Have You Fed The Fish? - Badly Drawn Boy

Badly Drawn Boy (or Damon Gough) rose to fame with his debut, "Hour of Bewilderbeast". This album was undoubtedly a work of great skill and originality and earned its creator the mercury music prize. The woolly-hatted one has his own inimitable style, and became a beacon for me in the sea of musical similarity at the time. He went on to record the soundtrack to the film "About a Boy". "Have you Fed the Fish?" was then released later in that year. It was not met with the warmest of receptions.. Gough had recorded it in the U.S and many saw it as a departure from his charmingly left field and unassuming debut. Phrases such as ...  Read the complete review

Having had quite a heavy night on Saturday night I woke up on Sunday needing to put something on musically to snap me out of my drunken haze. Often I, like many others I imagine, reach for something fairly mellow as although I don’t get hangovers I still don’t really feel like doing anything if it has been a big night. So delving into the CD collection I decided to pick out Badly Drawn Boys (BDB from here on) third album “Have You Fed The Fish”. Now for anyone who isn’t aware of who BDB is or what he’s about then read on. Badly Drawn Boy aka Damon Gough is a British singer songwriter who played most of the instruments on his ...  Read the complete review

Badly Drawn Boy first came to wide public attention when his album 'The Hour of the Bewildebeest' won the Mercury Music Award and the single from that album, 'Once More Around the Block', was used on just about every TV programme at the time. Damon Gough, the man who is BDB, must have almost suffocated under the avalanche of praise that deservedly was heaped upon him. Next came the soundtrack to 'About a Boy', and this month saw the release of his latest album, 'Have You Fed the Fish?' The title alone (and that of the first album) should tell you that a unique and slightly quirky (I HATE that word) mind is at work behind the ...  Read the complete review

Good things come in threes. Or is it twos? Or is that police officers? Whatever it is, this is Badly Drawn Boy's third album. Or second, if you're counting 'About A Boy' (2002, XL Recordings) as a soundtrack. But this album is much more like 'Hour of Bewilderbeast' (1999). For instance, where About A Boy had the tracks written for scenes in the film, there was somewhat a limitation to what could be done. That album also had a lot of instrumental tracks. With Have You Fed The Fish? we go back to a more traditional Badly Drawn Boy (or Damon Gough as he is really called). Nearly all of the songs have vocals. Whilst this album is hardly ...  Read the complete review