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This is not the first collection of David Gray's "pre-success" recordings, but it is the best one. Unlike many such collections of early works by noted artists, you're not seeing the artist's abilities in their infant state--each of these 15 songs is already great. The Mancunian musician's performing abilities were well developed by the time he first recorded in the early '90s; one might even argue that they sound best in the often stripped-down, more raw state on display here. The songs themselves, however, have definitely matured since Gray hit the alt-adult-contemporary big time with the electronica-tinged
White Ladder in 2000; such songs as "Wisdom" and "Birds Without Wings" do show the marks of other singer-songers (notably Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan). These days, of course, David Gray is himself often used as an adjective, to describe all the other scruffy-bearded blue-eyed songsters reaching for the sensitive crooner's crown.
--Mike McGonigal
Product Description
Shine (The Best Of The Early Years) (CD Album) by David Gray - 15 tracks : 1. Shine, 2. Late Night Radio, 3. Coming Down, 4. Birds Without Wings, 5. The Light, 6. Everytime, 7. A Century Ends, 8. Lullaby, 9. Faster Sooner Now, 10. Wisdom, 11. Falling Free, 12. Sell Sell Sell, 13. Debauchery, 14. Flesh, 15. Hold On To Nothing - All songs written by David Gray