You have to wonder whether David Gray spends his nights cursing James Blunt - a man who's achieved trans-Atlantic success with the same variety of coffee-table balladry that Gray himself has peddled for over a decade. Alibi, the third single lifted from Life In Slow Motion, is unlikely to reach out to any wider an audience, being a fairly bog-standard strings and piano arrangement designed to tug on the heart-strings but sadly only tugging on the eyelids as one battles to fend off an inviting nap. The only thing keeping us awake, in fact, is the discomfort of enduring Gray's strangulated attempts to reach the higher octaves.

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Released : 27th March 2006
Label: Atlantic Records/iht