Album review: David Gray's 'Draw the Line'

With his homemade classic, "White Ladder," British crooner David Gray unwittingly paved the way for James Blunt and company's simpering love ballads. On his eighth studio album, Gray reclaims and reinvigorates his territory with "Draw the Line," a polished yet ragged collection of complex love and exasperation melodies. Weepy sentimentalists, back off.

Gray hurls his voice, makes demands and sets boundaries, sometimes against the album's most gently etched landscapes. He asserts that the singer-songwriter's force is not only to be conjured with delicate guitar picking or hushed pleas. In fact, emotional catharsis can sound downright burly in Gray's world. And everyone knows it's bad news to rile up a crooner. Think about Frank Sinatra.

Though the music flows through comfortable but sophisticated channels of folk-pop, it also takes some turns into rougher terrain. "Stella the Artist," with its lyrics about stinging rebuke and swimming through a sea of "psychotic puke," matches the terse but victorious mood with snapping drums and a flashing piano line. Although Gray doesn't render his Stella in obvious terms, some bohemian gamines might find themselves blushing with recognition.

In "Full Steam," the album's final bow in which he partners with Annie Lennox, the two twine their voices, ticking off a list of life's inequities. It's the right person for him to duet with -- another artist who can make "bullied, suckered, pimped and patronized" sound like gospel for the disillusioned.

--Margaret Wappler

David Gray
"Draw the Line"
Mercer Street Records
Three stars (out of four)

Comments

[Rhonda]

By far his best work ever! I love this disc. Truly and work of art.

[Alexa]

I caught David Gray at Glasgow 02 on 16 September 2009 show casing his new album.

Have to say that it was an amazing night and his latest stuff is brilliant. This is a man who translates better live than on CD's. Will continue to love him and the work he does. He gets better every time!

[Chris Willits]

A beautiful album with subtle complexities that ring true for any true believer in beautiful music. If the inequitable Bill Graham would have so perfectly put it...
"God Bless David Gray"