#23 - Phil

David Gray

White Ladder

2000

Have you ever dug through some of the albums you used to listen to when you were in middle school and listened to them again now? It can be quite an embarrassing endeavor! If I did this (and I did) I would start digging up records by Papa Roach, Puff Daddy, and the Spice Girls. Yikes! However, there was one album I listened to my 8th grade year that has stood the test of time, and that album is David Gray’s White Ladder.

Released just three months into the new decade, White Ladder is the oldest record you’ll find on my countdown. What could easily have been just another collection of soft and formulaic tunes from the English singer-songwriter became so much more, as these ten songs led to Gray’s breakthrough into mainstream music success. The album’s opening track, “Please Forgive Me,” I often cite as one of my favorite songs of all-time. It’s simple yet powerfully-instilling piano chords always give me chills, and Gray’s words have never sounded more honest: “Please forgive me, if I act a little strange / For I know not what I do / Feels like lightning running through my veins / Every time I look at you.” While his lyrics are not remarkably abstract, Gray is so gifted at understanding human beings and bringing their emotions to surface that it doesn’t matter. “Nightblindness,” a song about financially hard times in a relationship, also hits home with me: “Propping mountains up on matchsticks / Dragging baskets full of bones / What we gonna do when the money runs out? / I wish there was something I could say / How we going to find the eyes to see a brighter day?” Gray’s work here truly inspires me as an artist. -P.W.

So, I had heard David Gray before. I think it was Life in Slow Motion and I thought it was a pretty boring sad sap record. Therefore, unlike other albums on Phil’s list, I wasn’t that excited to hear White Ladder. But I was pleasantly surprised by it. I had no idea it was David Gray who had written “Please Forgive Me,” “Babylon,” and “This Year’s Love” and overall this was a very enjoyable album. While nothing about the music itself stuck out as particularly unique (which is very difficult to do for singer / songwriters) his voice is incredibly emotive and his song writing is strong. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something about this album escapes its derivative contemporaries. I can see how David Gray could possibly be an influence on Phil’s own music. - Ryan

I remember "Babylon" being played endlessly in shopping malls and commercials at the turn of the decade. Having never heard this record, it's now bizarre to go back and hear that his folk pop tunes are backed by a drum machine. This inhuman touch does give this adult contemporary album an interesting twist, but the songs end up a little bland. While this record achieved more acclaim than most, for me it ended up as another easy-listening record that just slips through your fingers like flavorless water. - Steve