Gavin Degraw has stated that his goal with his third album Free was to create an “indie record,” as he puts it – “an artist’s record for an artist’s fans…I didn’t want to saturate the tracks with overdubs and flying guitars and unicorns…,” which is exactly what he did, but it stripping out the unicorns he seems to have stripped out any and all originality; it’s musically solid and a decent mix of soul and country, but there’s not a compelling note on the entire disc and the sappiness grates the nerves – Gavin Degraw knows how to make music, but Free doesn’t do anything to prove he can make interesting music.

Rating: 4.2 / 10

J Records
March 31, 2009