Gray, David - A Century Ends
***¾
Gray's debut album from 1993 is much rawer, more wordy, political and Dylan influenced than White Ladder. It contains good melodies, stripped down acoustic based songs and especially powerful singing - David's excellent delivery when twisting and snarling out angry words is most effective. Highlights includes the biting Let The Truth Sting and title track as well as the more whimsical Gathering Dust which has an Astral Week's era Van Morrison feel. An excellent debut which shows the potential which David achieved with the massive success of White Ladder and A New Day At Midnight.
Released - 1993
Acquired by me: 25.7.03 - Borrowed (Naomi)

Gray, David – Life In Slow Motion
****
Three years on from the excellent but very melancholy A New Day At Midnight, David Gray returns with a new album more defined by its upbeat songs.  A look at the lyrics however reveals much darker territory…
Lead single The One I Love is a case in point.  A jaunty love song until closer inspection shows that the author is a soldier reminiscing bittersweetly as he bleeds to death on the battlefield.  The One I Love and follow-up single Hospital Food are two of the catchiest songs David has written with the latter presumably making some kind of political point though I’m not quite sure what..
For many listeners Life In  Slow Motion may be an album where it would be better if the lyrics weren’t reproduced in the inlay.  For although the quality of the words is variable, the music is excellent throughout.  Other musical highlights include Nos Da Cariad which has chiming, driving piano a la Coldplay and the more stripped down, acoustic From Here You Can Almost See The Sea, reminiscent of songs from David’s Lost Songs LP.  Also excellent are the opener Alibi which begins with the sort of keyboard-heavy  soundscape he has generally favoured on his last two albums and the plodding piano ballad Ain’t No Love which has similarities to This Year’s Love from the White Ladder LP.
Life In Slow Motion includes one of the best collections of songs which David Gray has produced. An excellent LP though you may wish not to look too closely at the words…
Released:  2005
Acquired by me:  11.10.05 (Present for Naomi)

Gray, David - New Day At Midnight, A
***¾
The multi-million selling White Ladder was always going to be a difficult record to follow up but Gray has done admirably well with A New Day At Midnight. My favourite two tracks are two ballads with sparse arrangements and soulful vocals. The plaintive December is backed by beautiful glistening organ though the absolute highlight is The Other Side, a very moving piano backed ballad about David's sadness and regret at the recent death of his father which bravely but poetically implies that they had a difficult relationship. Stunning stuff! Some of the other better songs include the lead single Dead In The Water and the albums two most exuberant tracks Be Mine and Real Love. Some of the other tracks are a bit unmemorable and bland though overall A New Day At Midnight is a good follow up to a million seller. David's 10 year "overnight success" looks like continuing for a while yet.
Released - 2002
Acquired by me: 25.8.03 - Borrowed (Naomi)

Green Day – American Idiot
****
I’ve never been a fan of Green Day and their cartoon punk but, buoyed by the title track single, excellent reviews and a 3 CDs for £20 offer, I decided to take a chance with this album.  It’s a good LP and a worthwhile purchase though not inspiring enough for me to fully investigate their back catalogue.
American Idiot the LP is a loosely based concept album which holds a mirror of disgust at the modern US.  Its story, as far as I can see it, is about the small town poor who join the army as the only means of escape and are sent abroad to fight a war they don’t understand where they die or return broken, confused and never the same again.  Like most (modern) concept albums, the connections and thread of the story are rather incoherent in places though there are characters who crop up throughout the narrative.
Musical highlights from the album include the title track, the sort of slightly infuriating song it’s hard to get out of your head with its Clash influenced stop-start guitar and vocals.  Other highlights include the quieter, follow up single Boulevard Of Broken Dreams which sits for me much better on the album than as a stand-alone track, the sad, melodic Wake Me Up When September Ends and Holiday, which reminds me of The Levellers.  Unlike the Levellers and The Alarm (also reminiscent on a couple of tracks here), the lyrics are a modern scattergun of images and metaphors with plenty of expletives rather than the more earnest, coherent protest of those older bands.
American Idiot also contains quite ambitiously a couple of five-part, nine minute songs which are good in places though rather amusingly one section steals the melody from Bryan Adams’ Summer Of 69 – it would be incredible if no one noticed and pointed this out to the band.  Unfortunately, the cartoon punk tendency is still there on some of the other songs though Billie Joe Armstrong definitely has a great rock’n’roll voice.
All in all, American Idiot is a worthwhile purchase.  If you are an alienated, guitar-loving teenager you probably already love Green Day and this album.  If you are more mature but still like a bit of melodic punk protest then this may also be the album for you…
Released – 2004
Acquired by me:  29.1.05 (Bought)