With nine studio albums under his belt, David Gray has got it figured out. He knows what works and what doesn’t.

While “Foundling” is far from his best work, any Gray fan will appreciate his release.

Staying primarily in the English underground for most of the 1990s, Gray broke through with his fourth album, “White Ladder,” in 1999, receiving critical and commercial success. The album contains his best songs, and its success made a name for Gray in the United States. Gray followed with “A New Day At Midnight,” which also went quadruple-platinum.

After “Midnight,” Gray released “Life In Slow Motion” in 2005. He then proceeded to take a hiatus until returning last year with “Draw The Line.”

“Foundling” is far from groundbreaking. The initial plans were to release a reissue of “Draw The Line,” but once that idea was scrapped, Gray quickly put an album’s worth of songs together, and added some B-sides, which were initially supposed to go on the reissue, but instead put on an EP disc included with this album.

“Founding” has 19 tracks in all, but it really lacks a single. “A Moment Changes Everything” is claimed to be the single from the album, but the song is on the EP, so that pretty much sums up the album for you. The single couldn’t make it on the LP. There are better songs on the EP, which is supposed to be a bonus.

Gray calls this release a “personal album.” He never expected the album to reach the sales that his last four have accomplished.

“Foundling” takes a bare bones approach that fans of Gray might like, but this is more than likely not for first-time listeners. With songs like “Only the Wine” and “Holding On,” it just seems like Gray is not even enjoying the songs. He almost sounds bored.

It’s tough to criticize Gray for anything he does, but this is album does not even begin to approach the greatness of “White Ladder.” It’s just a little too simple. Gray does have a vocal approach that is very recognizable, much like other slow adult-rock singers like Chris Martin, Ray LaMontagne and Jack Johnson.

If you’re already familiar with Gray’s work and enjoy his albums, this album has a different feel to it. It’s definitely a David Gray album, just slower and with out any of the electronic additions that made “White Ladder” so charming. If you haven’t heard much David Gray, work your way into “Foundling,” because the album alone is too different from his previous work to get a sense of what he is all about.