January 17, 2025 • 7 mins
David Gray has released his first studio album since 2021.
‘Dear Life’ is his thirteenth album, filled with intricate layers of instrumentation, vocals, and harmonies.
In Gray’s words, it’s an album of emotional crisis and resolution, morality and faith, reality and illusion, love and heartbreak, magic, science, loss and acceptance.
Estelle Clifford joined Francesca Rudkin to give her thoughts on the release.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks a'b.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is David Gray. The song was called Fighting Talk.
It's from his new album that was out on Friday,
called Dear Life, and I'm drawed up by the fabulous.
It's still closer to have a chat about the album.
How are you? Was still happy New Year?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, Happy New Year to you. Francesca. Here we are
back in the mix and listening to some great shows, yes.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And some good music out. I'm hearing you.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Look.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I had a quick look and this seems to be
people are liking this album. It's his first since twenty
twenty one.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Ah, yeah it is. And I like to be honest,
I haven't always stayed with David Gray. Ither of both
people who yeah, yeah, yeah, Like you know that big
album in the early two thousands, and it had babbled
on on it. You know, everyone was sort of taken
away with what he was doing then, and there's kind
of been all the in between stuff, and I'm sure
there's been some great releases, but this is the album
that I think probably it's quite in respect to what
(01:04):
he's doing with his voice and his music, quite similar
to the the album that I think got everybody kind
of on board with him suddenly enough. Actually the album
is I'm trying to think what it's called White Letter.
There we go, Yes, and the Net didn't have had
the chart, so like three years later.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It was That's amazing released in nineteen ninety eight. But
I think, like you, we think of it as a
sort of an early two thousands album and then it
just stuck around for.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Birocket and yeah, he re released it, and I think
this had a different label that pushed it differently. That
song there you had fighting talk, the backing vocals and harmonies,
that's his daughter Florence, I think, is yeah really cool,
Like he's really opening up his scope of what he's
doing with his music. I think that his producer is
really good at saying, hey, let's add some other layers,
let's add some other people. There's another really great song
(01:51):
on here that he teams up with Tarlie Ray plus
and minus that I think you'll play really soon. And
her voice like so she's an upcoming UK artist that
he's sort of got in touch with and she's added
her vocals and it just makes it quite fresh, you know.
Yea like their voices blean together really well, and then
she sort of does a little bit of the bridge
and chorus herself. But there's just something about adding some
(02:14):
of those younger voices and younger artists that just I
guess pushes those artistsho have been doing it for a
while to try some stuff out, but again also just
some new beautiful ways to showcase people, which I think
is great.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I'm a little bit like you, to be honest with you,
When I heard this was the first album since twenty
twenty one, my first thought was, Oh, did you release
an album in twenty twenty one? I thought it was
a little lotter for that, to be honest, No, I.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Thought it was weird too, because he did release an album,
but he was actually rehearsing for the White Letter twentieth
anniversary tour, and then of course the lockdowns happened. So
I think I got swallowed up, you know, like a
few musicians will say that anything they were releasing around
that kind of time, as people were coming out of
lockdowns or going in it did sort of get a
little bit lost and murky, And I think what's ended
(02:57):
up happening is he's kind of gone back to his
original routs and where he's come from from songwriting and
sort of parts of that one and move forward with
what he's got going on now.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
But you know, yeah, so I read that he sort
of when he was practicing for that twenty year anniversary tour. Yeah,
the White Latter album kind of was the inspiration for
this album. So is it Is it musically the inspiration
or was it lyrically? Because I hear that he sort
of mentioned that this is an album of emotional crisis
(03:28):
and resolution.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yes, so was Oh my god, was it more.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Sort of the Was it more sort of the emotional
lyrical tone of White Latter that inspired him the all
the music?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I think it was the music. I think going back
to that thing that he does where he's quite poetic
in his writing of lyrics, but he's also really good
at just sitting with a melody and finding those catchy
hooks that go with it. So I think that's a
bit And that's why I say, going back to kind
of basics. Although White Letter was like this third or
fourth album or something, it's the one that really resonated
with people and sometimes you just have to show. I
(04:01):
guess maybe he wrote more songs with just him and
a guitar or him in a piano, and then he
put the layers on after. So I think that's kind
of where it's at. Actually the plus and minor single
that you'll play soon, And I'm pretty sure that's also
a song he said he's actually been working on for
a couple of decades, but it never hits like he
just couldn't find what the end bit was or what
(04:22):
the specialness of it was. And so I think bringing
in that other vocalist, changing up as producer to give
it a little bit of a new sound, finally he's like, okay,
perhaps trying to write something too emotional that he hadn't
actually experienced yet twenty years later.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So it's a little bit like if you're a little
bit like me and you know there's been a bit
of a gap in your David Gray, but you remember
that White Lady, you know, that album that paved the
way for you Ed Shearan's Adele's, James Blunt and everything
like that, And this is potentially a really nice album
to kind of come back to.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
David Gray on, Yeah, I think it is, and it's
really great. He's got some beautiful piano intros and some
real acoustic guitar stuff, which was quite a lot Babylon
and all those kind of songs and a lot of
that sort of stuff. But then there's some really big
production where there's a full brass section. It feels very musiciany,
but like one that would be amazing to tour. So
(05:10):
I think it will feel like if you haven't had
much of the in between stuff, you haven't missed this,
you know, you'll understand where he's at with this album.
And I really like that. I think it's also one
of those albums perhaps I like it too, and I
think you will as well, for the fact that you
kind of have to re listen to it a few
times to get, you know, some of that poetic meaning
and some of what he's actually talking about on the
(05:31):
journeys and the songs, and some of them are a
little bit slow and you know, quite melancholy, and then
there's the ones that feel like he's put an upbeat
groove even if they are commenting on something quite big
that's happened in life. And so I just think that
that kind of stuff is sort of what captures people
and makes you enjoy it. There's some really real edgy,
cool minor chord changes that he makes midway in a song,
(05:53):
and that always gives me a bit of ghost bumps
when I hear. You're like, oh, it's so nice, and
you just want to listen to it over and over again.
So there's lots of those reasons to keep revisiting. And
then at the very end of the album, I can't
think what it's called the First Stone. I think it's
a real sleepy ambient number to finish off the album,
(06:13):
and it's one of those ones if you just need
to chill out, take a step back and a breath,
like that's the kind of Yeah, it's just a real
beautifully produced song. So that's a really good listen which
it's kind of it's just thing to sort of have
a dreamy end to an album. But you know, I
think he can kind of get away with it. There's
something really magic and beautiful about it.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
So even though we have been looking back and comparing
it to White Leather in that album's impact on this
particular album, it still sounds current. It's is he does
it still sound sort of a little bit unique to
David Gray.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I think it does, and I think because his voice
will always give it that stand out thing where you
know that it's his voice. I think that just having
a new like new producers working on it. I think
also adding there's a little bit of electronic pop production
through some of the songs, some of the upbeat tempos
that is used, perhaps given it more of that modern edge,
but it still stands out for the fact that I
(07:08):
think we all want to hear a song that has
a little bit of feeling and meaning to it. Yeah,
we don't always just want the you know, flowery, the
flowery easy stuff. Sometimes it's nice to kind of knuckle
down and get stuck into a song. And I think
the way he's layered what he's good at doing, and
then adding all these upbeat jams to some of it,
I think that's kind of made it, you know, sort
of one of those classic albums. You can kind of
(07:28):
put it into any kind of decade and go, oh, yeah,
that kind of works here. Yeah, yeah is Stelle.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
What's your rating for it? Out of ten?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I'm going to give it an eight out of ten.
I think it's a good listen, but do it a
couple of times so you can really start to hear
those lyrics and fall in love with us, all those
creepy minor cards.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Always good to start the year with an eight out
of ten A.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Stell ext I reckon.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Oh, thank you so much for your time and for
taking a listen. So the album is called Dear Life
from David Gray.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to news talks that'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks a'b.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This is David Gray. The song was called Fighting Talk.
It's from his new album that was out on Friday,
called Dear Life, and I'm drawed up by the fabulous.
It's still closer to have a chat about the album.
How are you? Was still happy New Year?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, Happy New Year to you. Francesca. Here we are
back in the mix and listening to some great shows, yes.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And some good music out. I'm hearing you.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Look.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I had a quick look and this seems to be
people are liking this album. It's his first since twenty
twenty one.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Ah, yeah it is. And I like to be honest,
I haven't always stayed with David Gray. Ither of both
people who yeah, yeah, yeah, Like you know that big
album in the early two thousands, and it had babbled
on on it. You know, everyone was sort of taken
away with what he was doing then, and there's kind
of been all the in between stuff, and I'm sure
there's been some great releases, but this is the album
that I think probably it's quite in respect to what
(01:04):
he's doing with his voice and his music, quite similar
to the the album that I think got everybody kind
of on board with him suddenly enough. Actually the album
is I'm trying to think what it's called White Letter.
There we go, Yes, and the Net didn't have had
the chart, so like three years later.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It was That's amazing released in nineteen ninety eight. But
I think, like you, we think of it as a
sort of an early two thousands album and then it
just stuck around for.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Birocket and yeah, he re released it, and I think
this had a different label that pushed it differently. That
song there you had fighting talk, the backing vocals and harmonies,
that's his daughter Florence, I think, is yeah really cool,
Like he's really opening up his scope of what he's
doing with his music. I think that his producer is
really good at saying, hey, let's add some other layers,
let's add some other people. There's another really great song
(01:51):
on here that he teams up with Tarlie Ray plus
and minus that I think you'll play really soon. And
her voice like so she's an upcoming UK artist that
he's sort of got in touch with and she's added
her vocals and it just makes it quite fresh, you know.
Yea like their voices blean together really well, and then
she sort of does a little bit of the bridge
and chorus herself. But there's just something about adding some
(02:14):
of those younger voices and younger artists that just I
guess pushes those artistsho have been doing it for a
while to try some stuff out, but again also just
some new beautiful ways to showcase people, which I think
is great.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I'm a little bit like you, to be honest with you,
When I heard this was the first album since twenty
twenty one, my first thought was, Oh, did you release
an album in twenty twenty one? I thought it was
a little lotter for that, to be honest, No, I.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Thought it was weird too, because he did release an album,
but he was actually rehearsing for the White Letter twentieth
anniversary tour, and then of course the lockdowns happened. So
I think I got swallowed up, you know, like a
few musicians will say that anything they were releasing around
that kind of time, as people were coming out of
lockdowns or going in it did sort of get a
little bit lost and murky, And I think what's ended
(02:57):
up happening is he's kind of gone back to his
original routs and where he's come from from songwriting and
sort of parts of that one and move forward with
what he's got going on now.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
But you know, yeah, so I read that he sort
of when he was practicing for that twenty year anniversary tour. Yeah,
the White Latter album kind of was the inspiration for
this album. So is it Is it musically the inspiration
or was it lyrically? Because I hear that he sort
of mentioned that this is an album of emotional crisis
(03:28):
and resolution.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yes, so was Oh my god, was it more.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Sort of the Was it more sort of the emotional
lyrical tone of White Latter that inspired him the all
the music?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I think it was the music. I think going back
to that thing that he does where he's quite poetic
in his writing of lyrics, but he's also really good
at just sitting with a melody and finding those catchy
hooks that go with it. So I think that's a
bit And that's why I say, going back to kind
of basics. Although White Letter was like this third or
fourth album or something, it's the one that really resonated
with people and sometimes you just have to show. I
(04:01):
guess maybe he wrote more songs with just him and
a guitar or him in a piano, and then he
put the layers on after. So I think that's kind
of where it's at. Actually the plus and minor single
that you'll play soon, And I'm pretty sure that's also
a song he said he's actually been working on for
a couple of decades, but it never hits like he
just couldn't find what the end bit was or what
(04:22):
the specialness of it was. And so I think bringing
in that other vocalist, changing up as producer to give
it a little bit of a new sound, finally he's like, okay,
perhaps trying to write something too emotional that he hadn't
actually experienced yet twenty years later.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So it's a little bit like if you're a little
bit like me and you know there's been a bit
of a gap in your David Gray, but you remember
that White Lady, you know, that album that paved the
way for you Ed Shearan's Adele's, James Blunt and everything
like that, And this is potentially a really nice album
to kind of come back to.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
David Gray on, Yeah, I think it is, and it's
really great. He's got some beautiful piano intros and some
real acoustic guitar stuff, which was quite a lot Babylon
and all those kind of songs and a lot of
that sort of stuff. But then there's some really big
production where there's a full brass section. It feels very musiciany,
but like one that would be amazing to tour. So
(05:10):
I think it will feel like if you haven't had
much of the in between stuff, you haven't missed this,
you know, you'll understand where he's at with this album.
And I really like that. I think it's also one
of those albums perhaps I like it too, and I
think you will as well, for the fact that you
kind of have to re listen to it a few
times to get, you know, some of that poetic meaning
and some of what he's actually talking about on the
(05:31):
journeys and the songs, and some of them are a
little bit slow and you know, quite melancholy, and then
there's the ones that feel like he's put an upbeat
groove even if they are commenting on something quite big
that's happened in life. And so I just think that
that kind of stuff is sort of what captures people
and makes you enjoy it. There's some really real edgy,
cool minor chord changes that he makes midway in a song,
(05:53):
and that always gives me a bit of ghost bumps
when I hear. You're like, oh, it's so nice, and
you just want to listen to it over and over again.
So there's lots of those reasons to keep revisiting. And
then at the very end of the album, I can't
think what it's called the First Stone. I think it's
a real sleepy ambient number to finish off the album,
(06:13):
and it's one of those ones if you just need
to chill out, take a step back and a breath,
like that's the kind of Yeah, it's just a real
beautifully produced song. So that's a really good listen which
it's kind of it's just thing to sort of have
a dreamy end to an album. But you know, I
think he can kind of get away with it. There's
something really magic and beautiful about it.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
So even though we have been looking back and comparing
it to White Leather in that album's impact on this
particular album, it still sounds current. It's is he does
it still sound sort of a little bit unique to
David Gray.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I think it does, and I think because his voice
will always give it that stand out thing where you
know that it's his voice. I think that just having
a new like new producers working on it. I think
also adding there's a little bit of electronic pop production
through some of the songs, some of the upbeat tempos
that is used, perhaps given it more of that modern edge,
but it still stands out for the fact that I
(07:08):
think we all want to hear a song that has
a little bit of feeling and meaning to it. Yeah,
we don't always just want the you know, flowery, the
flowery easy stuff. Sometimes it's nice to kind of knuckle
down and get stuck into a song. And I think
the way he's layered what he's good at doing, and
then adding all these upbeat jams to some of it,
I think that's kind of made it, you know, sort
of one of those classic albums. You can kind of
(07:28):
put it into any kind of decade and go, oh, yeah,
that kind of works here. Yeah, yeah is Stelle.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
What's your rating for it? Out of ten?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I'm going to give it an eight out of ten.
I think it's a good listen, but do it a
couple of times so you can really start to hear
those lyrics and fall in love with us, all those
creepy minor cards.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Always good to start the year with an eight out
of ten A.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Stell ext I reckon.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Oh, thank you so much for your time and for
taking a listen. So the album is called Dear Life
from David Gray.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to news talks that'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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