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Album Details

• Artist: Badly Drawn Boy
• Album: One Plus One Is One
• Label: XL
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-08-13

Damon Gough had it good. He came out with a brilliant debut album with Hour of Bewilderbeast but he has been struggling to create an album as strong or stronger than that album ever since. His About A Boy soundtrack was close but Have You Fed The Fish was a big disappointment to many. Now he is releasing his fourth full-length in the form of One Plus One Is One. Does it reach longtime fans expectations? Not really. Oh, there are some great arrangements on One Plus One including "This Is That New Song", a gentle picking of the acoustic guitar with a cello backing up. It's a good song. Unfortunately tracks like this are few and far between on this album. "Summertime In Wintertime" is a jerky affair that has a little more energy than a lot of Badly Drawn Boy but fails. Another complete flop is "Year Of The Rat". It seems like it's never going to end. There is one killer song and that is "Four Leaf Clover". It is strong in all fronts, musically, lyrically and arrangement-wise. This album seems a little more personal with quiet songs, in the vein of About A Boy. The album just doesn't have staying power though. It's almost like Badly Drawn Boy has run out of ideas. Maybe Damon needs to take a bit of a break and look for some new influences.

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