Life in Slow Motion

1	Alibi 4:33
2	The One I Love 3:29
3	Lately 4:13
4	Nos da Cariad 4:10
5	Slow Motion 5:00
6	From Here You Can Almost See the Sea 3:39
7	Ain't No Love 3:21
8	Hospital Food 4:43
9	Now and Always 6:45
10	Disappearing World 7:36

Barnes & Noble

This Welsh singer-songwriter has long been known for crafting songs marked by low-key intimacy -- a modus operandi he departs from on this disc. To be sure, Life in Slow Motion is as intimate as anything Gray has ever recorded, but there's nothing subtle about its approach. That's clear from the opening strains of the orchestral introduction to "Alibi," a sweeping piano ballad that owes as much to classic prog-rock as it does to the folkier precursors that influenced his earlier work. Stately piano melodies figure prominently in the disc's better songs -- notably "Now and Always" and "Ain't No Love," both of which bear more than a passing similarity to the less arch offerings of Rufus Wainwright. The album is rife with intriguing side trips, from the misty drift of the Welsh-language plaint "Nos da Cariad" to the country-tinged rocker "The One I Love." The more open-ended sonics make perfect sense, given the fact that Life in Slow Motion is far less stark, topically, than A New Day at Midnight -- large swaths of which dealt with the death of Gray's father -- and less introspective than White Ladder. The expansiveness no doubt has something to do with Gray's recent experience in the realm of film -- he scored the acclaimed 2004 movie A Way of Life -- but whatever the catalyst, it's refreshing to hear him exposed to the elements, raw as they may be, rather than sequestered in his insular world. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Life in Slow Motion is an appropriate name for David Gray's sixth album. It's languid and deliberate -- not that this is a bad place for Gray to be, or that it's even a big change of pace for him. As the years passed, he's trimmed away the faster tempos from his music, leaving behind an even-keeled, meditative, soft reflective folk-pop that brought him a hit in 2000 with "Babylon" from his fourth album, White Ladder. Life in Slow Motion isn't too far removed from that album, although it does lack the then-fashionable vague electronica underpinnings. In their place is a mildly lush but not elaborate production that's tasteful and classy, and Gray's songwriting is well mannered and well intentioned. If Gray didn't have a slight rasp to his voice, this music would simply wash over you, since it's a calm, clean album ideal for either background music at work or late-night introspection. Thankfully, the bit of grit in his voice is enough to ground the music. Life in Slow Motion is especially low-key and quiet compared to Gray's other albums, requiring close listening to catch the subtleties in either the lyrics or the music. That means it's a rewarding listen mainly for the faithful who have the time, patience, and inclination to dig into this. Stephen Thomas Erlewine