Lost Songs 95-98  (Audio CD) 
by David Gray

David Gray's long, twisty path to success finally reached its conclusion with White Ladder, one of 1999's biggest worldwide hits. It was a popular rebirth of the proverbial folk music troubadour--albeit with a twist of electronica for added spice. That breakthrough has made it possible for Lost Songs, a collection of tracks Gray recorded in the three-year period between Ladder and 1996's Sell, Sell, Sell, to see the light of day. This was a desperate period in Gray's career, having been dropped from a major label for a second time (the first after the excellent but largely unnoticed 1994 release, Flesh), and the songs here reflect a resilient yet fading sense of hope. Most of them are short, stripped-down to their bare acoustic necessities and brimming with familiar themes of resignation, or a love just out of reach. "I'm getting tired of being denied, of things getting in my way, and if I'm quiet, that's 'cause there's nothing left to say," Gray sings on "Red Moon," his raspy-voiced cadence crying out over rough, indelicate guitar chords. Part of what makes Gray's musical voice so interesting is the way these words come out, vowels and consonants all chewed up and spit out, direct and deliberate, yet expressed with a cavalier matter-of-factness. It makes his work seem personal and individual, even when the sentiments he expresses are unabashedly accessible and universal. Of course, making the personal seem universal is the same approach folk singers from Van Morrison on down have used since time began. When it's done this well, however, that's just fine. --Matthew Cooke