Badly Drawn Boy

About A Boy (Artist Direct)
by Tim Den

Although he is wildly overrated, Badly Drawn Boy shows his knack for film scoring/accompaniment with the soundtrack to About a Boy. He chimes in with simmering British anti-ballads for most of the album, but surprises the critics with numerous excellent “instrumental movements” in between. Opener “Exit Stage Right” and “Dead Duck” especially, where a fluttering orchestra and splashes of ivory-tingling remind one of Central Park on a sunny day (or a sunny Central Park scene in a movie, at least). Not enough to convert me into a fan, but this definitely makes me wonder what his next studio album’s gonna sound like…