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LIFE IN SLOW MOTION
ATO/RCA
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Although it won him a worldwide following (and the biggest-selling album in Irish history), David Gray’s 1999 disc White Ladder might’ve earned this Manchester, UK-born singer-songwriter an inaccurate reputation. On that album Gray augmented his strummy, earnest ballads with homemade electronics and live-drummer acrobatics, which placed him alongside such future-folk practitioners as Beth Orton and Turin Brakes. Yet Gray’s work since White Ladder (and its big hit, "Babylon") has demonstrated how much more interested he is in the age-old verities of confessional songwriting than any fancy studio technique. For Life in Slow Motion, he hired Marius DeVries, who’s produced records by Madonna and Björk (and served as musical director on Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge), but he likely overpaid: very few of the tunes here betray any sign of the producer’s flashy handiwork, revolving instead around warm acoustic guitar and piano, which provide a familiar foundation for cozy meditations on perfect summer nights, new green leaves, and the stars above. A stately string section fancies up several cuts, but only in order to more fully realize Gray’s desire to become his generation’s Van Morrison. He’s well on his way. David Gray | Agganis Arena, 925 Comm Ave, Boston | Oct 8 |617.228.6000
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