Amused to Death" (with its timid surround presentation at times) jump on this one and enjoy it for what it is, for thanks to Andy Jackson and David Gilmour, we have another fantastic album with a lovely & discrete surround mix to boot!
I would further say this is the best surround mix of a 2015 album behind Steven Wilson's "Hand Cannot Erase" so it gets a full '10' and a very high recommendation from me!