David Gray's best songs

Despite David Gray's quite respectable age (thirty nine years old) he has not been acknowledged at once. The first three albums were poorly successful within Great Britain and also attracted some of the Irish listeners. Yet the record that conquered the world and especially the US White Ladder is still popular and it is the songs from it that have made Gray one of the most wanted artist of the world. His sincere and romantic songs often become soundtracks to various films, and the voice is easily recognized and always touches the heartstrings. This year the singer is releasing a compilation called Greatest Hits which contains some of the songs from all the albums starting from the debut A Century Ends until the seventh album Life In Slow Motion released in 2005 and two new compositions. The latter have been recorded with the participation of legendary producer Chris Thomas who collaborated with such bands as Pink Floyd and Sex Pistols. Greatest Hits is a priceless addition to any musical collection and the best way to accompany a romantic evening.

Greatest Hits fully justifies its name

There are two absolutely new songs on Greatest Hits. The album opens with one of them, You're The World To Me, written in the best traditions of David Gray. The song that became a real breakthrough for the singer Babylon could not help being included in the collection and sounds already like classic, whereas The One I Love is rather a mid-tempo song, and a beautiful description of life together with the one he loves, full of sincere confessions. Another hit from White Ladder album Please Forgive Me is sure to please all the fans, while the song Hospital Food from the singer's last creation is unlikely a more joyful song. Melodious love ballads This Year's Love, a soundtrack from The Girl Next Door movie, and Alibi with a great piano prevailing accompaniment and special effects made as usually at the singer's home studio sound as fresh as when you heard them for the first time. A beautiful famous song Sail Away finds Gray singing in a melancholic and at the same time insistent way for he is inviting the girl to sail away with him, and his whistling at the end of the song is sure to linger in your mind for some time. Track Shine (Live) is the best prove that the artist is as successful in his studio as on the stage, and the song of 1999 Flame Burns Blue from record Lost Songs is refined with an acoustic guitar and little by little turns into an amazing ballad with a rich instrumental sounding. The album closes with another new song Destroyer, also an astonishingly contagious one that is sure to become a hit. Thus record Greatest Hits has fully justified its name.

There are no failure tracks on Greatest Hits

A singer like David Gray can hardly ever disappoint his fans for it has taken him quite some time to find the unique sounding that would profitably underline his amazing vocals. Yet now when all doubts concerning his talent are gone it is worth while paying attention not only to the records that made the artist so famous but to those earlier works as well for they have just proved to have been underestimated. The collection Greatest Hits suits best for this purpose. As a matter of fact if Gray's earlier creations had been really much worse than the songs on White Ladder and its follow-ups it would have been obvious on the new collection. Yet the very first listening proves the opposite: there are no failure tracks on Greatest Hits, the only different being the arrangements and the sounding, while David's heartfelt vocals conquer on each track without exception. Hence, the importance of the compilation is exactly the fact that it lets us look at the artist's creative work as a whole and see what a contribution he has made to the music culture of his native country and the world.

Alexandra Zachernovskaya
21.11.2007