•• David Gray - Hospital Food (Atlantic)
•• Published: musicOMH, November 2005
•• Original article: http://www.musicomh.com/singles/david-gray-4_1105.htm

David Gray is the man held responsible for spawning the likes of James Blunt and Daniel Powter - for which you will either love him or loathe him. Rather than being a political statement decrying the state of the NHS and their lack of culinary expertise, however, this latest single Hospital Food is about as surprising a departure as someone being told to "Gerraadamapub" by Peggy Mitchell on EastEnders.

Safely sweet instrumentation, an intro that has a handy whiff of Christmas to it and the usual passionately adequate, soaring vocal delivery are on offer here: the words; "Tell me something I don't already know" easily attributable to something we've already heard a thousand times before.

As bland as it is beautiful, this will neither gain nor lose the wobbly-headed one any fans, but it has to be said he still does it better than any of the pretenders to his mainstream singer-songwriting throne. It's just a shame that more innovative artists such as Johnathan Rice continue to languish on the fringes at his expense.

- Ian Roullier