Since his debut, A Century Ends, introduced David Gray to the world in April 1993, five years before his breakthrough, White Ladder, it was clear he was a special songwriter. Indeed, his brutally honest, openhearted lyricism cut like a knife through the aural margarine that passes for pop music. The intervening years have confirmed Gray’s status among his peers, albeit the angry young man has succumbed to disgruntled middle age.

This 13th solo album is brimming over with the kind of knowing, bittersweet songs that Gray has made his trademark. Tracks like ‘After The Harvest’, the brass-tinged ‘The Future Bride’ and the resigned ‘Eyes Made Rain’ prove he’s lost none of his ability to craft gorgeous songs, although they’re couched in arrangements which are perhaps a little too polished and, whisper it, middle of the road.

He toys with syncopated beats on catchy recent single ‘Plus & Minus’, the synth-driven ‘The Messenger’ and ‘Singing For The Pharaoh’, as well as the waltz-like ‘The Only Ones’. Elsewhere, the almost seven-minute ‘Leave Taking’ is a quiet song with a massive arrangement of strings and woodwind. Individually, these songs all adhere to Gray’s quality standard, but collectively they blend a little into the realm of background music in a cocktail bar.

It’s no surprise that the most effective songs are those that are relatively unadorned, such as the simple piano and vocals of ‘Sunlight On Water’, or the acoustic-led ‘The Day Must Surely Come’ and ‘I Saw Love’. This listener can’t help feeling that, if only he could rediscover his well of anger, he’d be all the better for it.

7/10

Out now