Robin Grey has been featured a couple of times before on Song, by Toad, largely because there’s just something I like about his voice, both in the sense of his singing voice and also in terms of the way he expresses himself as a writer.

There’s something of the pub open mic night act about him in a sense, and I can easily picture him fetching up at a nice boozer London, with his guitar case and a scarf and that wee hat of his, to play a few songs and have a pint or two.  I may be pulling this image out of thin air of course, but you never know.

I think it comes from the fact that his songs have that same kind of mild personal observational tinge which doesn’t seem to come from a painful place, but simply tells of the pedestrian pleasures and disappointments of an ordinary life.  And maybe that’s the key to it – it’s just an honest, normal, friendly record by a bloke who somehow just manages to seem like a really decent guy, such that you end up sympathising that bit more with his failures and being that bit more happy about his triumphs.

This is all delivered acoustically, with a bit of guitar, some banjo and the odd bit of violin here and there.  There are other instruments, but these are the ones which dominate.  Robin’s voice is easy on the ear to begin with, but is complemented on this record by female backing vocals*, something for which I have always had an tremendous weakness.

There are a couple of songs on this about which I am a little ambivalent.  Montreal and Ninety Days don’t quite do it for me, but tracks like Shakes and Shudders are absolutely gorgeous.  The female vocal isn’t used much on that song, but bloody hell it’s lovely.  I Love Leonard Cohen is also brilliant and is one of the songs on this record most characteristic of the description I gave above.  This is gentle, everyday stuff, and is the kind of album which you end up developing a real affection for, as I have.

Robin Grey – Younger Looking Skin

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Robin Grey – Shakes & Shudders

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*Looking at his MySpace page it could be any one of three, so I’m not sure who to credit.