Damon Gough, AKA Badly Drawn Boy, delivers a sleeper of an album entitled
"One Plus One is One." Gough released this effort on Astralwerks sharing shelf space with the Chemical Brothers. On my first listen, I didn't remember even hearing the album. I had gone through sixteen tracks and not a memory. It's not as punchy as “Have You Fed The Fish?'” or his amazing debut, "The Hour of Bewilderbeast,” or even his motion picture soundtrack “About a Boy." The album seems to suffer from a loss of direction, bland tracks that don’t seem to lead into one another. Overall the album lacks cohesiveness.
Parts of songs are beautiful, like the gentle intro of the title track "One Plus One Is One," and the beautifully guitar-picked "Easy Love" (with the exception of irritating new age flutes fluttering throughout the mix.) The songs just aren't grabbing me the way "Once Around The Block," "You Were Right," "Coming In To Land," or "River, Sea, Ocean" did.
"Summertime In Wintertime" is a much more energetic track, complete with an irritating cowbell, but it just doesn't add up to previous efforts. The single "Year of the Rat," sounds more peculiar than the most demented Disneyland ride theme song (i.e. “It’s a Small World”).
Gough is a gifted and prolific songwriter, but these songs just haven't grabbed me after multiple listens. I wouldn't recommend picking this one up for your first BDB trip around the block. Someday, you might say I was right.
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