Music

It’s been six long years since the release of Badly Drawn Boy’s much-acclaimed, Mercury-winning debut album, ‘The Hour of Bewilderbeast’. During this time various Blunts, Nutinis and Morrisons have moved into BDB’s guitar-totin’ territory most of whom, except Blunt, are somewhat easier on the eye, or at least on better terms with a razor. So what does this mean to our man Damon Gough?

The answer is: not much. Gough isn’t trying to compete with anyone except perhaps his beloved Spingsteen. The only thing that’s changed is Gough’s former playfulness. Every track on ‘Born In The UK’, even if it’s a bit boring like ‘Degrees Of Separation’, has a sense of purpose. Unlike his debut, this record has happened by design rather than accident. It’s not that surprising – this album is the product of a long struggle. Actually, this album was the product of not much struggle at all. But prior to recording this set of songs, Damon junked a whole album’s worth of material produced by Stephen Street, because he didn’t feel it was up to scratch.

This crisis of confidence does show through in the songwriting. Even a big old tune like ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change Your Mind’, which features strings, backing vocals and a soaring chorus set on a skyscraping arrangement, sounds vulnerable. Had it been written for ‘…Bewilderbeast’, it would have have made ‘Pissing In The Wind’ sound like it was pissing in the wind. Although Gough originally made a name for himself by marrying his introspective songwriting with the electronic trappings of the day – remember, this was an era where the filmic electronics of Death In Vegas were considered chart-friendly – his early songs were small things, beautifully formed, which is what made them enthralling. Although this album boasts a wide variation of sounds, between the chugging title track and the chocolate covered strawberry-sweet ‘Walk You Home’, there’s a consistency to Gough’s approach which makes a virtue of this simplicity. It’s not going to win him any prizes, but it doesn’t really sound like he cares about that any more.