He’s not bad. He’s just drawn that way.
Once around the block with Badly Drawn Boy (aka Damon Gough) was strange enough for the folk naturalist turned electro-DJ and back again, but his latest release, the lush and honest “Have You Fed The Fish?,” takes us further into uncharted waters: the choppy swells of Domestic Rock.
Gough says he came up with the album’s title because it is the question which gets asked most at home. Listening to “Fed The Fish?,” one can almost hear slippers shuffling across new carpet and the wooded slide of windows opening. Packs of strings and banging guitars aside, Gough lends to this 50 minutes of opulence the intimacy of a song whispered in your ear.
“The fish angle is symbolic of the fact that it’s the tiniest things that need the most looking after, as opposed to the jet set lifestyle that has occurred because of my songs,” Gough said. “The whole album is a reflection of real life versus the incongruous stupidity of the life I now lead as a minor celebrity.”
Badly Drawn Boy–his name is taken from a character in a British children’s program–has been a minor celebrity in the UK since his 2000 debut “The Hour of Bewilderbeast” won him the Mercury Music Prize for Best Album. But attention didn’t come stateside until author Nick Hornby (“High Fidelity”) and directors the Weitz brothers (“American Pie”) hired him to score the soundtrack for their film “About A Boy.”
Both the film and soundtrack were minor box office hits with major critical praise, and Gough received college radio time for “Something To Talk About” and “Silent Sigh.”
Recorded in Cello Studios where Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys breathed life into “Pet Sounds,” “Fed The Fish?” is the quirky, open-hearted second chapter to “About A Boy.”
After the comedic opener “Coming in to Land,” the tracks bend and bleed into each other like ribbons of food coloring dropped into a fish tank. Doomsday orchestration gives way to the McCartney piano riffs and serpentine guitar of the title track.
“The keys to your heart open the door to the world/ You’ve got to give me two days and woman I’ll make you a girl/ Sometimes you’ve got to rewind to go forward/ There’s some good times around the corner,” Gough sings.
Perpetually knit-capped and bearded, Badly Drawn Boy is coming to terms with his burgeoning popularity on this album and balancing this with an equally burgeoning family. The Goughs welcomed a second child, a son named Oscar, during the album’s sessions.
“I rub shoulders with people I’ve long admired,” Gough said. “And that’s the thing I’m trying to understand a bit more about and whether it means anything to me.”
First single “You Were Right,” looks this dilemma square in the eyes. Gough sings of turning down both Madonna and the Queen to be with the woman he loves.
“You could follow me around for days/ But I’m not going anywhere,” he sings.
On the contrary, this is a versatile songwriter who can go wherever he wants.
“[Simple and complex instrumentation] are one in the same,” Gough said. “I want to evolve into someone who can write entirely acoustic albums, like a ‘Nebraska’ or a ‘Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.'”