|
|
|
Gavin DeGraw - Free
| Slantmagazin |
| Coming just 10 months after his over-produced sophomore album failed to build on the momentum of his debut, Chariot, and its ubiquitous hit "I Don't Want to Be," Gavin DeGraw's Free sounds like a rush job. With just nine songs—one of them a solid cover of the late Chris Whitley's "Indian Summer"—and a stripped-down aesthetic that owes as much to DeGraw having fired his band as to a deliberate artistic choice, Free is a bit thin. Although the songs may have benefited from a bit more work ("Why Do the Men Stray" strings together a series of obvious rhymes and naïve observations about gender differences, while "Dancing Shoes" sounds like Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis" without a compelling narrative or hook), but there are moments when the less fussy production suits DeGraw well. He has a more textured, expressive voice than some of his contemporaries, and he delivers "Lover Be Strong" and lead single "Stay" with real conviction. What works about Free and what elevates it above his first two albums is that the scope of the low-key, loose production is well matched to DeGraw's workmanlike songwriting and his unpretentious vocal performances. The album may not have any standout hooks to give him another inescapable radio hit, but it does suggest that DeGraw has finally found a style that suits him well....full text |
|
|
| Neonlimelight |
|
For his third studio album, Gavin DeGraw set out to make an album that goes back to the basics, that strips away the barriers between the raw magnetism of the music and the listener’s ears. A two-week long jam session in a New York studio with producer Camus Celli resulted in Free, a collection of 10 songs exhibiting the intended minimal production, and DeGraw’s immense talent for writing songs that run the gamut of love’s ups and downs. One such song is the first single from the set, the guitar-laden, mid-tempo lovelorn tale of ”Stay.” “You don’t have to be part of the problem/I just need a second chance,” sings DeGraw as the song opens amidst the yearning twinkling of his piano. His indecisiveness has clearly gotten the best of him. As the instrumentation fills out at the chorus, so does DeGraw’s grief-stricken vocals lamenting the near-loss of his lady. “Oh, won’t you stay/I need you, need you here/when you’re with me/others disappear.”...full text |
|
|
| Ew |
| This pop-soul piano man says Free is not actually the official follow-up to his self-titled 2008 set; instead, it offers stripped-down new studio treatments of various tunes that he's been performing since his early days on the New York City club scene. DeGraw's singing and his band's playing are fine throughout, but some more hooks like the ones in his biggest hit, ''I Don't Want to Be,'' would have been nice. Only a slow-burning cover of the late Chris Whitley's ''Indian Summer'' really stands out from the blur of tastefully arranged midtempo ballads...full text |
|
|
Go to "Gavin DeGraw " lyrics