While the lesson in mathematics might be questionable, the intricate songs of Badly Drawn Boy’a “One Plus One is One” speak more to the brain’s memories than its calculations.
The British one-man band also known as Damon Gough veers sharply between the bombastic orchestration on songs like “This is That New Song” and the beautifully simple piano of “Another Devil Dies.” Just how the songs can come one after the |
Badly Drawn Boy |
One Plus One is One |
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other and neither feels out of place shows Gough’s true talents.
After rave reviews for his debut “House of Bewilderbeast,” BDB followed with the film soundtrack to “About a Boy,” an overly stylized work that sounded much better on screen than in album format. “One” marks a return to the debut’s long, satisfying sense of completeness found so rarely in today’s albums. That means quick ditties, long codas and strange sounds in between (the children’s chorus on “Holy Grail” sounds like the Beatles’ “Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” sans Yoko). Through it all, Gough’s deep voice and cloudgazing brand of nostalgia for loves lost and found keep the songs within their means. Such as on “Four Leaf Clover:” “You know I’m not the kind to say that it’s over/ We’ll be rubbing shoulders once again in the sun.” After a brief dalliance with Paul McCartney levels of quaint rock, Badly Drawn Boy is back and ready both to break and repair your heart, if not the brain. |
Originally published in the November edition of Take ONE, as written by Hank Brockett |
Math scores in Britain take another hit. |