David Mead, Almost and Always

Don’t let the first 20 seconds of Almost and Always fool you — this isn’t Norah Jones’ new album. And it’s neither Simon nor Garfunkel. It’s David Mead. And it’s his fifth album since 1999.

David Mead is a singer-songwriter whose music gives off a feel of early-’70s folk rock. And it’s beautiful. The music on Almost and Always, released in August, seems like the kind of music they use in movies during the scene when a young man invites a girl up to his apartment for a drink. As the girl sits on the couch, he puts on a record — which in this case would be Mead’s album — and the soft music floats through the 10th-story New York loft as he pours two glasses of wine and joins her.

Or Almost and Always could be the ending soundtrack to a long road trip where everybody in the car is fast asleep except the driver, who’s listening to the album and thinking deeply as he stares across the horizon. No matter the situation you may find yourself in, let Mead’s latest release be the soundtrack, or at least the background music, to whatever it is that you are doing.

I first heard “Last Train Home” about a year ago, when it was featured as one of NPR’s Songs of the Day, and I immediately went home and downloaded it. It’s a beautiful ballad, with catchy guitar chords and a beautiful display of Mead’s voice. Again, listening to this song always paints a clear image in my mind of a young man on a quiet train in the middle of the night, with his head pressed against the glass as he listens to the sounds of Mead strumming his guitar on his iPod.

The acoustic guitar, along with the use of the piano on the album, gives it almost a jazzy feel. It’s refreshing to hear this kind of music again. In all the music I’ve been listening to recently, I haven’t heard much that uses a piano, at least not in a clean, classical sense.

Almost and Always would make a great gift for a friend, relative, even for your mom. It’ll give her something new and fresh to listen to and remind her of music from an earlier time.