Album: David Gray <!-- none onestar twostar fourstar fivestar -->

Sigur Rós are one of the bands cited by David Gray as influences upon his new album, along with Sparklehorse and Mercury Rev - which would suggest a greater attention to the patina of his music, an aim in which he's assisted here by producer Marius De Vries, best known for his work with Bowie, U2 and Madonna. Gray's lyrical intention, meanwhile, has been to broaden the aspects of his narratives from the personal. So presumably that's not him in "Nos Da Cariad" (Welsh for "Goodnight Sweetheart", apparently) that's had "a bucketful of Babylon, a bellyful of hate". The album title reflects the way life seems to slow down at moments of drama, as in the case of the person bleeding to death in "The One I Love", or the man contemplating separation in "Slow Motion". Elsewhere, Gray rails against being fed the everyday media pabulum in "Hospital Food", and in "Ain't No Love" contemplates an atheist's regret at the absence of a prime mover, whilst celebrating the attendant moral responsibility ("Ain't no love that's guiding me"). But although the arrangements are texturally sophisticated, with discreet touches of woodwind and widespread use of strings, the results are perhaps less different from his previous lo-fi releases than he might hope.