Lost Songs 95-98

1	Flame Turns Blue 4:53
2	Twilight 2:23
3	Hold On 1:55
4	As I'm Leaving 4:34
5	If Your Love Is Real 3:34
6	Tidal Wave 2:20
7	Falling Down the Mountainside 4:50
8	January Rain 2:44
9	Red Moon 3:26
10	A Clean Pair of Eyes 4:59
11	Wurlitzer 1:19

Barnes & Noble

The arrival of Lost Songs 95-98 isn't so much a history lesson as it is a valuable glimpse at this engaging artist's remarkable raw talent. Gray wrote the disc's 11 songs between the sessions for his third album, Sell, Sell, Sell, and his triumphant breakthrough, White Ladder, but didn't record them until the fall of 1999. The arrangements are simpler than those on the superbly concocted White Ladder -- which relied on keyboards and judicious drum programming to flesh out Gray's impassioned songs -- so the spotlight is on his haunting, rough-hewn delivery and unflashy acoustic playing. The results can be hypnotic. On the spare ode "Tidal Wave," Gray literally unleashes the flood of emotions generated by his thoughts of a lover -- that his only accompaniment is a very basic guitar line only makes the tune more dramatic. "Flame Turns Blue" is a bit more ornate, floating atop a cozy bed of piano and electric keys, but even so, Gray's confession of the growing distance in a relationship steal center stage. White Ladder's updated take on folk connected Gray to the genre's past without making him sound like an artefact. But Lost Songs proves Gray's emotionally wrought songs can swell and soar even when the soundscape is considerably more barren. As we've learned from his workingman's drive and artistic ambition thus far, it's not studio flash that carries David Gray; it's the essence of his gifts -- the unabashed wit and fury of a poet behind a battered acoustic guitar. Lydia Vanderloo

All Music Guide

Singer/songwriter David Gray may have finally achieved mainstream respect with his fourth album White Ladder, but he's not one to forget the tumultuous time spent prior to such praise. He was a confused artist during the recording of that album, adding emotion to countless tracks that never made it on to White Ladder. Lost Songs 95-98 recognizes that songwriting period of personal dysfunction. It's also a definitive selection of moods, atmospheric definitions, and self-awareness, for Gray composed some of his most beautiful ballads yet. Clearly it isn't a follow-up. It's merely an additive for a fan's collection. It combines classic acoustics and simplistic lyrical stories while his Welsh brogue captures the most heartfelt moments on the record. It's not massively produced, and that's what's classic about Gray as an artist. He allows the complexities of a song -- "Wurlitzer," "Red Moon," and "Tidal Wave" -- to shape its fundamentals in a nature all its own. Lost Songs showcases what was supposed to be for David Gray, without the bitterness, of course. MacKenzie Wilson