Badly Drawn Boy, Born in the
UK
(EMI)
Chris Salmon
Friday October 13, 2006
The
Guardian
After just 10 seconds,
Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy) sets the tone for his fifth album, sighing, "I
don't think I know who I am any more." The woolly-hatted troubadour has
apparently suffered a crisis of confidence over the past 18 months. Last year,
he spent five weeks in the studio with producer Stephen Street. They recorded 20
songs, but Gough decided their direction was wrong and scrapped the entire
session. Yet when he listened to the rejected songs recently, he "really liked
them", which got him wondering if he had made a mistake.
On
hearing this album - recorded from scratch with Lemon Jelly's Nick Franglen -
Gough's fans may wonder that, too. One of the undoubted highlights, The Time of
Times, was rescued from the Street session (and then re-recorded). Its softly
expressed mix of melancholy and hope is classic Badly Drawn Boy. But seemingly
unsure of that usual acoustic-led template and struggling for inspiration, Gough
has tried several new directions here. The results are mixed. A perky string
section cannot lift the dreary Walk You Home and there is little to enjoy in the
tuneless pop-rock bluster of the title track, with its drab recollections of
late-1970s life ("Virginia Wade was winning our hearts/ She made us want to
live," he sings, clearly confusing "live" with "buy a tennis racket"). The worst
is Welcome to the Overground, where Gough's voice is lost amid the ghastly
bright-eyed schmaltz of what sounds like a bad 1970s musical.
The
stylistic changes only work when they allow room for the introspective lyrics
that Gough's creative tailspin clearly prompted. The Bacharach-tinged piano of
Journey from A to B skips alongside a tale of insecurity and defiance, while the
weeping slide guitar of the countrified The Way Things Used to Be adds poignancy
to his downbeat musings.
But the best tracks are the
ones that try least hard to be different. Unobstructed by unfamiliar styles,
they allow Gough's natural warmth and charm to shine. As well as The Time of
Times, the standouts are the softly optimistic Degrees of Separation and the
touching expression of love, One Last Dance. All three are mainly acoustic songs
with snagging choruses. All three push Gough's rich, velvety croak to the fore.
And all three make you wish you could hear more of those "directionless" songs
that he scrapped. Intriguingly, Gough says they may yet see the light of day.
Until then, Born in the UK offers only a mini-album's worth of
distraction.
Guardian Unlimited ©
Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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