As I walked into Best Buy a couple weeks ago, I saw that David Gray had a new CD released. This was news to me; I had read it wouldn’t be out until October or November. Anyway, since I’m such an avid David Gray fan, I had to pick up his 4th album, Life in Slow Motion. This album has one cool looking cover, I think it’s a glacier, but whatever it is, it looks awesome. David Gray is on a fairly independent record label, Ato Records.
For those of you that have no idea who David Gray is, he is a bar singer turned professional musician from the United Kingdom. Many people here in the United States have no idea who he is, but Gray is extremely popular in the UK. You’ve probably heard David Gray before, but not have known who he was; he has songs on the soundtracks of The Girl Next Door (“This Years Love”), Ladder 49 (“As I’m Leaving”), and Serendipity (“January Rain”). If these song titles and movies seem on the sappy side, you’re right; David Gray’s songs are laden with emotion, and on the topic of love the majority of the time.
“Alibi” starts off with a minute-long instrumental introduction, then Gray starts singing in his raspy, yet soft voice. David Gray is not what I would call a good singer, or even a mediocre singer, but the way he sings his songs and the lyrics he writes overshadow his lack of singing ability. This is a decent song, but there are far better on the album.
“The One I Love”, the first single off of the album, is one of my favorites, which is surprising, because most of the times the songs artists choose for singles are not usually my favorites. “Lately” is an okay song, it has a good rhythm but I think the lyrics could use some work; there is a female singing in the background towards the end.
“Nos Da Cariad” has a female backup during the chorus and she completes the song. Gray’s singing is dark and eerie, but the lyrics are incredible; “One lifetime is long enough, is long enough to wait…go to sleep my one true love, and may your dreams be sweet.” This song is one of the best David Gray songs I’ve ever heard. I don’t know how the next song, “Slow Motion”, even made it on the record, it is awful. Save your time, go on to “From Here You Can Almost See the Sea”. David Gray is a great guitar player, and he shows off his ability in this song. Combine his passionate lyrics with his guitar playing ability, and you have a great David Gray song. Not amazing, but great.
After a creepy introduction fades to piano, “Ain’t No Love” is another solid song on Life in Slow Motion. Even though the songs on this album are good songs, they just can’t stack up to the songs on White Ladder; that album is amazing. “Hospital Food” is my favorite song on the album, the beat is incredibly catchy and Gray’s singing is awesome. “Now and Always” it has an eccentric beat which I’m not a big fan of, it’s just too weird. The lyrics are intelligent, though. “Disappearing World” is ridiculously slow, and full of piano. There isn’t near as much singing in this song; most of it is instrumental, but it’s a nice wrap-up to the album.
David Gray’s Life in Slow Motion, though a very good album that should sell very well in the near future, is not nearly as good as his 2000 release, White Ladder. In Ireland, that album went 14 times platinum. To explain how popular that is, it sold three times as many albums as Green Day’s American Idiot, plus another 2 million copies. Even if you’ve never heard David Gray before, give “The One I Love”, “Nos Da Cariad”, and “Hospital Food” a listen, you may fall in love with him. If you like those songs, listen to “Babylon”, “This Years Love”, “My Oh My”, and “Sail Away”, off of White Ladder.
