David Gray is my latest great discovery; I just bought this as my third CD by him. OK, OK – I know the rest of you brilliant children have been listening to him for years and I am just slow to catch up and you are all jaded and blasé about him by now and yada yiddity yada. Shut up and let me revel for a moment, will ya?

First, there’s his voice. I can’t determine if it is a particularly gravelly tenor or a raspy but sweet-pitched baritone, but it is as sweet on my ears as honey on buttered scones. Not really a pretty voice, but not unpleasant nevertheless – a little rough as though weathered by life’s pains and trials. Kind of an English Bob Dylan.

And then there’s his music, the words and the sounds that come together in soul-piercing combinations—ballads of angst and hope and sufferance for the 21st century. A poet set to music, a musical pied piper calling out the doubts and the fears and the secret feelings inside.