Mutineers (album)
2014 studio album by David Gray
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Mutineers is the tenth studio album by English singer-songwriter David Gray, released on 17 June 2014 on IHT Records, with "Back in the World" as its first single. It was Gray's fifth consecutive US Top 20 album.[2] A decade after its release, Gray said that he is "super proud" of what was "a purposeful first step into the current creative zone, both sonically and thematically".[3]
| Mutineers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 17 June 2014 | |||
| Recorded | November 2013 – March 2014 | |||
| Studio | The Church Studios | |||
| Genre | Folk rock | |||
| Length | 48:22 | |||
| Label | Good Soldier Songs | |||
| Producer | Andy Barlow | |||
| David Gray chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 72/100[1] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
Background
In the years leading up to the recording of the album, Gray had become exhausted and disillusioned. "Coming out of the Noughties, I just felt beat up, physically and mentally", he told critic Tony Clayton-Lea. "And bored".[4] Gray recounted that he "needed someone else in the studio to help me find the keys to the city; someone who would take me to a place that I hadn't heard before. And that person was Andy Barlow", a producer and musician. He described the collaboration as "a beautiful agony". The pair established a "stringent recording schedule", which unlocked a "creative spontaneity" that Gray found "priceless", and which ultimately "rehumanised" him.[4]
Release
On 1 April 2014, the video for "Gulls" premiered on both the Myles O'Reilly website and Gray's official YouTube channel, with O'Reilly being the director.[5][6] On 10 April, "Back in the World" was uploaded onto Gray's official YouTube channel.[7] A day later, the song was played by radio presenter Chris Evans on BBC Radio 2 for The Chris Evans Breakfast Show.[8]
Critical reception
Tony Clayton-Lea found that the album saw Gray "reconnect with a fervour" that had been absent since the artist had found massive commercial success with White Ladder.[4] Writing in The Irish Times, the critic said that it was "yet another departure point" for the artist. The Guardian noted "a timeworn quality that's charismatic", in an album where "[optimism] is the overriding theme".[9] It was "the sound of a man gently recuperating from a decade of being defined by his multimillion-selling 1998 album, White Ladder". PopMatters saw it as an overdue sequel, "the kind of follow-up to 1998's smash White Ladder for which longtime fans have been waiting some 16 years", and "the most comfortable Gray has sounded in years".[10]
Track listing
All tracks are written by David Gray except where noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Back in the World" | Gray, Andy Barlow | 3:57 |
| 2. | "As the Crow Flies" | Gray, Barlow | 4:13 |
| 3. | "Mutineers" | 5:01 | |
| 4. | "Beautiful Agony" | Gray, Barlow | 4:04 |
| 5. | "Last Summer" | 4:13 | |
| 6. | "Snow in Vegas" | 4:21 | |
| 7. | "Cake and Eat It" | 2:33 | |
| 8. | "Birds of the High Arctic" | Gray, Barlow | 6:24 |
| 9. | "The Incredible" | Gray, Robbie Malone | 3:23 |
| 10. | "Girl Like You" | 5:18 | |
| 11. | "Gulls" | 4:55 | |
| Total length: | 48:22 | ||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Nearly Midnight" | 3:51 |
| Total length: | 52:13 | |
Personnel
- David Gray – vocals, pianos, guitars, keyboards, harp, harmonica, Juno synthesizer
- Rob Malone – bass, acoustic, electric and nylon string guitars, e-bow, high strung guitar
- Keith Prior – drums, percussion
- Caroline Dale – cello
- Andy Barlow – programming
Charts
| Chart (2014) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[11] | 22 |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[12] | 67 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[13] | 57 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[14] | 31 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[15] | 53 |
| Irish Albums (IRMA)[16] | 7 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[17] | 36 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[18] | 27 |
| UK Albums (Official Charts)[19] | 10 |
| US Billboard 200[20] | 15 |