Reviews (page 7 of 8)
It's certainly pleasant enough to listen to but it rarely goes above "inoffensive" for me. The parts that introduce more electronic elements stand out a bit.
meh
Bland, hey.
Coffee shop background music. Nothing super memorable or impactful, but there were at least 2 songs on here that I didn't realize we're David Gray. One of those albums that I know my dad is going to rate higher than I'm rating it.
This, is pretty dull. Not abrasive, just slow and uninteresting.
Eigentlich sind die Songs ganz in Ordnung, aber sie klingen einfach alle gleich.
Yikes. So this is how the '90s died.
it's just ok 2/5
The audio quality of this album is a bit distracting. All of the instruments sound fine production-wise except the singing, which is almost painfully crackly. Don't get me wrong – Gray's voice is fine, a bit Dylanesque – but something about the vocal mixing/production makes it sound like it was recorded in the mid-40s. Once you notice it, you can't ignore it. It's a shame, really, because the acoustic instrumentation backing his voice is fairly strong and a breath of fresh air in the midst of heavily electronic (and often soulless) R&B/rap that dominated 90s charts. I'm not someone who tends to pay heed to the lyrics unless they're egregiously bad, so I can't speak to Gray's lyricism, so his voice is all I have to go on. And it's best to try to tune out his voice. Now for the compositions: they're fine. Passable. One sign of good songwriting I like to look for is if different parts of the same song are sonically distinguishable (disregarding lyrical changes, e.g. different verses). Changes in key, texture/instrumentation, and dynamics (loudness) are all examples of this. Think Stairway to Heaven, A Day in the Life, Good Vibrations, Bohemian Rhapsody... all the classic greats, you know? Some songs do this much better than others. I find that, while Gray's style is mostly pleasant to the ear, this intra-song variation is absent in most tracks. Say Hello, Wave Goodbye is one of the better tracks for this reason, slowly introducing more intense guitars and percussion as the mood transitions from mournful to hopeful. This Year's Love is also notable for (perhaps rebelliously) not using an acoustic guitar. The cinematic strings go well with simple piano chords. All that being said: there's nothing revolutionary about the music. White Ladder doesn't belong on this list. I like to call this album art "Blurry Tommy". 2/5 Key tracks: My Oh My, Say Hello Wave Goodbye
Why is this on the list lol? Home cooking again. Music for a breakup/romance scene or outro credits to some obscure TV show/movie.
This is insultingly bland. Music for department stores. The first track actually started ok; not my thing but a decent groove. It all goes downhill from there. This gets an extra star for not being actually bad, it is just the absolute zenith of boring nothing music.
Treads the line of country music and im not a fan
I remember staying at my cousins student flat after a night out. He put this on to help him get to sleep. It didn't work for me. It was too irritating.
I could not stop thinking about James Blunt and for that I will never forgive him.
Please don't. This is way too corny and not what I enjoy at all. How could this get on the list? Fine, one must say it's well-produced to some extent, and the melody is...okay? I like the opening track, "Please Forgive Me." It's classic folk/folk rock, but other than that, I have to say this album lacks creativity and is actually quite dull. The vocals are also not that much of an enjoyment. A 2 is the best I can give to this kind of music. A 1.5/5, if you want me to be precise. It is tolerable, but honestly? Boring as these singer's life.
2.5
guy pretending to be Bob Dylan with a shitty country voice and beats playing in the background
Dido, but male. Music, but dull. Emotional, but barely. It's hard to understand why this was so popular, other than the need for mums to have something to listen to when they feel sad but can't have wine. Bland and inoffensive, other than in its blandness. Even the decent songs get dragged down by all the beige
First track didn't need vocals. Whrn he started singing I got sad. Half of this album doesnt need to exuisyt.
Beige horrible shit
2.5
booooooring. Early 2000 vibes but not in a good way.
This album borders with b being offensively unoffensive. The lyrics are repetitive and I don’t like his vocal affectations. It melts seamlessly into the background when I’m not paying attention. Is that good or bad?
Bad. Idc
Generic
The music was okay, but I'm not sure I like his voice
an odd tour of the fallow music landscape of 1998. 1.5
"This Year's Love" was a jumpscare of recognition for reasons I don't understand. The rest felt like daydreaming except my daydream was me working in a 90's grey cubicle with yellowing electronics and dim fluorescent lighting.
Boring.
First few songs I liked, after My Oh My the rest of it felt bland and so uninspired. There's something specially annoying the way this guy repeats his lyrics incessantly, it's very apparent on Sail Away. I really wanted to give this a 3 but there is no shot after listening to all of that. Top 3 Favorites: Please Forgive Me, Babylon, and Nightblindness Top 3 Worst: We're Not Right, This Year's Love, and Sail Away 2.50/5
Babylon is nice but I don’t think there is anything new to find here
It's outrageous that this is the all time best selling album in Ireland. I am outraged. I'd be like yeah ok whatever if it was U2. David Gray never even lived in Ireland. What the hell you guys It makes sense that Babylon was a hit, and I can see Please Forgive Me as a hit in that era of pop too. I think both are basically ok (though I once hated Babylon), and both suffer from being mixed for that era of radio pop. After the first two tracks it's forgettable. I thought my review was going to be that you only need to listen to one version of Damien Rice, and he's nothing to put on an essentials list either. This doesn't match up with that in a way that's neutral (more electro pop influence), and a way that's terrible (doesn't even try to be gripping). music: hated. (⌐■_■)
First track - not bad, Scrubs! Rest of it - boring as sin.
I kinda liked this, but I don't think it's something you absolutely must listen. It's fairly regular 90's singer-songwriter stuff. Some good songs, some uninteresting ones. I have no ideia how big it was in its day, but certainly doesn't seem very relevant now. Key tracks: Babylon This Year's Love
90s easy listening adult radio bullshit.
Once again I must ask, why do I have to hear this album before I die? 2 stars.
Started out decent but dragged a lot in the second half
Artiste inconnu. Certains morceaux ont des harmonies vocales intéressantes, et l'accompagnement est plutôt varié, avec parfois (trop rarement) des petits chorus. Mais rien de vraiment remarquable, je ne l'écouterais pas une seconde fois. =>2/5
Other than 'Babylon', I wasn't familiar with anything on this album. Overall, kind of a slow listen. Not terrible, but not great either - decent background music. I don't know that I would listen again.
Boring background music
David Gray is but one of many male solo artists who partake in what I like to call "sad white boy music". He is an influential precursor to the likes of James Blunt, Lewis Capaldi, and James Arthur. Guys who seemingly picked up a guitar, weren't particularly interested in doing anything genuinely outstanding with it, and hoping to stumble across an easy melody that radio stations would eat up and play their material for decades to come. Because I can guarantee you, as I write this in work, I will be hearing David Gray on the communal radio at least twice today. I'm so glad we're living in the rise of a trend, and I apologize to my fellow millennials in advance, but 'White Ladder' by David Gray is the very definition of what is now called "co-worker music". It is millennial co-worker music. It is about as pedestrian as this genre of music gets; and every time I have had to hear the many generic hits this album produced throughout my life - 'Please Forgive Me', 'Babylon', 'This Year's Love', and 'Sail Away' - I die a little inside. Sure, they're catchy enough. But there is absolutely nothing groundbreaking or unique about them. I normally list some personal highlights but there was none. I was hoping that maybe the deep cuts on the album would at least have some standout elements but they didn't. The same tired type of crooner lyrics, even less interesting musically than the singles, and after a while Gray's voice tends to hit my ears in a negative way. He's a competent singer, but the whole tone of his voice is just off-putting to me. I can tolerate the odd radio play he seemingly gets on a daily basis, but an entire LP was getting too much. This was teetering between a 1 and a 2 from the second it popped up on the generator. But I'm nice, so it gets a 2. Because while there are many elements I dislike, I won't deny David Gray can write good melodies. But that’s about the only positive I can take away from my listen of ‘White Ladder’ this morning. 2/5
Has best chill out album ever written all over it. Not much to like really.
Kinda bland and depressing, not something I'd return to. Middling 2.
Weinig aan eigenlijk. Niet slecht ofzo, maar het voegt ook weinig toe aan deze lijst.
Babylon more like babble on
Not very exciting, but a couple of good tunes. Theres a "vibe" here, and its "sad man music". The name David Gray really suits him - a totally middle of the road man, making ordinary music. I am struggling to understand why this album was so popular, I suppose it does have a realness to it. It reminds me of a Sunday afternoon in England, driving back from the pub with my parents where I'd had a coke and a bag of crisps. The sky is grey, its drizzling, its probably April - not that cold but chilly. I've got that "School tomorrow" sunday scaries feeling. I'm staring out the car window and Babylon or Sail Away is playing. That's how I feel about this album. But I might listen to it again to try and give it another shot.
Typical 90s music. It had some good ideas which where not really followed and thought through.
I listened to this. No thank you.
Adequate, nearly lovely, but wholly forgettable
its the same song over and over again
Never heard of David Gray, but I have heard Babylon. It must have been everywhere in 1999 if someone as off the popular music radar as I was remembers it. He sounds like he was influenced by someone else who was influenced by Bob Dylan. But besides Babylon, it's mostly bland and boring. Nothing I'd want to hear again.
nothing special, i've never heard any of the songs, but they are just so bland that i feel like i've heard them a million times before
Pretty generic pop rock stuff.
Forgettable
Good album from the late 90’s. Good voice.
Starts off a bit like Death Cab/Postal Service. Gets kind of boring towards the end.
Some serious youth pastor vibes here. Definitely a cooler pastor, but still a pastor no less. I didn't mind this, but I didn't love anything specifically about it. I've definitely heard This Year's Love before. Ultimately, I found it pretty forgettable, but could understand the appeal. Mostly snooze inducing for me... 2 / 5
No my style, a little to Ed Sheeren british soft rock. Tough to get through. 2 stars
I immediately hate this guys voice for some reason. Reminds me of a James Bluntish kinda singer. Hoping some of the electronica will help. Something about this pisses me off idk why. I feel like one song in this style is ok but a whole album is too much. Something just seems so fake about it. I did like This Year's Love, definitely remember it from Girl Next Door. This was meh to me and super forgettable. Maybe next time David Gray.
It is not bad, it is just really boring
The 2 songs that border on interesting are right at the beginning. Then nothing else even comes close.
The train guy. I’m not gunna give this much time lol.
Another one of those bland and uninteresting albums that hasn't aged well. 2/5
Very pretty, but very boring. This type of music really doesn't do anything for me other than keep my anxieties in check in medical office waiting rooms. 2/5
Eh. It started ok, but I got real tired of it by the end. I remember Babylon, and it's catchy but also not a song I'd ever intentionally turn on. Later, I kept thinking "oh, this is like Jewel, but sung by a guy". That's not positive or negative. Just not for me. 2/5
didnt love it, beat/lyrics were pretty repetitive but had a good voice
Singing is good. Production value is decent. Instrumentation is decent. Pacing is slow. Overall David Gray feels like a lesser version of James Blunt. I think if you're into soft rock this is good enough to garner appreciation. But for me and my tastes, it just doesn't stand out enough to be noteworthy.
Ah, a charity shop classic - alongside Travis' The Man Who, and any Robbie Williams CD - this is ubiquitous I also suspect this could be ground zero for the hideous state of modern music, or at least responsible for the moody, vulnerable troubador tribe that eventually became Ed Sheeran and his acolytes? Loses a star for that
David Gray was certainly popular enough back in the day. Gray also claims that he paved the way for artists like Ed Sheeran by being a male singer-songwriter willing to bear his soul. Well, maybe, although I think it's a stretch to say that he pioneered that idea. It's enjoyable enough background music but I'm struggling to find much to sink my teeth into. It's just a bit too safe. Which is fine, just not very exciting. I feel guilty giving this a 2 as much of it is pleasant enough to listen to. But it's not something I could put on repeat and I didn't find it particularly interesting.
Too monotonous for my taste. Quickly faded into the background while listening. I perked up when hearing the last track as I recognized it. But the cover of "Say Hello, wave Goodbye" was again too monotonous compared to the original where Marc Almond made you hear the emotions of the protagonist, but Gray's delivery was a kind of depressing.
Fake ass Bob Dylan
mediocracy at its best
This wasn’t awful, but it was boring and monotonous. These songs would be good on a better album as a change of pace, but here you get the same thing over and over.
haven’t listened to this since it came out . it’s inoffensive and largely bland , with a couple of singalong singles.
not bad but i don't get it
I really didn’t enjoy this for the most part. It came across as mostly middlebrow (boring) songs that I largely forgot an hour or two after hearing it.
A bit too bland for my liking.
It was just too much. I imagine there is a valid reason that this was on here but honestly, cheer up
2/5. Soft indie rock-pop ballads is probably the best description. He has a very unique voice and although I want to like it, some of these songs are just straight up boring. It sounds like he just discovered this sound with the electronic snare in the forefront and that's the song now with some introspective lyrics. To be fair, I do like some of the songs but I lose myself among them because they start to sound similar. It wasn't terrible but wasn't a repeat listen, save some songs. Best Song: Babylon, This Year's Love, Sail Away
rym 3.52 50 minuti di cantautorato. non so se reggo almeno non è bob dylan siamo a due canzoni e ne ho già le palle piene ATTENZIONE HO SENTITO PER UN SECONDO UNO STRUMENTO DIVERSO DAL CHITARRINO ziopera che fatica 2/5
It’s not like it’s bad, but why?
Rimelig stenet, det gør ikke nogen fortræd 🤷♂️
Echt nich mein Ding 1-2
It was fine, but I’m wondering how the hell this qualifies as an essential listen? Nothing terrible, nothing great. I forget what I just listened to 😂
#226: minivan music for soccer moms who accidentally left their Coldplay cassette at home. 2/5: meh
Just ok. Dont rlly care for it. Pretty boring
BABYLON!
It was fine. Chill. Not terribly memorable.
mundane
On the whole it is very boring. I did quite enjoy the little Dylan-esque Soft Cell cover at the end though. The saving grace of an uninteresting album.
Folk people come and go....
Ei kovinkaan kiinnostava folk-levy, vaikka alussa vähän yritetään elektroonisempaa otetta. 2.5/5
I like the music. I don’t like his voice. 3
Ugh. This is perfectly bland and inoffensive and should rightfully get 3 stars, but it was wildly overplayed back in the day, and a bunch of the tracks I'm just sick of hearing - gonna have to mark it down. Slap one of these vaguely melancholy tunes over a montage at the end of an episode of House and I'll tolerate it, but a whole album is too much. Fave track - uh.... "My Oh My" I guess?
I think I can see how this record would be popular, but for me it is a bit bland and non-descript. I listened to it and did not dislike any part of it, but it was not something I would consider to be necessary to listen to.
Bland. Boring. Soulless. John Mayer without the edge. It’s bad enough that I had to have “Babylon” played at me constantly for six months in a row in 2001, but now I had to listen to it twice on this Nilla Wafer of an album. Boo.
Bland and unseasoned British music... shocking
I remember liking a few of these songs when this came out. Ultimately this isn't something I'd return to though. 2/5
Felt like I was in a cafe on a rainy day in 2008 listening to this.
I find his voice quite grating, even ruined say hello, wave goodbye!
A pretty peaceful vibe easy listen but prob won’t revisit; I just know someone’s aunt loves to let loose with a Pinot to this album
Don’t like the voice
Nachdem ich bei Elton John beim Hören der Platte von zufriedenen vier Punkten am Anfang auf letztlich nur 2 Punkre abrutschte, weil ich es immer generischer fand, war ich hier beim ersten Stück wegen des Schlagzeuges aus der Dose auch kurz bei 4 Punkten. Dann stellte ich fest, dass die Stimme gelegentlich etwas hat, was mir (also ungerecht subjektiv) sehr zuwider ist und schwankte zwischen 1 und 2 Punkten. Schließlich kamen aber doch noch 2 Songs, die ich auch stimmlich ganz ok fand.
No thank you David. For all that Babylon has kind of entered into the ironic appreciation stage, this, on the back of Jones, was just more MOR, boring nothingness. He's a United fan, so gains 0.1 marks for that.
Overplayed when it first came out. Still has good songs, but can’t imagine choosing to put it on
It wasn't particularly bad but quite forgettable. Seems like music for people who don't really like music. That might explain why it stayed in the charts that long.
Tekee mieli olla tätä artistia kohtaan armollinen: hän kykenee toden teolla projisoimaan kuvaa popparista, joka vain tykkää soitella ja tehdä musiikkia. Babylon ansaitsee paikkansa unohdettujen radiohittien maailmassa.
First two songs had me like “oooh the John Denver-Moby collab might hit!” and then it lost its energy completely. Apparently this was on the UK Top 100 albums chart for THREE YEARS from 2000-2003. Toyota Corolla Music was truly an epidemic in the early 21st century and I’m glad we finally got the cure (Party Rock Anthem)
Ok
Melancholische Supermarktmusik.
This record paved the way for a wave of folk pop singer-songwriters that would dominate pop charts, like John Mayer and Ed Sheeran. Apparently a dude singing with a guitar isn't good enough, so he shoves layers of repetitive basic electronica on top to make it seem sophisticated and powerful to gullible audiences at the time who ate this up. The lyrics are bad. His acoustic guitar just adds fluff. The beats are generic. His vocals are lame, and too focused on impressing the audience with his range and dynamics. The tracks fall into so many cliches and try hard spamming ear worms to hook audiences. I think the first 3 tracks are decent, and I also liked "Sail Away" near the end. Didn't care for anything else.
interesting sound, a mix of synths and country soft rock. not bad but not my favorite. 2.5/5
Hearing this brought me back to listening to WXPN. God, they loved this guy. But every time he came on, I would switch the channel. Dude's voice irks me as does his tepid approach to songwriting and arranging. Not a fan.
I like David Gray when he's backgrounded somewhere and a couple songs may be ones I come back to, but mostly didn't spark my fancy over a couple listens.
Just mid. Forgettable
All those radio-friendly adult contemporary sounds from the 90s distilled into one record, I wasn't a fan. I will say that Gray's got a good voice for this kind of music, even if it does sound like a rough Dylan impersonation at times. Could see myself being slightly more into this album if it was closer to 35 minutes, the average track is nearly 5 minutes long and I don't think any of em earn it
Dave Matthews and Bob Dylan vibe. The folksy tunes were good/needed in their time.
Not a fan. Generic and pretty boring.
so dull. nothing really pops out. 4.5/10
Striving to hear that bit in Sail Away when he whistles, live. Just wow. Sunday afternoon, Glasto legends spot. The world stops. For 5 minutes there’s peace in the world. Everyone listening. Everyone whistling. I think we can all agree that THIS was what John Lennon Imagined! 1.9
meh.... 2/5
Well, Babylon. and on. and on. and on. and on. and on
First two songs are absolute bangers. The rest of the album is just kind of OK
Of all the amazing artists and albums not represented on the list, I can’t for the life of me understand why this was included. Bland, boring, awkward, and sonically dated. It’s not offensive to my ears, just lame. It’s like if you took Ed Sheeran and subtracted from him until all that remained were the things that make him uninteresting.
Greys Anatomy closing credits sounding ass...
Not a big fan of this, talented singer and songwriter, probably won’t listen again.
Not my thing.. sorry
So much whinging. That's what y'all call it, right? Track 1 had the least inspired use of the Amen Break that I've ever heard.
As bland and unremarkable as tepid tapwater. Every single song sounds like a budget option for a tv drama to play over end credits. the sort of stuff playing in the background of an intense coffeeshop breakup scene. It sucks. Another album taking up a spot in this list it doesn't deserve. 3/10
this album has divorced parent energy. i can't explain it. this is the type of album my dad would have listened to on trips between his house and my mom's. vaguely sad, vaguely uplifting, vaguely everything. which means that this album does not hit in any particular way. not unlistenable, but insufferably boring.
Pretty boring and not my style of music. My wife liked it quite a bit though, which is nice, and there were a couple sings I liked. My Oh My is probbably my favorite here.
A bit too nice, makes it dull
ol' wobbly head, the james Blunt prototype, the first ever singer song writer in history. remember when this music was the soundtrack to any hardship on TV in the the 2000s? everything but the singles is turgid, but i bet he's got a bloody lovely house from it.
The popularity of this basic singer songwriter album shows how bereft of guitar music 1998-2000 was. Shove it in the oven with Travis and Coldplay and serve us up some lukewarm pie.
Stylistically, I liked this a fair bit. Reminds me of the James Blunt era of music and he had some interesting sample/instrument selections. Vocal styling was good as well. But the album is just way, way, way too long. If every song was 1-2 min shorter, this would be a really solid album. The last song is miserable, and the album just repeats way too much. Have more to say, or cut it short. Fav tracks: Please Forgive Me, Babylon
I owned this album as an awkward teen and this trip down memory lane was enjoyable as the music holds up better than most of the CDs I owned
This faded into the background every single time for me, did not leave an impression at all. Maybe I didn't take the time to listen to it properly, 3.5/10
This is dreadfully boring, to the point where I have nearly nothing to say about it. It comes in one ear and out the other, and does not earn its extended run time at all. Perhaps there are parts that remind me of singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan, but why would I not listen to him, then? Because this certainly is worse than anything he's ever made. Scrapes by with a two.
Not a bad album, but nothing special. It's something I could have on in the background while I am working on something else. Tracks I liked: Nightblindness This Year's Love
It was OK. A few good songs. Struggle to understand why some singers who are not from America, sing in an American accent, but I suppose it is folk music.
i didnt need to hear this album again nothing bad about it just nothing exciting about it
Yet another that ended up being background noise. Interesting hearing "Babylon" heard this one a lot before and one of the ones I didn't mind on here.
Far too milquetoast and inoffensive. While listening, I never felt the album was *bad*, but that it just didn't grabbed my attention. Far too many of the songs faded into each other and left me with an experience that wasn't at all memorable.
Good musician but I do not like the music
Overall I thought this was a fairly boring album.
I can understand why this would have been mildly popular when White Ladder came out. But this is yet another album that has almost put me to sleep at my work desk. It's the perfect "mum" album with that crooning voice and slow-ish tempo. Best: Sail Away Worst: Silver Lining
extra star because I couldn’t Finnish this so can judge it propperly but damn this was boring
C’est plaaaate, c’est genre un wannabe Ed Sheeran avant qu’Ed Sheeran lui vole sa personnalité pour devenir Ed Sheeran
genérico. percusión recargada. cantante que imita a todos y a ninguno.
Singer-songwriter discovers how to sample and loop tracks and proceeds to make music for proto wine moms. Gray is a solid song writer, but this album as a whole is so generic (especially the singles). I was 16 and working at the local shopping mall when this album really started gaining traction, and Babylon was inescapable. I'm immediately transported back to folding jeans at Anchor Blue and for that, I need to take a star off the otherwise middle of the road score I was going to give it. I did enjoy My Oh My
It's ok, but never great. Better than I expected, but I had very low expectations. A lot of the songs remind me of songs by different artists. Not good enough to put it on myself, not bad enough to turn it off. Favorite song: we're not right
I’m getting too many “slow” indie albums on this thing, and it’s killin’ my vibe, man…
It's ok, nothing really special imho...
I thought the instrumentals where nice but nothing special. It's definitely not something you would dance to but it wasn't trying to be. The vocals on the other hand were not my cup of tea. I was not a fan of the singer and the lyrics where repetitive. The songs all just blended together.
De liefdesbaby van Bob Dylan en Nick Drake mocht contractueel zonder eigen inbreng een album uitbrengen na het winnen van een seizoen van Idols. Althans zo klinkt het. Ontzettend generiek. Daardoor wel veilig en dus makkelijk te luisteren. Vanzelfsprekend wat electronische probeersels er in, want het is 1998 en die computer met state of the art Intel Pentium II processor staat er niet voor niks. Geen ramp om te luisteren dus, maar tijdens deze lijst hoop je toch op de wat meer memorabele albums. Deze zal niet aan me voorbij flitsen op het moment dat Onze Lieve Heer me komt halen, want dit ben je binnen een half uur vergeten.
I was originally going to say that it is merely tolerable, but I’m afraid even that might be too generous. Even songs with some potential get scuttled by annoying indulgences: see Sail Away’s coda which is a whistling solo (yep). Certainly better than Nora Jones or Steely Dan, but that’s not praise.
"Sail Away" is pretty great
It was alright, slightly boring I would argue
Stuck between a 2-3. Definitely was not a bad album so I don’t wanna give a 2 but it’s just not my kinda thing. Sounds like something you’d hear in a coffee shop and is perfect in that setting so I like that this kinda music exists for that vibe but I’m not gonna seek it out. I also respect how early this album is to this sound even if it seems worn out now and I respect that he was early to the bedroom pop scene as well. Fuck this last song is almost 9 minutes for no reason. Just secured a 2 with that one David. 👍: Babylon
🥱🥱🥱🥱boring. It sounds good and all but I just need more. More substance, more character, more soul, more something. When Bryce said this was a top 50 selling album or whatever I was kinda shocked. Starting to make sense of it now though, I’m pretty sure this album is just like the background soundtrack of life. You don’t remember these songs, but you’ve heard them; they’ve just been existing in the background your whole life. Not sure what to rate this because the music itself is made well but it’s just SO uninspired. Leaning 2 here. Would it kill this guy to make a somewhat interesting song? Just one? Best: Babylon MMM: LET GO OF YOUR HEART 🫠LET GO OF YOUR HEAD 😵💫AND FEEL IT NOW🥴
I'm sure David is a nice guy.
It's not the worst thing I've ever heard, but due to the blandness of the album, I feel like I've heard it over and over. David Gray has a good voice, but the strummed guitar with the drum machine might be the most generic thing I've ever heard. I can hear its influence on so much other bland music that I find it impossible to enjoy. It's inoffensive, but it's just too safe. Even the guitar playing seems conservative. Any fingerpicking at all would be welcome at this point.
I forgot how much Babylon took over airwaves in the late 90s. I think overall this one suffers from being built around its hits without containing much substance. White Ladder is pretty vanilla.
2/5
oh the boring Zeroes - quite how this guy dominated the charts is weird. totally inoffensive, well played for making the coin I suppose
Rubbish
medium pop
Bland and uninspiring instrumentation and arrangements, the last two songs are decent but I won't be revisiting this.
forgettable. un peu comme Coldplay, mais en moins bon
The opening two tracks were pretty great folktronica. I was excited for the rest of the album because those tracks felt kind of novel but after that he dropped the “tronica” part of folktronica and I enjoyed it a lot less. The pure folk/pop rock tracks sound like music I hear often in commercials. This Year’s Love actually does get used in commercials so maybe that’s it. I really loved that window-rattler bass intro on We're Not Right. I think this is a good example of how important track order can be. If the -tronica songs came later and it opened with 2 folk/pop rock songs I may have enjoyed it more.
Please forgive me - idk it was aight. Nothing super crazy going on. Instrumental also boring Babylon - boring, especially instrumental My oh my - I do not like this guys voice We’re not right - what the fuck is this instrumental. This weird ass beat. I do not like it
Not my jam, but it is not bad.
Music for people that has a Brad Pitt poster in their room.
Well, that was boring.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Surprisingly boring for an album in the 1001.
Babylon is a classic. Rest of it is kind of plodding and dreary and repetitive, Silver Lining and Sail Away are all right.
Aggressively bland. Not my kind of music.
Kind of a snooze fest
Oh boy. I dated a girl in college that was a big folk fan. This dude was one of her favorites but she always got mad about the songs that got radio play because they weren't "real folk" or whatever. Those radio songs are, to me, way better than the rest of the album. It's very, very, dull. Luckily I ended up marrying a woman who does not listen to such boring crap.
I feel like I used to have one of his albums. Listening now, it feels kind of dated. Not super impressed.
I remember when 'Babylon' was released as a single and it was everywhere. It did not withstand the test of time if you ask me. Overall pretty boring album. 2/5
This is the kind of music I usually really like, but instead I just found this horrifically boring
Didn't do anything for me
Too cheesy for me and the cover of Soft Cell's nice&campy Say Hello Wave Goodbye hurts my ears
Pliisu levy josta vaikea löytää tartuntapintaa. Harmiton taustamusa ilman mausteita.
Background music, whiney voice
Kul med nåt jag aldrig hört talas om. Tråkigt att det var så tråkigt.
PREFS : Please Forgive Me, White Ladder, This Year's Love, Say Hello, Wave Goodbye MOINS PREF : Sail Away
Boring
One-hit wonder for a reason and he should be grateful about that. Manifests every cliche of singer-songwriters and not in a good way.
I got through it, it wasn’t bad. But I wouldn’t put it above a meal of salt and pepper chicken, boiled potatoes, and slightly over cooked broccoli, completed with a small bowl of wet vanilla pudding. It wasn’t anything worth coming back to.
Nothing in it
- that weird feeling when he sounds like Ed Sheeran but its actually Ed Sheeran sounding like David Gray? And my mind is not understanding this
Ei kauheasti sanottavaa. Aika medium
The fact that Spotify's first listening recommendation after this album is a playlist for 'Calm Labor and Delivery' says more about this record than I ever could
It’s okay, I suppose.
I listened to this quite a lot at the time but in retrospect it's a bit of a bland nothing. The production sound is "terrible" even on the remaster, which I guess is a result of the technology of the time he home recorded it. One or two nice tunes but mainly a bit blah. It's not a 1 star though - there's enough dross in this list to give this two.
"White Ladder" eh? What kind of album name is that? The album cover did not help. It's among the worst one that I have ever seen so far. Here we have a mundane scene of behind some sort of iron fence. In front there's a black square with a glowing diagonal line in it. What the heck is that? It tells a lot about the music itself. Mundane and annoyingly generic. My heart sank when I learned that I'm listening to another "folktronica" album. After that Goldfrapp album, I knew mixing folk and electronica is a bad idea. I enjoyed it a bit more though. I like the electronic tunes in some places, particularly in the moments where emotions can be felt. However, that does not necessarily mean that it's better than Goldfrapp's "Seventh Tree". The mentioned album is more inventive and less generic than this. This is some well-produced folk pop for malls, and it's evident with that voice. In conclusion, David Gray's album is, well, gray. I can accept the first track, but as a whole, it's another proof that the robotic electronica and the emotional, human folk is at least very difficult to marry.
Nope
Some strange folk-ish music with a slight electronic beat. Despite being kind of "unique" it just seemed awfully generic really... Nothing about this really stood out to me, and I can't say I enjoyed this album very much. Favourite: Sail Away
One word: “meh”. It’s not terrible, it’s just not very interesting to me.
This album is meh. The first two songs start off alright, but it just does not keep the energy through the rest of the album. It's not my kind of pop music. Favorite song: Please Forgive Me Worst song: Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
ik min kop te
Not for me.
meh
I don't have much background knowledge about this album, but it's 90's pop, so I wasn't expecting to like it very much. I wasn't wrong with that assumption. I don't understand why every song is at least 4 minutes or longer. They don't really need to be. I also don't much care for his voice. The instrumentation isn't bad, and it'd be accurate to say it's my favourite part of the album, but it still doesn't make me like the songs very much. The music isn't offensively bad or anything, but it sure did go in one ear and out the other. It's interesting that there's a cover of a Soft Cell song, but it's inferior to the original. Also, I know the Soft Cell version is already five minutes long, but there was really no reason to extend this cover to be nine minutes long. I was glad to be done with this. My favourite song was My Oh My.
Unworthy of the list. The single "babylon" belongs in the Hall of OK songs. The rest of the album sounds like something from down the road's open-mike night: overly long songs, bland lyrics, uninspired melodies, average voice. I can forgive an inoffensive and unremarkable album, just don't put it on the list and have us listen to its entirety. Special place in hell for its producer. About half of the tracks included forward-mixed additions well out of place. Most notable in opening track and Babylon, with terrible clicky drum track.
Meh
Bland and dated with only a few interesting bits
1/10, 10%
The big thing that gets me about this CD is how repetitive it is. I think he’s making this stuff with a sequencer, and it feels like it. Every song is an endlessly-repeated 4-bar sequence, sometimes (on the more diverse tracks) about a minute of one followed by a minute of another. And there isn’t a ton of evolution of inventiveness in them- be really tends to stick with the same sequence, as originally presented, for the whole song. “Please Forgive Me” and “My Oh My” the phrase is actually two chords, back-and-forth, with brief B-sections. And the drums are clearly a machine, there’s no drift at all. It just means that there’s very little for the mind to play with here- far from revealing more on repeat listens, I get bored midway through each song (partly that’s that they’re slow and sad too). It’s a shame, because he actually has quite a nice sound- he’s got a pleasant, soulful voice, with decent power and projection, and the combination of basically sad country music with piano rock is a little novel. Bottom-line, I didn’t hate this, but if this is on here, he better have EVERY Coldplay CD, because they just do the same thing better.
The music isn't distinctive enough to draw me in, so this album wants me to be drawn in by some profound lyrics which really aren't there. The title track is actually pretty distinctive musically from most of the other tracks which really bleed together and sound samey. This Year's Love isn't particularly novel, but it also stands out from the rest of the songs. I guess this guy gets points for influencing the 21st century British singer-songwriter scene, but I don't particularly like those artists either.
Nothing shockingly bad about this, but just not pulling me in.
Doesn't hold up. Pretty vanilla but not awful.
Nice, easy listening
It s nice. 2.5
Trite, shallow singer/songwriter pop written for teenage girls after their first heartbreak. Bleh.
Mid. 2 stars
As I said previously, you can only like so many folk artists. Since the music / riffs usually are nothing to write home about, you can like them only if you invest time with the lyrics. If you don’t invest the time, you will never start liking them regardless of how how good they are. I didn’t invest the time with this English brother.
This is very soft, like James Taylor for the next generation. There's a lot of mega selling modern folk singers out there these days who sound equally bad. The modern production makes it worse. The cover of Say Hello Wave Goodbye is bearable, but not for 9 minutes.
Not too unpleasant but not too exciting either
The synth and fake drums are kinda corny
Good background music, acoustic rock not really my thing.
Meh
Couldn't get through all of this...maudling overplayed meh. Agree with comments about bad drum machines.
David Gray is the Adele from the early 00s. Their albums are very popular (you could hear White Ladder everywhere 20-25 years ago) and very skilfully made, and whilst listening to a couple of songs is nice, listening to a whole album in one go might be a bit too much. WL contains quite a few very strong songs and I was thinking about a 3-star score or so, but had forgotten about the horrible 9-minute Soft Cell cover in the end (+5* original -> -5* cover).
boooring
This is OK, I guess? It feels kind of middle-of-the-road to me, and the top track "Babylon" is extremely forgettable. British people seem to love it though. 2/5
This album is so ADULT©! This album is 1998/2001 and people who kept telling me to grow up always seemed to mark this as the favourite album. They were probably right but if their idea of adult was David Gray I'm glad I kept on being a ne'er-do-well. Also, why does this album sound like a bunch of bad B-sides by the Verve?
Pop com maior presença de elementos tecno, mas sem grande relevância para mim.
It's not the worst album I have heard here. I actually like the singer's voice. It's really nice. I am just not a fan of synthesized instruments. If there were real people playing along then there would be such different energy in the songs.
another english singer-songwriter zzzzzzz
Enjoyed David’s album
Interesting performance, songs weren’t bad they just didn’t move me any which way.
-Honestly very boring -The only point that stood out in the album was the passion in the chorus of "My Oh My" -Everything was sonically just very plain and boring
This feels like an album I should like (kind of slow, meloncholy, unassuming) but I just found it annoying and boring. Every song sounded the same. I barely noticed when it changed to the next track.
mehhhhhh
p825. 1998. A perfect example of the artist's surname reflecting the content. It's a bit like porridge, you consume it to fill a need but it leaves you feeling vaguely unsatisfied. Every track sounds the same, and the cover of Say Hello Wave Goodbye is appalling, it sounds like a dirge. The entire album is background noise for a 90s dinner party. Definitely not essential listening.
05/20/2022 Pretty dull and unmemorable. Same vibes as Coldplay, etc.
Pretty weak
honestly, pretty average.
Het begin beviel me wel, maar na ongeveer de helft van het album had ik zo ongeveer gehad. Daarom net iets minder dan de helft van de punten
Babylon saves this from being a one. Very sleepy.
Pop that's just forgettable enough thanks to the underwhelming production (electronics that mostly disappear after a few tracks!?) and way-excessive length. It would make a pretty good EP, but it's always a bad feeling to check and see you're less than halfway through a project.
Njae, det lirar inte tycker jag. Det är inte helt urkasst men det är för välproducerat på något vis.
the biggest test yet to my no skip policy. 2*s only for the fact that it is a bit of a nostalgia trip, despite the fact that it's bringing me back to places i don't want to go
Forgettable as a project, songs on their own are not too bad though.
Its....ok. I actually think DG has better songs elsewhere but this is obviously the radio friendly megahit album. In this particular genre, its not a bad album. In an overall context, there's no justification for it being here. This Years Love is a decent tune, but I actually find the two super-singles quite irritating.
This LP has aged worse than spoiled milk - the drums sound straight out of the 90s Korg catalog, and the synths could be presets on any old synth you'd find at a garage sale. The only part that makes this semi-tolerable are the mildly unique arrangements, but even those are hard to find under Gray's melodramatic vox.
I have no idea if I've ever heard David Gray before. I find the album cover quite off putting for some reason. But it gives me no clue as to what I'll be hearing. OK that's a familiar voice. Opening track is fine but doesn't really blow me away. But here we are, Babylon. Also fine. These songs are all reminding me of Dave Matthews, who is fine but I never understood why people loved him quite so much. Same here, he sounds sincere enough, but this doesn't even have the quality music behind the vocals. Oof. We're Not Right and Nightblindness are not fine. By the last song I am desperate to be done, even though some of the later songs were inoffensive and 50 min isn't an outrageous run time. Just too much for me. I'm looking at the cover art some more and I think it tries to be interesting in a way that is actually pretty boring. So I guess it *does* give some idea of what's inside.
tepid
Low 2, didn't make me feel much
David Gray's voice reminds me a lot of Ryan Adams. Am I alone in that? The music isn't nearly as all over the place as Adams, but the voice is just about the same to me. This is pretty bland for me, though.
It's all quite a bit bland isn't it? It's okay, sure and completely inoffensive but nothing worth writing home about.
I'm not a fan really. This was absolutely everywhere back when, and if something isn't quite your bag, but it's in your face at every corner you end up really disliking it. I did listen to the whole album partly as I'm committed to 1001 albums... and partly as therapy for the damage inflicted by Babylon every time I walked into a shop in 1999.
Terrible, overwrought shit.
I didn't make it through this whole album. It was very much like department store background music to me, and did not hold my interest. Maybe the last 2/3 of the album is great but I will never know.
This album is a bit of a snooze fest. While the songs were mildly pleasant, they were also nothing great. I found I was more bored with it on the second listen, which isn't a good sign. I liked My Oh My and Silver Lining. Please Forgive Me sounded like an attempt at being Bob Dylan. Babylon is overplayed, but not bad. Overall, it wasn't a terrible album, but I could easily go without ever hearing this album again. Zzzzz.
Another background album. Painfully mid. 4/10.
Babylon is a dated hit. Boorrrring soft rock nonsense. technically and sonically competent.
Hm hm. Solid fusion of nostalgic love songs and pop music, I'd say.
I didn't think I would like this, and I was right. But I don't hate it as much as I thought I would, either...the music is nice but the vocals are irritating. Not enough here to justify that third star...sorry.
OK - but a little dull. Not sure what the album is doing on this list
2.5 | No ubicaba a David Gray, nunca había escuchado su disco ni su música (que recuerde). Me sorprende mucho por lo que leo la magnitud de éxito que fue este disco, años y años en el top 100 de ventas, millones de ventas, por un momento, sin que yo siquiera tuviera conocimiento de él, al parecer fue de los artistas más fuertes que había... y después pareciera que nunca logró volver a rascar siquiera un nivel cercano a ese. De hecho parece que todo se basa en la canción de Babylon, la cual debo aceptar es bastante buena; sin embargo el resto del disco se siente un poco repetitivo, canciones de amor sin ton ni son, sentimentaloides, no mal escritas pero tampoco nada brillante. Veo también que se creo mucha expectativa desde antes que saliera en masivo el disco, se habló muchísimo de él y del sencillo antes de que Dave Matthews lo relanzara con fuerza y me pregunto qué tanto fue la calidad verdadera para llegar a ese nivel y qué tanto fue simplemente la maquinaria promocional que infló un álbum como la nueva virtuosidad del alternativo basándose en una canción brillante. No es malo, no es excelente, se me hace una curiosidad interesante de escuchar al conocer la historia del disco pero hasta ahí... Disco algo olvidable para mí a pesar de no tener problemas graves.
Ok
White Ladder by David Gray (1998) When a singer/songwriter begins an album (“Please Forgive Me”) with a self application of the first of the seven last words of Christ (“Forgive . . . They know not what they do” Luke 23:34), followed by the anti-rhetoric rhetorical device of ironic self deprecation (Antony: ”I am no orator, as Brutus is . . .” Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Act 3, scene 2), the careful listener knows he/she is in for some seriously persuasive soul-baring. I don’t know if David Gray melted the heart of his former love, but he nearly melted mine. And so he proceeds, step by step, humbly, with musical quality and apparent honesty: confessing, bleeding, pleading, agonizing, fearing, and soiling the listener with his personal emotional dirt—completely devoid of gems or nuggets. Now I, for one, am willing to get dirty. And I’m sure we can all relate. But does he go too far? Does he repel the audience with overwrought transparency? Does he produce a certain detrimental empathy, if only in the hearts of his more sensitive hearers (i.e., those who are the only ones likely to ‘get it’ in the first place)? Perhaps so. Feelings of exile (“Babylon”) are not quite right, especially when, in your inebriation, you “can’t tell the bottle from the mountaintop” (“We’re Not Right”). Is this why White Ladder was so hugely popular in Ireland? Perhaps the real lessons of the Babylonian Exile and the Betty Ford Center are being missed here. Is it only a matter of discipline and accountability? I don’t think so. David Gray seems reluctant to embrace the good, the true, and the beautiful. A whole album full of this is unbalanced. Even faith (“Sail Away”) is tormented by a history of shattered trust. Even hope (“Silver Lining”) can only grope about for a dark cloud in which to wrap itself. Even love (“This Year’s Love”) is encumbered by the anxiety of ephemerality. And even in the eloquent kiss-off of the closing track (“Say Hello Wave Goodbye”), Mr. Gray is depressingly and unrelentingly self absorbed. Don’t listen to this album if you’re blue, unless you just need to be reminded that someone’s life sucks more than yours does. 2/5
Might be good but hard to enjoy because it's been so overplayed as classic 90s lovey music
Non descript and pretty boring
a bit too singer-songwritery for my liking, but some good tunes on here
I almost gave this 3* - the same as I gave 'The Freewheeling Bob Dylan', which is madness. It's fine, singles are OK. But there's something quite annoying about it, and him.
Very pleasant background music. I would have probably given this negative stars 10-15 years ago but can see the appeal to an extent.
Easy jazz.. not bad
Some good tunes
Barebones and soporific rock. Feels like the soundtrack to a B-movie countryside romcom. I applaud this album for starting a broader musical trend but I just can't get into this
Meh. Decent but a bit boring.
Pretty boring, I recognized many of the songs. Sounded like shopping in the mall. The harmonies sounded consistently depressing. I found this great quote about David Gray: > David Gray is sick of the sound of David Gray. “I’m bored with myself,” he confesses within moments of my arriving at his Hampstead home. “I realised, after the last tour, I’m fed up with my basic line of inquiry, my angle, my schtick, the density of my voice, all these things needed to be escaped from.
Hard to see past how it was mocked and parodied. Bland but inoffensive.
3.5
"This Year's Love" Released: 8 March 1999 "Babylon" Released: 12 July 1999 "Please Forgive Me" Released: 22 November 1999 "Sail Away" Released: 16 July 2001 "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" Released: 17 December 2001
He sounds like Bob Dylan's son except not as good.. like Bob Dylan's actual son. Album was fine
Nope, zu easy-listening, zu David Bowie-like.
Boring as hell. 3-4/10
boring '90s crap
Fine in the background. Easy listening for 50 year olds. Not bad, but why would you ever choose to actively listen to it?
Overplayed crap. Not even sure it was good when it first came out, probably only made the list due to lack of foresight.
This was... so boring. With so many streams on Spotify I was surprised I never heard of it. It must have been a big in the UK thing that never really made it here. I did enjoy Nightblindness, but that's it.
Nach meinem Geschmack ist diese Platte ein Ideechen zu unverfänglich. Man würde gerne etwas nettes darüber schreiben, aber nett ist hier leider die kleine Schwester von Scheiße. Für gewöhnlich entdecke ich ja an jedem Album in dieser Liste noch den erkennbaren Willen, sich abseits ausgetretener Pfade zu bewegen, das gelingt mir bei diesem Album nicht, dafür ist es einfach zu banal. Ich habe seinerzeit nix von dieser Platte mitbekommen, bin mir aber sicher, das diverse Songs davon gerne in Radio gespielt wurden. Laut englischer Wikipedia sagte der Künstler über sein Werk folgendes: "Its success came from nowhere, and it changed how the business thought about what music should be. Since then, there have been lots of artists who've taken it on and done their own thing." Dieses Statement geradezu naiver Selbstüberschätzung rang mir ein kleines Schmunzeln ab. Schmock.
It feels like this album list has a particular fetish for mediocre British pop music. This album is fine, but there's not anything particularly interesting or noteworthy about it that I can see. It's like having a Jack Johnson album on here. It's fine, but there are so many great albums that are not represented on this list, I can't understand why this one is. This album also gets more mediocre as it goes. I though it might have some interesting elements at first, but there's really nothing here 2/5
Singer/songwriter, roligt, klaver
Bland and boring music, for bland and boring people
Oh, for fuck's sake. Really?
horrifically boring
When this album came out, the DJ at the Modern Rock radio station I where I was working said (on air) "I thought that after the death of Jeff Buckley, we saw the end of the singer-songwriter thing. Looks like i was wrong. Too bad." I don't really care for the singer-songwriter genre either. But after listening to the first few song I could understand why people do. Not that I liked these songs at all... but I got it. Then I listened to the rest of the album. It's boring AF. All these songs sound the same to me with little nuance. It also seems that some contributors to this book were just plain lazy. I feel they only thought about the questiion for a day or so and then just answered with something current (or at least recent within 10 years) and called it a day. If they had actually thought about it, they would have known that this album would have not stood any type of test of time at all.
Super bland and uninteresting acoustic pop/rock that the 90s/early 00s was ripe with. Unfortunately this album has nothing interesting to say, and the production is absolutely abysmal. How was this so popular?
recall “Babylon” coming out and thinking it sucked out loud. Gray made Dave Matthews’ singing style feel articulate, and I always pictured him as a yawp-jawed bobblehead, the vague forms of lyrics jostling out of his mouth by chance. Suffice it to say this is my first time listening to the album in toto. I do feel like if you saw David Gray in a crowd, no you didn't. His most distinguishing feature is that he looks sort of like nothing. Like the taste of air… technically it's there, but not really? And his music is pretty much the same. Sure, technically these are songs, but unless I force myself to hear them as often as Babylon was forced on us, I will not remember any of them. The most notable bit is the maniac insistence of putting a fruity-loops synthetic percussion track over (never under) these sparsely composed, boring as hell songs. If you told me this was early AI I would believe it. If you told me that this album was just 50 minutes of silence, I won't be able to confirm it wasn't. On the one hand, these are songs that never needed to be written. On the other, are any of these songs intentional enough to say they were written at all? The longer this goes on the more inessential it feels. It's as mealy mouthed as John Mayer but without the guitar chops. It manages to stuff absolutely terrible sounds (We're Not Right's weird pattering and annoying ufo synth) into songs that still immediately want to escape your brain. I'm not going to remember what these notes refer to in the morning. It's the musical equivalent of putting water in your cornflakes…bland made blander and at least a little psychopathic to enjoy it. It's 50 minutes of silent farts in the wind. And it was on the charts for three years? They thought any of these songs, much less five, made decent singles? This is apparently the album where music died. ⭐️ ½ for killing music. For that matter, ⭐️ ½ to anyone who bought this album.
1. forgive - 1 2. baby - 1 3. my - 1 4. right - 1 5. night - 1 6. zilver - 1 7. ladder - 1 8. love - 1 9. zail - 1 10. hello - 2
I'm not the audience for this record. There's something intangible I'm gesturing at or reaching for when I say that some albums express themselves wrapped inside of all the tropes of their genre while others eschew the well worn path. And, for White Ladder, I don't know if this record helped shape some of the tropes it finds itself wholly enmeshed in or if it's merely a trick of history that it sounds so steeped in cliche now. The record feels so firmly "adult contemporary" like it wants to be the picture of being open and honest in a grown-up way. I can see David Gray looking deeply into the mirror of himself grappling with the big issues of his heart as he strives to put them into lyrics that really communicate the depth of his thoughts and emotions... Or, at least that's what he'd like us to think because somehow the result is way too neat. So, I'm left to wonder if there's anything more there as the record fails to actually surprise or inspire. I can't help but downgrade it from a 2 star rating to a 1 star rating out of boredom. I admit it won't be the worst album of that lot. More than anything listening to this, I can imagine these songs as soundtracks for Lifetime TV specials that the cool middle-American moms are watching.
Unbelievably vapid and boring music. I don’t know if it is, but this is what i think of when I think of 90s “adult contemporary” music