When Pink Floyd's greatest hits collection, Echoes, was released in 2001 I remember reading an interview with Gilmour where he bemoaned the fact that his charming acoustic ballad from Atom Heart Mother, Fat Old Sun, was left off the album. Much of his new album On An Island seems to be an attempt to redress the balance, packed as it is with tracks that re-visit the calm, songwriterly waters of that song. The loveliest reprisal of it is this new single.
Smile sounds like it could work well as a soundtrack to something like Wind In The Willows - evoking as it does a pastoral idyll. Here is a melody that is even reminiscent of recently rejuvenated aged wood-nymph Vashti Bunyan in its childlike simplicity, complimented most snugly by the slide guitar sound only Gilmour can achieve.
Only thing is, a couple of listens to the song and you've exhausted it, rendering it a bit bland and pointless, much like the rest of his new album. But for a man whose currency was once overlong guitar solos and abiding pretentiousness, this reunion with simplicity is most welcome.
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