Draw the Line review

David Gray’s unquestionable talent and sincerity

Unfortunately it often happens that a performer striving for expressing oneself puts all his heart into his music in a most sincere way, and for some reason the listeners do not value him or her as one deserves. An artist releases an album and it ends up a failure, the same happens to its follow-up, and this may continue until suddenly one writes some brighter, more expressive, soulful or simply memorable songs which define one against the others. Exactly such a story happened to David Gray – the audience did not appreciate his music at once, far from that, although today his unquestionable talent and sincerity remain the same as they were on the first recordings. The breakthrough album White Ladder started a series of successful works, and this year the artist releases his eighth studio album Draw The Line, the first one after 2005’s Life In Slow Motion. Soulful, romantic and sincere songs comprise the basis of Draw The Line, and David Gray once again demonstrates his ability to tell in a beautiful way of the most sacred feelings.

Draw The Line is refined with two duets

Taking a look at David Gray’s several latest works, we can certainly notice that they are all similar to each other, yet every one has its own zest. Such a zest on Draw The Line is made of two duets definitely refining the record. The album opens with a wonderful first single Fugitive, built upon a piano accompaniment. This song is one of the strongest of all that Gray has written lately and will easily become a hit for it contains all the essential components for that. The title composition Draw The Line also deserves your attention – a slight feeling of concern sounding both in the memorable tune which is rather complicated at the same time and in David’s vocals will leave nobody indifferent. A most beautiful ballad Nemesis is refined with a soulful acoustic guitar, and another piano composition Jackdaw offers one of the best vocal parts on the album. The first duet Kathleen, with Jolie Holland conquers with the marvelous melody from the very first piano chords and then with sad lyrics performed by male and female vocals. The track Harder simply cannot be left without attention – melancholic, but mid-tempo, with some splendid moments in the unusual tune, it is undoubtedly one of the album’s highlights. The song Stella The Artist refers to them, too, as David seems to have finally woken up from his dreaming here – the album’s second half on the whole sounds a bit livelier than the firs one. Thus the album closes with another duet Full Steam, performed with the gorgeous Annie Lennox and leaving the listeners in the most optimistic mood.

Energy sounding in every single song

Although David Gray’s music does not seem to become a sensation one day soon, his songs are still perfect to become the soundtracks for romantic films and serials both for young people and adults, hence, the demand for it is not about to fall. The artist’s vocals do not worsen as the years pass, too, – he easily takes the high notes and the strong emotions can be heard in his voice. Yet some things in his creative work do undergo changes. For example, Draw The Line is the first album recorded with the new band of musicians, and judging by the energy sounding in every single song here, the singer is more than content with the instrumental background. Besides, the album has been recorded in David’s own studio, The Church Studios, which is a heritage of Eurythmics and that is one of the reasons for the Annie Lennox duet on the album. In general, it is clear that David Gray is aware of what he can do well and we can be sure that a couple of years later he will provide us with more romantic songs, maybe even more passionate than those on the wonderful collection of Draw The Line.