So it’s against that background that he’s now released “Draw the line “ and with a completely new band too - Clune, that annoying drummer of his has been binned off - and Gray has been telling the world that he’s been writing new material at a rate of knots. “Draw the line” may be new material and Gray may profess that he’s been inspired but in the strictest sense it’s more of same and for the most part it’s less than inspiring. The arrangements on this album are exquisite, the band are on the money and the melodies are serviceable but there’s no sense of pushing things forward or of improving on what’s gone before.
“Draw the Line” suffers particularly because of Gray’s voice, which is now parched and tinder dry. The album’s outstanding track is “Breathe”, an outstandingly bad duet with the truly scary Annie Lennox. It’s self important, it’s po faced and it’s a little bit creepy but I wouldn't judge “Draw the line” on the basis of one spectacularly bad number. In fact the opener and the lead single, “Fugitive” is about the brightest thing here but really that’s not saying much
The fact is that despite the stage banter and the big noddy dog head on him, Gray’s a self obsessed little man with a blacker than black world vision. When the greats like John Martyn, Nick Drake, Brett Anderson and Elliot Smith look within for inspiration they look into hearts full of soul but when Gray looks within all he finds staring back at him are his own slights, wounds and injuries.
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