Free follows Gavin DeGraw's eponymous second album by less than a year -- a quick turnaround by any standard, but its swiftness is shocking considering that it took him half a decade to deliver a follow-up to his 2003 debut, Chariot.
Free feels as if it were recorded quickly: it weighs in at a mere nine songs, including a reworking of the previous album's "Young Love" and a cover of Chris Whitley's "Indian Summer," bringing the total of new tunes to an EP-length seven songs, every one given a treatment that's decidedly looser and smaller in scale than the slick, overworked Gavin DeGraw.
Such intimacy suits DeGraw's new songs, which tend to be ruminative, but this subdued setting also shows the seams in his writing and performance, whether it's his adoption of a mush-mouthed, bluesy growl for "Indian Summer" or how he stitches together clichés and naiveté on the spartan closer, "Why Do the Men Stray." But between these two bookends is the most consistent music DeGraw has yet made -- yes, he could use at least one hook as big as "I Don't Wanna Be," but Free manages to flow easily and warmly, something that couldn't quite be said of the blue-eyed soul bluster of his first two albums.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indian SummerChris Whitley | Gavin DeGraw | Play | 04:43 | 10 MB | 29 MB |
| 2 | FreeGavin DeGraw | Gavin DeGraw | Play | 03:56 | 9 MB | 23 MB |
| 3 | StayGavin DeGraw | Gavin DeGraw | Play | 03:33 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 4 | Mountains to MoveGavin DeGraw | Gavin DeGraw | Play | 05:46 | 13 MB | 34 MB |
| 5 | GlassGavin DeGraw | Gavin DeGraw | Play | 03:53 | 8 MB | 22 MB |
| 6 | Lover Be StrongGavin DeGraw | Gavin DeGraw | Play | 04:28 | 10 MB | 33 MB |
| 7 | Dancing ShoesGavin DeGraw | Gavin DeGraw | Play | 03:46 | 8 MB | 20 MB |
| 8 | WaterfallGavin DeGraw | Gavin DeGraw | Play | 04:41 | 10 MB | 29 MB |
| 9 | Why Do the Men StrayGavin DeGraw | Gavin DeGraw | Play | 03:05 | 7 MB | 12 MB |
| 37 mins | 86 MB | |||||
| 37 mins | 232 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Camus Mare Celli | Audio Production, Engineer, Mixing, Producer |
| 2 | Nathan Crooker | Photography |
| 3 | Gavin DeGraw | Audio Production, Composer, Guitar (Acoustic), Piano, Primary Artist, Producer, Vocals |
| 4 | Charley Drayton | Drums |
| 5 | Matt Flynn | Drums |
| 6 | Audley Freed | Guitar |
| 7 | Josh Grant | Mixing |
| 8 | Josh "Eddie" Grant | Engineer, Mixing |
| 9 | Andy Hess | Bass, Bass Instrument |
| 10 | Michelle Holme | Art Direction, Design |
| 11 | George Laks | Arp Strings, ARP Synthesizer, Clavinet, Hammond B3, Organ (Hammond), Wurlitzer |
| 12 | Stephen Marcussen | Mastering |
| 13 | Alvin Moody | Bass, Bass Instrument |
| 14 | Eric Ogden | Photography |
| 15 | Jack Petrucelli | Guitar, Omnichord |
| 16 | Jack Petruzzelli | Guitar, Omnichord |
| 17 | Matt Shay | A&R |
| 18 | Chris Whitley | Composer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |