Elly Roberts reviews
Badly Drawn Boy: Born In The UK
Distributed by
EMI
- Released: October 2006
- Rating: 6/10
Having had a crisis of confidence for well over a year,
woolly-hatted Mancunian Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy) finally
nailed this album, though it wasn’t without problems.
Out went initial producer Steven Street, replaced by one half of Lemon Jelly,
Nick Franglen. Having scrapped the whole thing only to regroup, he needed to
impress his new label EMI, after the luke warm reception of One Plus One Is
One in 2004.
In most part, EMI must be pleased with their new investment, though the album
falls well short of debut The Hour Of Bewilderment and his best
offering to date, About A Boy.
From it’s reflective and doubting spoken
opening sequence, an imaginary conversation, Gough ponders, "Do you think it
matter where you’re born? No, not really. It only matters that you can be
proud of where you came from. I don’t think I know who I am anymore. What
about the world? What do you mean? Well if the world was a better place, some
of these bad things wouldn’t happen. Yeah, but there’s good things all around.
You just have to look longer and harder to see them sometimes."
Turning his pessimism around in a flash, the song goes onto the brightside,
"Praise God for the water, our son and our daughter, the sun is here, it
will stay a while, long enough to bring out a smile."
From then on, the perceived doubts turn on their head with several joyous
splashes particularly on the freewheeling happiness of Welcome To The
Overground, with its gospel influenced vocal backups.
His idol, Bruce Springsteen (Born In The USA) gets many a nod: the
title track indicates so, Born In The UK, and especially the sparkling
intro to Degrees Of Separation, turning into a pleasant jaunt with
ivory tinkling aplenty, and the expansively polished Journey From A To B.
Jewel in the Crown is the glorious first single, Nothing’s Gonna
Change Your Mind – a mini-opus in itself where he hits top form even
though it boasts a 5-minute plus running time for a single.
Surprising us all, a countrified The Way Things Used To Be, shows us
that he’s prepared to be adventurous – has he been listening to Richard Hawley
I wonder?
Elton John’s music surely influenced Walk You Home with its lush disco
Philly sound sequences – a remix – not that he’d even consider it – would
make a hit single. The last two songs are its weak spots - an aimlessly
drifting Time Of Times, though swinging ballad One Last Dance
restores his deft handling of lyrics, but it’s a disappointing closer.
Week commencing October 30, the album has dropped out of the Top 40, despite
the strength of the brilliant single.
The full list of tracks included are :
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.
