The first album by Badly Drawn Boy has been released amidst much hype--and believe me the hype is well founded. Badly Drawn Boy is basically the brainchild of Damon Gough from Manchester,England.The early e.p.'s showed great promise,and this promise has come to fruition on an album of startling variety. The influence of sixties folk musician Nick Drake seems to be all the rage at the moment.When the first notes of the first song 'The Shining' are struck I was expecting a c.d. of 18 mellow tracks.It starts off with a gentle cello-horn instrumental,then Gough adds some vocals to this beautifully mellow opening.Then track 2-'Everybody's Stalking' changes the mood totally,as it's driven by a ferocious bass line and it doesn't half rock!This is the magic of this c.d.,Gough has the ability to change the sound,the influence,the mood with consummate ease.Another example of this comes at track 8-'Body Rap' which sounds like one of those Beastie Boy,D.J. Shadow instrumental interludes.This leads straight into 'Once Around The Block' a gentle r/b piece,complete with wah-wah guitars,Blues lead guitar and excellent harmonious vocals.You may think all this mish mash of influences may make the c.d. very disjointed-but somehow it all seems to fit together perfectly.The title track,song 11-Bewilderbeast is wonderful in that it brings all these sounds together on one amazing track.Track 12 'Magic In The Air' is a haunting,melancholic ballad,with piano and guitar the backdrop for Gough's excellent vocals.Track 14 has a definite country feel to it.Track 16-'Disillusion' has a real seventies feel to it-with a sound that isn't to far removed (instrumentally) from The Doobie Brother's. 18 tracks may seem quite a lot for any c.d.-especially a debut,but there are no obvious weak songs at all.I have to say it's an incredibly ambitious debut but it is one that shows the work of a very talented musician and song-writer.Finally this c.d. deserves to do really well and I would certainly reccomend it to lovers of good quality music. Ian Creamer
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