Please Forgive Me - 4
Babylon - 3
My Oh My - 3
We're Not Right - 4
Nightblindness - 4
Silver Lining - 3
White Ladder - 3
This Year's Love - 4
Sail Away - 3
Say Hello Wave Goodbye - 3
Babylon - 4
Total - 38 stars / 11 tracks = 3.45 stars
First of all, let's have some context. Before buying this album (at Value Village), I was aware of two David Gray songs. The first, naturally is "Babylon," and I'm fairly tired of hearing it. The other was "This Year's Love," which I knew from the The Girl Next Door soundtrack. Once I popped the CD in, I realized that I also knew "Please Forgive Me," but only because it's one of my dreaded work songs.
Trying to be objective, it turned out that I liked "Please Forgive Me" more than I thought I would. Stripping away the hatred I have for the soundtrack of my "day job," I was able to give the song a fair shot and was impressed by how much it wrapped me up, both lyrically and rhythmically.
Speaking of rhythms, at first listening, I was kind of blown away by how much synth there is on this album. I figured that a guy with a voice as pretty as David Gray's wouldn't rely so heavily on Casio drumbeats, but there you have it. In the song "We're Not Right," especially, what would have been a great acoustic song (I would keep the back-up vocals) is littered with laser sound effects. It kind of reminded me of:
Another standout tracks are "Nightblindness" which is just gorgeous. I was listening to it on my iPod when I was out walking at night just after a snow storm, and it was one of those perfect moments where the music matches the mood, and your life feels like a movie montage.
The bonus track version of "Babylon" was also substantially better than the original. I don't know why, as I listened to them almost an album apart, and I'm too busy listening to "Nightblindness" to bother to compare.
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