Badly Drawn Boy - 'Have You Fed The Fish?' (XL)
4/5
By: Toby L
Three albums in, and his second of the year, Badly Drawn Boy - Damon Gough to his grandparents, mind - is back already with this, 'Have You Fed The Fish?'; yes, a plainly British title for an otherwise globally-minded set of irreverent pop-tunes, whose aims to charm, amuse and touch are more than occasionally successful within their consistent, albeit, obscure endeavour.
From the spherical instrumental introduction of 'Coming Into Land', immediately, the traditionalism and aptitude for straight-forward song-writing which marked Gough's 'About A Boy' soundtrack LP has been exchanged for a further excursion down the magical and often baffling eclecticism that heralded his debut 'The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast' a classic in the making.
Yes, and the title-track itself may well feature a couplet that includes 'I need a new eiderdown', but such humanity was always Damon's successful calling-card. Similarly, with the up-tempo 'Born Again' and, frankly, moving 'All Possibilities', BDB has once again created a myriad of instant-classics, Beck-collaborator Tom Rothrock's expansive yet simultaneously homely production thankfully not escalating the produce to a bleakly overblown mess. In its mid-album placement, too, recent top-ten single and Gough's finest moment to date 'You Were Right' is pure, blissful genius, the motion-picture strings and plodding guitar accompanying his wry introspection like a timeless, binding marriage. Provided the chance to reflect on what you've heard already in the ensuing elevator music-esque 'Centrepiece' makes for useful breathing-space.
... For part two of this record is every bit as rich and varied as the first: the 'I have fallen out of bed/Not out of love' sweetness of 'Imaginary Lines'; soulful 'Using Our Feet', which explodes into almost heavy-metal riffage at intermittent intervals; and penultimate 'What Is It Now' - as chirpy as a 70s, Brit-TV sitcom theme-tune - all possessive of the potential to melt even the most frozen of hearts.
Though he may forever remain in contempt for subverting the populist course of justice within alternative musical-shenanigans time and time again, there's something naggingly engaging about Gough that you feel will bring you back to him over and over... Maybe it's because he's one of the few song-smiths of his generation that understands the meaning of 'consistency'.
Artists in this article: Badly Drawn Boy
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