With David Gray's White Ladder making an impact on American audiences, the singer-songwriter's early work has garnered new interest. The EP's 92-94, a ten-song compilation of Gray's first three U.K. singles and their respective B-sides from his debut album, Century Ends, will be released on July 10th on Caroline Records.

The release comes with the full approval of Gray who helped pen the liner notes. "It seems like a hell of a long time ago," Gray writes about the tunes collected on the album. "That's what I quite like about it, it's the first innocent recordings of my professional career. I think there's something quite charming about them. It was well in advance of me having any kind of perspective on what I was doing within the bigger picture. I was just doing what I did and giving it everything."

Among the songs assembled are "Birds Without Wings," "Shine" and "Wisdom" from Century Ends and "Coming Down," from Gray's second album, Flesh. "Coming Down" and the B-sides have never before been released in the U.S. Along with the EP compilation, Caroline will reissue Gray's first two records with some repackaging, including new photos, for release on also on July 10th.

The reissues and compilation are not the first releases of 2001 to feature Gray's earlier work. This April, Gray's current label, the Dave Matthews founded ATO Records, released the album Lost Songs 95-98, a collection of previously unrecorded songs by Gray written between his third album Sell, Sell, Sell and his latest White Ladder that he recorded in London during the fall of 1999.

CHRISTINA SARACENO
(June 6, 2001)