About A Boy - Soundtrack - Badly Drawn Boy

Damon Gough’s triumphant debut album is an extremely tough act to follow. Packed to the brim with pure beauty, ‘The Hour Of Bewilderbeast’ is the ultimate reference point for the current crop of indie-folk wannabes. The album wowed critics and music fans alike, its fresh approach to storytelling through music deservedly earning Gough the Mercury Music Prize. So the story goes, Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy) was hard at work at the natural successor to that very album when he was approached by critically acclaimed British author Nick Hornby with an altogether different proposition. Hornby’s third book ‘About A Boy’ was to be ...  Read the complete review

Depending on your outlook "About A Boy" sums ups everything you love or hate about Damon Gough and puts an end finally to those dodgy comparisons to the English version Beck. About A Boy is the soundtrack to the film of Nick Hornby's third novel (following last years High Fidelity film) and features Mr Wooden top himself Hugh Grant in the lead role. Its about as far removed from Manchester's Northern Quarter as you can imagine and it makes perfect sense that the album was actually recorded with Tom Rothrock in the sunshine state LA. In many respects "About A Boy" is a much more rounded and complete album than his critically acclaimed ...  Read the complete review

In my recent opinion about the movie ‘About a Boy’ I mentioned how one of the movies real strong points was the soundtrack – composed and performed by ‘Badly Drawn Boy’. Well, at the weekend I saw the CD for sale in HMV and decided that a purchase was in order. Now, first things first – for me, movie soundtrack CD’s tend to be a hit or miss affair. Personally I much prefer an orchestral score for a movie soundtrack to a bunch of middling to poor ‘pop’ songs that have been tagged onto a CD that features one hit song. A perfect example of how to do a Soundtrack CD for me would have to be for the ...  Read the complete review

Badly Drawn Boy, evidently hand-picked by music-loving author Nick Hornby to sculpt the soundtrack to this wonderful movie "About A Boy", has teamed up with long-time Beck producer, Tom Rothrock, to create a real gem of a soundtrack. BDB do not deviate much from the style they made their own on the Mercury Prize Winning debut, "The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast", but this seems more playful, innocent and childlike - which is perfect for the movie. Lots of strings, rolling and swelling piano chops, simple but highly effective basslines, the odd harmonica and effortlessly breezy vocals by Damon Gough. (BTW, the movie is a real winner as well. ...  Read the complete review