Cynics may see this album as a stop-gap release designed simply to fill the void back home, while

David Gray sets out to break America with White Ladder. But cynics are a pain in the arse: on the strength of the songs alone, Lost Songs '95 - '98 is the

genuine article.

Decidedly moody in tone - even bleak - the album captures some merciless home truths about that period in Gray's life before White Ladder scored so heavily in Ireland, basically salvaging the man's career. Witness the first track 'Flame Turns Blue', a song that aches with some unnameable longing; 'If Your Love Is Real', which Gray admits was inspired, in part, by watching his mother immerse herself in a new love affair after the Grays marriage fell apart; and, apropos matters of the heart, 'Twilight', 'Tidal Wave' and 'Falling Down The Mountainside'.

While the overall tone is reflective and downbeat, the songs still convey the essential sense of excitement and wonder which is at the heart of David Gray's appeal - most vividly on the album's penultimate track, the superb, pounding 'Clean Pair of Eyes'. It may not be Gray's equivalent of Dylan's Blood On The Tracks - but as his tilt on Joni's Blue, it works.