David Gray has embarked on his fifty-two date Past & Present world tour in support of his critically acclaimed new album, ‘Dear Life’, released earlier this month via his independent label, Laugh A Minute Records/Secretly Distribution. The tour is currently underway in the U.S. and will continue with UK dates throughout March, April, and May. The majority of shows are already sold out, including London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall. He will be in Brighton on March 14th at the Dome
The response to ‘Dear Life’ has been extraordinary. Critics have hailed the album as “a brooding triumph” (Telegraph), “his most confessional and emotive work to date” (Clash Magazine), and “a slow-burner that catches fire” (Mojo). The album has also drawn comparisons to Gray’s multi-platinum-selling, ‘White Ladder’ – “the sonic DNA of White Ladder is present here,” (Rolling Stone) and “his poppiest and most successful album since White Ladder” (Music OMH). Gray’s artistry as a songwriter has also been singled out – “this 13th album confirms Gray’s not lost his touch” (Guardian) and “a soulful collection of richly poetic songs about love, change and mortality” (Independent).
David Gray’s story is unlike any other. He spent almost a decade striving to make a breakthrough, and when it happened it did so in the biggest way imaginable as ‘White Ladder’ became one of the best-selling British albums of recent decades and established him as an arena-filling artist. As the years have passed, his songcraft has only been deepened by his natural ability to convey specific emotions, atmospheres, or, as heard on his acclaimed 2021 album ‘Skellig’, a perception of place – all positioning him in the lineage of classic poetic singer-songwriters rather than lovestruck acoustic troubadours. While the likes of Ed Sheeran, Adele and Hozier have acknowledged his influence, David has continued to follow his own artistic path.
‘Dear Life’ is Gray’s thirteenth album. It’s the result of “a starburst of songwriting … it just seemed like the gods of songwriting were being kind. The doubting voices didn’t turn up.” An album of emotional crisis and resolution, mortality and faith, reality and illusion, love and heartbreak, magic, science, loss and acceptance. While it is full of yearning and hope, there is an undercurrent of darkness, a tension between competing forces of hope and despair: a cavalcade of emotions in what is his most lyrically-focused collection to-date.
The Radio 2 playlisted “Plus & Minus” catches the songwriter at his most immediately infectious. The song’s piano refrain frames a duet about a fractured relationship, in which Gray’s inimitable voice trades words of disillusionment and despair with newcomer Talia Rae, whose smoky vocal simultaneously evokes equal measures of wit and sadness.
Watch the video for “Plus & Minus” HERE
The new album’s foundations were set in 2019, but progress was halted by Covid as well as the subsequent need to twice reschedule his huge ‘White Ladder’ anniversary tour. Revisiting those songs was a reminder of the classic songcraft and electronic undercurrent that made them so memorable, yet David was also compelled to ambitiously broaden his palette, working with producer Ben de Vries to create dazzlingly rich orchestral strings, horns and woodwind arrangements to correspond with the scale of the themes. A change of location was also a factor, with much of the album recorded in a makeshift studio in Norfolk.
David adds, “A lot has happened to me. There’s been change on so many levels, all the ups and downs and dramas and tragedies and joys that the slow movement through life brings. This record has been a reckoning with stuff that’s been building up like static for years. But I say this with joy and a smile on my face. I know what I’ve done is as good as anything I could possibly do.”
The physical release of ‘Dear Life’ includes two additional tracks, “The Messenger” and “More Than Anything,” available exclusively on Vinyl/CD format.
Talia Rae will be the special guest support across all UK and EU dates, with Sierra Spirit joining as the special guest for all U.S. dates.
