Album: David Gray, Foundling (IHT/Polydor)

Gray's breakthrough, 1998's White Ladder, was – along with Dido's No Angel – one of those albums from a decade or so ago that everyone had but no one would admit to still owning.

Attic albums, if you like. Which makes old wobbly-head's ninth full-lengther all the more of a pleasant surprise. It's unlikely to repeat White Ladder's success, but the relief of not having to try to write another "Babylon" is tangible. Restrained, understated, graceful, and only slightly let down by a voice that can still grate at times.