Gray's Debut Is an Oft-Ignored Masterpiece
by Jim McCoy

David Gray: A Century Ends
(U.K.- Hut Recordings; U.S.A.- Caroline Records) 1993

Long before White Ladder sold millions upon millions of copies, David Gray worked his craft in relative obscurity. The irony, of course, is that this English-born, Welsh-raised singer/ songwriter had quietly managed to create three-plus album's worth of music that contained many tracks that were every bit as passionate and inspired as the material on his breakthrough album - and none of it was being played with any frequency outside of his native countries and Ireland. He was bounced from one record label to another (and finally to none at all), all the while continuing to pursue a career in music despite his many commercial failures. In fact, two of his three albums issued before White Ladder's release - A Century Ends (the subject of this review) and Sell, Sell, Sell - were out of print at one time.

Fortunately, the success of White Ladder sparked an interest in Gray's back catalogue. It also provided his former labels (Hut Recordings, which is a subsidiary of Virgin, and EMI) an opportunity to cash-in on an artist that they had failed to support and properly promote while he was still in their fold. The reissued A Century Ends - Gray's 1993 debut recording - is a simply a singer/songwriter masterpiece. Stripped down of the synthesizers and electronics used to great effect on White Ladder, Century paints a moving portrait of a man, his guitar and his soul.

On the opening track, Shine, Gray manages to effectively meld only open-tuned acoustic guitars and a deep electric bass line underneath his booming, powerful voice, which transmits bittersweet - yet beautiful- lyrics about two departing lovers whose well-traveled "road is strewn with goodbyes." Although both realize that their "love has faded like a summer run through" as they continue to "walk down the shoreline one last time together," Gray provides tender assurances and encourages his leaving lover to "dry your eyes...rise from these ashes, like a bird aflame," so that each may "go where we can shine."

In contrast, the title track that follows is a band-backed anthem against a society where "honesty [is] still out fashion" and "Memory Lane" finds itself set afire. Despite the potentially cumbersome lyrical content addressing the evils of excess, complacency and corruption, Gray manages to craft a concise, powerful rocker with a seamless series of musical changes that is all the while unburdened by the hollow, preachy melodrama that typically renders songs of this ilk un-listenable when in the hands of lesser artists. (Or, those not named "Bob Dylan.")

The third track, Debauchery, is a folkish, acoustic-based ditty detailing the story of "a lonely man" who finds much-needed salvation in the arms of "a drunken ferry boat woman" one pale winter day. Gray's blatant accent, which is usually undetectable in the singing voices of most other artists that hail from outside the U.S., gives the tune an air of familiar authenticity that puts it on-par with what might be expected from a fine folk singer in the green Welsh or Irish countryside.

Although several other songs on A Century Ends are worthy of specific mention, it is Gathering Dust that stands out most prominently among the disc's seven remaining tracks. Devoid of drums or percussion, the song is nonetheless deceptively dynamic and powerful. The song - clearly inspired by Van Morrison and clocking in at a most radio-unfriendly six minutes-plus, is an introspective, melancholy inquiry as to why the subject, "for no reason, but that I must" is "throwing away the best thing that I've found." When he laments that "my young heart's in tatters and I'm sure it will be a long time healing/it's so hard to see what I'm doing this for, when loneliness is all that I'm feeling," any young, struggling man who has ever stood at the crossroads between the comforts of unconditional love and the free pursuit of another - perhaps more personally meaningful - calling is able readily to identify with the conflict in Gray's voice, which is far more credible, powerful and confident than that found on most recording debuts.

Fans of White Ladder, but not necessarily David Gray, may not take as much of a liking to the purer sound of an album free of the modern, yet tasteful, electronic treatments and drum sounds found on both the aforementioned and Gray's A New Day at Midnight. For fans of David Gray and other artists in the singer/songwriter mold (especially Van Morrison), you are simply cheating yourself if you do not hear this album at some point.