David Gray releases his new single ‘A Tight Ship’, the latest new track to emerge from his forthcoming album Gold In A Brass Age, due for release on March 8, 2019 via IHT Records / AWAL Recordings. Produced by Ben de Vries, son of producer and soundtrack composer Marius de Vries, Gold In A Brass Age – Gray’s first album of new material in four years – will arrive just ahead of a run of seventeen headline shows across the UK and Ireland. Dates in Cardiff, Cambridge, Dublin, London and York are already sold-out. Stream ‘A Tight Ship’ below!
You’ll still recognize Gray’s gravelly rasp on new single ‘A Tight Ship’, but the singing is softer, sweeter, more intimate and occasionally falsetto. It’s part of a song-writing shake-up that defines a more intuitive approach from Gray across Gold In A Brass Age. Using a cut and paste approach to the arrangement of songs, lyrics have been transformed, with couplets closer to poetry, and whilst his guitar and piano playing remain, it’s the ushering in of electronica and the exploring of alternative sound textures alongside new production techniques that take to the fore.
Speaking about ‘A Tight Ship’, Gray says: “This was by far the toughest track to get right. It has a quirky chord structure that keeps changing key and I’m singing in an almost Marvin Gaye falsetto, which is in no way comfortable for me. For ages I had the opening couplet ‘The better then, to know myself/Fear be damned, let love be wealth’. Beyond that, I was stuck. The song has a lovely lightness that means the lyrics couldn’t be heavy-footed. The line that unlocked it was ‘To dance like no one sees’. That’s the pay-off.”
Gold In A Brass Age will be David Gray’s eleventh album in a career that spans over 25 years, several Brit and Grammy nominations, and three No.1 UK albums, including for the breakout multi-platinum White Ladder. The new album’s title is drawn from Raymond Carver’s short story Blackbird Pie, and informed by the regenerative cut and thrust of Gray’s adopted home of London and a fascination with the natural world. The album’s striking artwork – for which Gray approached Peckham-based Londonboy Tattooer – depicts an Emperor moth with the City of London captured between its wingspan.
The album is also a vital new collection of songs from an artist still reveling in his passion for song-craft, pushing himself into unfamiliar terrain, surprising himself as much as his fans along the way.
Live Dates:
Fri, 15 Mar Cardiff St David’s Hall SOLD OUT
Sat, 16 Mar Cambridge Corn Exchange SOLD OUT
Sun, 17 Mar London Royal Festival Hall SOLD OUT
Tue, 19 Mar Brighton Dome
Wed, 20 Mar Southend Cliffs Pavilion
Fri, 22 Mar Manchester Bridgewater Hall
Sat, 23 Mar Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
Sun, 24 Mar Gateshead Gateshead
Tues, 26 Mar Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Wed, 27 Mar Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre
Fri, 29 Mar Birmingham Symphony Hall
Sat, 30 Mar York Barbican SOLD OUT
Sun, 31 Mar Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Tues, 2 Apr Belfast Waterfront
Thur, 4 April Castlebar Royal Theatre
Fri, 5 April Dublin Bord Gais Theatre SOLD OUT
Sat, 6 April Dublin Bord Gais Theatre SOLD OUT