SONG OF THE DAY (#200)

'journey from a to b,' by badly drawn boy

damon gough [a.k.a badly drawn boy] is one of the most, if not the most perplexing artists working today; a man capable of moments of pure rapture and others of pure frustration. case in point: after back-to-back classic albums [the mercury prize winner 'hour of the bewilderbeat' and the soundtrack to 'about a boy'], badly drawn boy took a step backwards with his next two albums, 'have you fed the fish' and 'one plus one is one.' sure, they were fine albums with occassionally great moments, but they were bloated, over-produced affairs [not to mention excessively long gigs -- 2 and 1/2 hour gig at DV8 a while back] with overwrought arragements in which gough seemed to want to be everyone but himself. i was hesitant to give his newest album, 'born in the u.k.' a listen simply because i was afraid to see him slip any futher.

thankfully, 'born in the uk,' while not matching the strength of his first two, is certainly a welcome return to form. 'journey from a to b' carries a lot of the same winsome charm of badly drawn boy classics, 'a minor incident' and 'silent sigh.' the go! team remix is, per usual, outstanding and actually ends up sounding more like a go! team song than a badly drawn boy song. here's hoping 'born in the u.k.' serves as a springboard and launches damon back into the ranks of england's finest songwriters.

→ badly drawn boy: journey from a to b
→ badly drawn boy: journey from a to b [go! team remix]