Casual Observer
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Individual tracks again received BBC radio play and the album came 11th in Vibrations Magazine's albums of 2012:
'Over the course of his two previous albums (None of the Above and Vertical Wealth) William Gray has honed his remarkable songwriting talents to the extent that Casual Observer represents a potent distillation of what he does.
Like all his albums, this one isn’t particularly long (its nine songs just scraping over the 30 minute mark) and superficially it doesn’t seem to contain much of value on first hearing.
However, something indefinable will make you play it again and from that point on the jewels it contains will begin to emerge.
Gray’s main achievement is the economy with which he makes both words and music, allied to a mature sense of melody, deliver observations and stories about life and love that resonate so strongly.
And his voice, subtly aged over the years like a smokey single malt, adds a world-weary melancholy to each song.
Musically, Gray is beginning to shift away from a simple acoustic guitar backing to incorporate a wider range of instruments and effects that help to push his songs into interesting new shapes.
Gray is the kind of songwriter who you just know can only get better and better.'
Steve Walsh
Vibrations Magazine
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