One Plus One (Twisted Nerve/XL)
This should be a marvellous time for Damon Gough and his musical alter ego, Badly Drawn Boy. Folk music is enjoying something of a critical and commercial resurgence — handy for an artist who has been referencing Nick Drake for years. Singer-songwriters are commercially viable, too — though Gough would never be as crass and bombastic as the likes of Damien Rice. The enduring lustre of the Mercury Music Prize should guarantee Gough entry into the music business’s most gilded salons.
So why does One Plus One is One feel like such an anti-climax? In 2002, Gough chose to flood the market by releasing two albums: the soundtrack to About a Boy and Have You Fed the Fish? Both were lavish affairs recorded in Los Angeles, and although the latter fulfilled Gough’s musical dream of working with Beck’s associates in California, he could not stop singing about his life at home in Manchester.
This new album, recorded back in England, tries to put Gough’s personal and professional lives back on track. Sadly, though, he seems to have returned to this secure environment as a beaten man. There are lovely songs here, especially the plaintive title track. But, even when he strives to sound comfortable, Gough seems weary. It’s as if the expectations and iniquities of the music business have left him exhausted, with the result that many of the tunes here are drab facsimiles of Gough’s marvellous early work.
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John Mulvey