A Century Ends – David Gray
This is my first listen to David Gray. I played “Babylon” yesterday and as expected, I did recognise that track, but I’ve never sat down and listened to his music before.
First impressions are that it’s a sound that I like – the strummed acoustic backed by a competent band. There are some nice chord changes in the title track and “It’s All Over”. “Wisdom” is a great track – impassioned delivery and guitar playing with some nice organ backing. “Living Room” features nice use of the mandolin – I do love that strumming sound.
There were a few tracks that sounded bland and didn’t do anything for me (“Shine”, “Gathering Dust”, “Birds Without Wings”)
Overall, I like that the acoustic guitar is captured well in the mix and David Gray, despite his odd accent (born in Manchester, moved to Wales when he was 9 yet sings with a Scottish accent!), he gives a good vocal performance throughout.
But I think that I like the sound of the album more than the songs themselves. If somebody like Josh Ritter, Jason Isbell or Steve Earle was singing these songs, I think I’d feel more invested. Maybe that’s the issue, maybe songs by those artists would resonate more because I think there’s only “Wisdom” and “Living Room” that I’d go back to and the latter only because of the mandolin. There’s a few that, to quote Courtney Barnett, are pedestrian at best but I like the sound enough to give him a
6.
Thanks to
@BlueHammer85 for introducing me to a new artist.
