The Gough Drawn Boy is back with a self-composed film soundtrack album of 16 tracks, including four of less than one minute in length and one of less than two minutes. The opening track is a 19-second instrumental entitled 'Exit Stage Right'. The soundtrack nature of the album took me by surprise. Indeed, it was only after crawling into the record store and asking the assistant for the new Badly Drawn Boy album that I discovered it was such. On further reflection, and after having listened to it a few times, I decided this was an excellent choice, considering that the first album (The Hour Of Bewilderbeast) contained such a variety of styles and themes, and that another production in the same vein may have been difficult to warm to. As it happens some of it, in my opinion, is in the same vein as the earlier album but is all the better for being part of a soundtrack. The film, 'About A Boy', is a high profile production, having been made by the same people who made 'Notting Hill' and 'Bridget Jones's Diary', and having Hugh Grant as its lead actor. It is based on a novel of the same name by the well-known author Nick Hornby. So the soundtrack choice was not the only good choice made by the Gough Drawn Boy in relation to the album, himself a former winner of the Mercury Music Prize. The production quality seems better/clearer/crisper than on The Hour of Bewilderbeast, possibly a consequence of Universal Pictures Music Executive involvement, and the orchestral accompaniment on many of the tracks is comprehensive. In some ways the album sounds like it could be a soundtrack to a musical rather than to a movie, but that's not to detract from the modern popular style of the songs and instrumentals. Songs which caught my ear in particular were the third track, 'Something To Talk About', and the twelfth track, 'Walking Out Of Stride' (only 1 minute 48 Seconds in length), both catchy and memorable tunes. Also of note were the instrumentals 'Dead Duck' (46 seconds in length) and 'I Love NYE', the latter epitomising the relaxed and easy listening nature of much of the album. Badly Drawn Boy has succeeded in producing a quality follow-up to his successful and award-winning debut, and has consolidated his position as a modern singer-songwriter-musician of note.
For information on Badly Drawn Boy go to
www.badlydrawnboy.co.uk
For information on the film 'About A Boy' go to
www.about-a-boy.com
Lobby The Lobster can be contacted at
lobbytlobster@hotmail.com
Badly Drawn Boy - About a Boy Review ©2002 Lobby The Lobster & Virtually Acoustic
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