David Gray to release new album ‘Dear Life’ in January 2025

David Gray will release his new album ‘Dear Life' on 17th January 2025 through his own independent label Laugh A Minute Records in partnership with Secretly Distribution.

He launches the album alongside its lead single ‘Plus & Minus' and unveils plans for a forty-one-date world tour, entitled the ‘Past & Present Tour', which includes London’s Royal Albert Hall on 3rd April 2025 and Dublin’s 3Arena on 5th April 2025.

‘Dear Life' is Gray’s thirteenth album. It’s the result of “a starburst of songwriting … it just seemed like the gods of songwriting were being kind. The doubting voices didn't turn up.” An album of emotional crisis and resolution, mortality and faith, reality and illusion, love and heartbreak, magic, science, loss and acceptance. While it is full of yearning and hope, there is an undercurrent of darkness, a tension between competing forces of hope and despair: a cavalcade of emotions in what is his most lyrically-focused collection to-date. 

Gray premiered lead single ‘Plus & Minus' on Zoe Ball's Radio 2 Breakfast Show this morning. The song features Talia Rae and the pair trades words of disillusionment and despair.

Gray adds, “Some unfinished songs just refuse to do the polite thing and go away. And that’s certainly true of this one, which had me going round in circles for nearly 20 years to the point where it almost drove me crazy. ‘Plus & Minus’ is based in part on a chord sequence that was born way back in 2004, and it’s no exaggeration to say that it has taken all those long, intervening years to fully resolve it. It’s an unusual sort of song for me to write in that it’s an out-and-out three minute pop song. In a slightly ‘Babylon’ style, it revolves around the same idea three times. In ‘Babylon’, we had Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Here we have ‘You know the way desire is … You know the way the light is  … You know the way that time is.’ I could see that from the word go. It’s so full of hooks both lyrically and melodically that it needed a tight arrangement to really optimise their value. This took a LOT of work to get right, but we got there in the end…even if the end was 20 years on from the beginning!”

The Past & Present Tour will commence in January 2025. Pre-sale tickets will be available starting at 10am on Tuesday 17th September 17th and will remain live until remaining tickets go on general sale at 10am on Friday 20th September. To gain access to the pre-sale, sign up for David Gray’s newsletter. 

Past & Present Tour Dates:

JANUARY 2025

24^th – Boston, MGM Music Hall at Fenway

25^th – Philadelphia, The Met

26^th – Washington, Anthem

28^th – New York, Beacon Theatre

31^st – Toronto, Massey Hall

FEBRUARY 2025

1^st – Detroit, Masonic Temple Cathedral

2^nd – Chicago, Chicago Theatre

3^rd – Minneapolis, State Theatre

6^th – Portland, Keller Auditorium

7^th – Seattle, Moore Theatre

8^th – Vancouver, The Centre

10^th – Oakland, Fox Theatre

13^th – Highland, Yaamava Theatre 

14^th – Los Angeles, Orpheum Theatre

15^th – Valley Centre, Harrah’s Resort Southern California

17^th – Salt Lake City, Delta Hall Eccles Theatre

18^th – Denver, Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre

21^st – Austin, ACL Live Moody Theatre

23^rd – Atlanta, Coca-Cola Roxy

24^th – Nashville, Ryman Auditorium

MARCH 2025

13^th – Portsmouth, Guildhall

14^th – Brighton, Dome

16^th – Swansea, Arena

17^th – Bath, Forum

18^th – Oxford, New Theatre

20^th – Newcastle, O2 City Hall

21^st – Stockton, Globe

22^nd – Glasgow, SEC Armadillo

24^th – Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall

25^th – Manchester, O2 Apollo

27^th – Sheffield, City Hall

28^th – Llandudno, Venue Cymru

29^th – Leicester, De Montfort Hall

31^st – Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall

APRIL 2025

1^st – Birmingham, Symphony Hall

3^rd – London, Royal Albert Hall

5^th – Dublin, 3Arena

7^th – Brussels, Cirque Royal

9^th – Amsterdam, Royal Theatre Carré

12^th – Copenhagen, KB Hall

‘Dear Life' tracklist:

1. After The Harvest
2. Plus & Minus
3. Eyes Made Rain
4. Leave Taking
5. I Saw Love
6. Fighting Talk
7. Sunlight On Water
8. That Day Must Surely Come
9. Singing For The Pharaoh
10. The Messenger*
11. Acceptance (It’s Alright)
12. Future Bride
13. The Only Ones
14. The First Stone
15. More Than Anything*

*= available exclusively on Vinyl/CD formats