Badly Drawn Boy - 'About A Boy' (XL)
4/5
By: Toby L
Damon Gough, AKA Badly Drawn Boy, has created and now delivered his much-anticipated second album, and, typical to his unexpected musical nature, it's not a conventional release.
No - instead, it's the soundtrack-LP to Nick Hornby's latest story: the motion-picture, 'About A Boy' - starring top bumbling Englishman, Hugh Grant. Clearly, from such a build-up as this, and the fact that the record contains Gough's first batch of new material for what seems like an eternity, you can see why the pressure is high for something strong to be achieved. Well, despite such anchorage from all outside parties to anticipate a special thing, it's evident that Damon's come up trumps again - for the work on 'About A Boy' is an overall triumph.
Produced by Tom Rothrock - the man behind past Beck-releases - and BDB himself, there is a great sense of sheer cleverness about the way the body of musicianship is constructed on each track. Sure, as before, Damon has written, composed and played virtually everything, lending his delicate northern tone to supplement the words, but the nature throughout - unlike his emotively all-over-the-place, yet stunning debut, 'The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast' - is generally optimistic, fuller-sounding - and refreshingly upbeat.
Aside from the LP's previous releases, the top-20 single, 'Silent Sigh', and limited Christmas 7", 'Donna & Blitzon', 'About A Boy' contains fourteen other tracks of blissful piano, flourishing strings and the Boy's distinctive, ever-colourful blend of sweet melody. In fact, due to much of the classic and typical film-score tones of the work, openings on certain tunes - take 'A Peak You Reach' as an indication - almost sound disturbingly alike the repertoire of Randy Newman.
Reassuringly, this isn't the case all the time. Elsewhere provided is 'Something To Talk About' - a stunning combination of a gentle croon reminiscent of Ed Harcourt and Gough's own past 'Pissing In The Wind' effort - plus tantalising chill-out of 'River-Sea-Ocean'. To top it off, you get Damon's endeavours at Euro-pop in 'S.P.A.T.', as well as bursts of additional beautiful instrumental-music - to serve within the film as background sound-effects to varying scenes (for example, the sumptuous orchestral blast of 'Dead Duck' and 'Wet, Wet, Wet' - the latter luckily not acting as a tribute to the forgettable, glorified Scottish boy-band of recent times).
Altogether, the 44 minutes point towards an eclectic-as-ever Gough, whose exciting song-writing dynamics are as vibrant and open-minded as before. What with his second-album proper due later this year, although this provides a reason to look ever more forward to its unleashing, this certainly makes up for the wait in a fine, stylish manner. Really, this is reason alone to stomach the film.
Artists in this article: Badly Drawn Boy
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