David Gray The EP's 92 - 94 (CD, Virgin Records, 2001) **David Gray A Century Ends (CD, Virgin Records, 1993) **
David Gray Flesh (CD, Virgin Records, 1994) ***
David Gray Sell, Sell, Sell. (CD, EMI Records, 1996) ***
David Gray White Ladder (CD, Iht Records, 1998) *****
David Gray Lost Songs 95 - 98 (CD, Iht Records, 2000) ****
David Gray a new day at midnight (CD, Iht Records, 2002) ****
David Gray Life In Slow Motion (CD, Iht Records, 2005) ****
David Gray Draw The Line (CD, Iht Records, 2009) ***
David Gray Foundling (CD, Iht Records, 2010) **
David Gray Mutineers (CD, Iht Records, 2014) ****
Genre: Folk rock, popPlaces I remember: HMV stores London, JB Hi Fi
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Babylon, Sail Away, Please Forgive Me (White Ladder)
Gear costume: Shine (A Century Ends); Faster, Sooner, Now (Sell, Sell, Sell); Freedom, Be Mine (a new day...)
Active compensatory factors: Buckle up! It's sometimes a bumpy ride through the David Gray canon. For me it's a case of steady rise (four albums), plateau at the heights (three) and then steady fall (the last three in my list*).
The EP's 92 - 94 collects those early attempts before the first album proper. It's all tentative stuff, some of which I've written about before.
First album proper was A Century Ends and first track is Shine. Easily the best song on that debut. The rest of the album is kind of standard folky rock (no roll). The instrumentation is pretty basic - with mainly acoustic guitar dominating the arrangements. It means nothing much stands out from the crowd.
Even Shine is a pretty standard love song - it's only the live versions that came when success dawned with the release of White Ladder that made it a big song in his catalogue.
Flesh is his second album, and the next in what I think of as the black and white albums. Basically, his first 4 albums have black and white cover photos (I have the re-released CD versions). White Ladder was his first with a colour photo and it's like daylight shining a beautiful light on his work.
Anyway, I digress - back to Flesh. He does actually flesh out the arrangements a bit more on these songs, and so it's a tentative step forward towards White Ladder. There aren't any Shine moments on Flesh though, unfortunately.
The third studio album is Sell, Sell, Sell. Again, it's another step forward. Again, the arrangements improve over the previous album. Again, there's no big hit.
There is definite improvement in the songwriting on Sell, Sell, Sell. Lead off song Faster, Sooner, Now is a great opener and pointer to the quality to come. Late Night Radio is also a different kind of David Gray song. One with hooks and repetition.
Drummer/ bassist Craig McClune (a.k.a. Clune) had been on Gray's albums since Flesh, but his influence took a while to develop. He's much more of a presence on Sell, Sell, Sell. David Gray is now singing in a different way and is much more accessible. Bottom line - the light is beginning to go on!
Lost Songs came out after White Ladder. The cynical may say - to cash in on its wild success, but, as it says on the cover, it takes in the period just before Sell, Sell, Sell to White Ladder. It's therefore a kind of artistic statement about White Ladder. These are the songs that didn't make it, but...there are some terrific ballads on Lost Songs.
As a collection it actually hangs together really well. Perfect for listening to first thing in the morning, or late at night. The Lost Songs period also settles on the musicians that would be the set up for the most successful albums David Gray has produced to date. Clune and Gray are joined by the versatile Tim Bradshaw, on all sorts of instruments.
And so, White Ladder. Five stars. Classic. His landmark breakthrough. The musicians interweave/ trust each other in a peak moment. Clune especially is a key ingredient - his drum patterns/approaches are inventive and often produce the crucial change of direction for the songs. Please Forgive Me comes to life thanks to Clune. He's an unsung hero!
His next album, the lower-case title saying so much, a new day at midnight came two years later.
There didn't appear to be any post White Ladder frights. It picks up from where that album left off with ease - it's another confident set of songs played superbly by Gray/ Clune/Bradshaw/ Rob Malone (bass). There's an ease and more carefree feel to this album. Those chemicals coursing through his bloodstream (Babylon) seem to have dissipated. As such, I think it's an excellent album.
The trend towards a more low-key, meditative approach continued with Life In Slow Motion, the last album to feature Clune and Bradshaw, and, therefore, the last of his great albums.
That doesn't mean it's slow and moody. It's upbeat and has his usual mix of well-paced songs.
Personally, I love this approach. It feels right and feels like a progression from Sell, Sell, Sell onwards.
The run of three albums, from White Ladder to Slow Motion is the peak of David Gray's career in my opinion.
The next chapter started four years later, with Draw The Line. It starts off well enough, with two catchy songs - Fugitive and Draw The Line. He sings well, but he doesn't sound relaxed like he did on his two previous records.
Then the record kind of glides by without anything really hooking my attention. It's all well played, sounds slick and well produced, all just a little... generic and uninspired.
Things go from average to bad on Foundling. I have no idea what he's trying to achieve with these songs. It's pretty dire and moved from generic and uninspired to directionless and boring. He looks bored on the cover, and he sounds bored.
How bad is it? Well, it comes with a bonus CD that I can't be bothered with. That bad.
So, I wasn't expecting much from Mutineers - his tenth studio album. Turns out that it was a return to something like his peak years (not quite, but it's way better than his previous couple of records). This is one I'll be happy to return to.
Where do they all belong? *I ran out of oomph after Mutineers and, in the Spotify age, haven't collected the recent two albums (Gold In A Brass Cage and Skellig).
Active compensatory factors: The nineties as a decade is a bit of a forgotten highway for me as it encompassed learning how to be a dad to a family of four in Wakefield and then living in Auckland while teaching and taking on new leadership roles. Music was often relegated to listening to albums I owned rather than buying new stuff.
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