Drops: David Gray's 'Foundling' lacks spark

Some electroshock therapy might have helped David Gray before he made his second album in less than a year. It's beautiful in many ways, from Gray's appealingly world-weary voice to the "Astral Weeks"-style arrangements on opening tracks "Only the Wine" and "Foundling" (Downtown). But for all the tastefully strummed acoustic guitars and vague, tempered outrage in the lyrics, "Foundling" is a victim of Gray's unwillingness to vary his subdued singing style or raise the energy level.

It's understandable that Gray would include at least one characteristic and predictable ballad like "We Could Fall In Love Again," a soundtrack to a rekindled romance. He missed an opportunity, though, with the potentially more lively "Forgetting," which strings together desperate lines like "itching and scratching and punching and hitting" - then sets them to a sparse piano dirge that never quite ignites with the aggression of the lyrics. On "Foundling," the closest thing here to a funky change-of-pace, Gray rouses himself to shout and whoop, but he concludes with such banalities as "feast your eyes on love sweet love."

All 11 songs seem designed not to put off the British singer-songwriter's core audience, which spiked 10 years ago with his smash "Babylon." The album closes with yet another dirge, "Davey Jones' Locker," a reference, of course, to the bottom of the sea. It's a shame Gray wasn't referring instead to the diminutive Monkees singer - at least "Foundling" would have gone out with some kind of party.

David Gray plays Nikon at Jones Beach Theater Thursday with Ray LaMontagne.

David Gray

"Foundling"

GRADE B-

BOTTOM LINE Genteel pop without much bite