In the two years since David Gray's underproduced, electro-folkie sound permeated the music world, Gray has not changed.

His new release, A New Day at Midnight, presents essentially the same sound as his last album, White Ladder. In fact, it goes beyond being essentially the same. These albums sound so alike at times that you have to remind yourself which album you're listening to.

This is good and bad. If you're looking for something safe and you liked White Ladder a lot, then A New Day at Midnight is most likely a good investment. If, however, you did not like White Ladder, you just liked White Ladder a little bit or you prefer innovation over stagnation, then you might be better off steering clear of A New Day at Midnight.

Once again, the songs are beautifully underproduced, which would be great if they didn't all run together into one entirely pleasant cure for insomnia.

Some of the songs actually stand out of the monotony. Most notably the catchy love song "Caroline" and the bare "Kangaroo."

On the other end of the spectrum, "Be Mine" finds Gray groping for a hit single, hoping against hope that you'll be singing along before the end of the first listen.

Gray also displays his uncanny ability to sing depressing lyrics with a happy-go-lucky delivery on songs like the opener, "Dead in the Water." It kind of makes you wonder if Gray actually understands his own songs.

For better and worse, it's David Gray, and it looks like his career might just be sitting at that red light he used to sing about.

Grade: C+