aaamusic | On 14, Jul 2014

Did you know that David Gray has been producing music since the glory days of White Ladder? I may have been under a rock but I had no idea, so I was pleasantly surprised when I got sent ‘Beautiful Agony’ to listen to.

The soft muted tones of the piano and David Gray’s distinctive voice make this song something special and like all classic David Gray tunes, it is a perfect big movie moment song.

I wasn’t too sure about the disjointed singing at the start like. Each. Word. Was. A. Sentence; and when he held the notes at the end of these sections I didn’t know whether it was the contrast I enjoyed or just the fact that he was back to singing the way I love his voice to sound.

All in all, it is quite a strange song – the whistling at the start with the muted sounding piano and the messy Bon Iver-esque instrumental at the end. But in saying this, I like it! And let’s face it – we’re not going to get a bad track from him. His step away from strumming guitar (like in ‘Babylon’ or ‘Sail Away’) is subtle but appreciated and stops his songs from sounding identical. Producing new music after having a Greatest Hits album is also something that I always enjoy – in a, ‘hang on – I’m not done yet!’ kind of way.

‘Babylon’ is one of my favourite songs of all time so when I heard that there was a new song/album I was worried, but after listening to ‘Beautiful Agony’ a couple of times through I think it’s such a lovely chilled-out listen and it won’t be disappearing off my playlist anytime soon!

★★★★★

Rachael Pilkington