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Album Review
by SashaS
7-4-2002
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| 'About A Boy' by Badly Drawn Boy |
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Badly Drawn Boy : 'About A Boy'
(XL Recordings)
Badly Drawn Boy enters soundtracking tide and thankfully delivers a lucid disc
The only thing worth weighing when considering a soundtrack, unless one is a certified film-anorak, is – if it works outside of the movie, whether it stands on its own quality legs or it is just the usual, the crutches to the visuals? Well, Badly Drawn Boy’s music “From the motion picture…” walks its own way despite limitations and discipline a soundtrack imposes. ‘About A Boy’ is an album in its own right but not a supplant to the Boy’s debut.
It is BDB’s original soundtrack to the film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s best selling novel, ‘About A Boy’. The album was recorded in Los Angeles with producer and Bong Load Records founder Tom Rothrock (Beck, Elliot Smith, etc) and is his first major release since the million selling, Mercury Music Prize winning, ‘Hour Of The Bewilderbeast’.
Badly Drawn Boy became involved with the film at the request of Nick Hornby. “I wanted to get on with my own record,” Damon Gough explains, “but I met them (the film’s creators), read the book and started to get a good feeling.” The film, ‘About A Boy’ starring Hugh Grant, Toni Collete and Rachel Weisz and directed by Chris and Paul Weitz (American Pie/Antz) is cinema bound on the last Friday in April. (The film improves on the ‘male-Brigit-Jones’ kinda narrative of Nick Hornby.)
Although the disc is gentle, it is rocking in that particular English way, a tad-sad, a tad-sadly-glad; 8 songs and as many instrumentals/incidental music, it is a diverse offering that is deceptively easy on the ears. Gough has masterfully managed to make an album that doesn’t depend on Hugh Grant’s face being recalled every time you play gems like the psychedelic-equilibrium-achieving ‘River-Sea-Ocean’, or great little funk workout that is ‘Brat’, an instrumental that chucks along like a (kinky) Thomas The Tank Engine, complete with brass-section. More atmospheric is ‘Rachel’s Flat’, with ‘Delta (Little Boy Blues)’ bringing in sexier scent…
The first offering from the album was ‘Donna And Blitzen’, a limited edition 7” Xmas single released late last year, which sold out on the day of its release. Also included on the record are the current hit, ‘Silent Sigh’ and the future single release, ‘Something To Talk About’. ‘About A Boy’ OST, however brill, is just a step towards something greater, according to the artist.
Badly Drawn Boy has already begun recording the follow up to his debut of which he says, “I’ve got a clear picture of where the next record is going,” explains Gough. “I want to plug in the electric guitar a bit more. It’s already feeling like a collection of songs that really work together.” (There is possibility of a collab with The Strokes, as well.)
8/10
SashaS
7-4-2002
Badly Drawn Boy’s ‘About A Boy’ soundtrack is released 08 April 2002 on XL Recordings
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