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Music Albums Badly Drawn Boy: Have You Fed The Fish? (XL) 
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| Badly Drawn Boy: Have You Fed The Fish? (XL) |
| By Gavin Hilzbrich | |
Monday, 04 November 2002 Damon Gough, or Badly Drawn Boy as he is better known, has achieved an awful lot in a very short space of time. His 2000 debut LP Hour Of Bewilderbeast received nothing but praise from critics far and wide, and was crowned with the Mercury Music Prize for that year. Since then he has performed at sell-out venues including the Royal Albert Hall and asked to pen the score for the film About A Boy, which spawned two Top 10 hits.Just six months later he’s propelled himself into the spotlight once again with his second album proper, the oddly titled Have You Fed The Fish? Anyone who’s had the chance to see Damon perform live will know that he’s a very funny guy, and actually mixes a stand up comedy routine (of sorts) into his performances. Those comedy elements play a key role in the make up of this album and are apparent from the very beginning. Opening song ‘Coming In To Land’ begins with an aeroplane captain informing his passengers that “if [they] take a look out of the right side of the plane [they’ll] see a cloud that looks exactly like Badly Drawn Boy”, before announcing that the plane will be touching down in “approximately 3.5 seconds”. The remainder of that opening song is entirely instrumental, with a slapstick sound that, stirs up images of fairgrounds. The humour continues with the title track, before ‘Born Again’ offers a slice of the same type of magic that we got used to on ‘Bewilderbeast. The Beach Boys-esque “do-da do da-doo” harmonies and upbeat melody are as catchy here as they were last time around and the lyrics are just as crazy. “You look a lot, lot better tonight / you and I should go out for a fight” and “you need eyes in the front of your head / and a spine with a built-in bed” are just an example of the wacky lyric that pop up in ’40 Days, 40 Fights. Despite me happily singing this album’s praises, Have You Fed The Fish? isn’t as instantly spectacular as what many people will have hoped but, if you care to cast your mind back to when ‘Bewilderbeast was first released, you’ll probably agree that wasn’t either. Many of the songs here do require repeat listens to totally appreciate their greatness, whilst others prove their worth from the very first play. Two such tracks that fit into that category are the perfectly paired ‘I Was Wrong’ and recent single ‘You Were Right’. The first is a brief-but-magical love song, while the latter is a mighty pop song that manages to be magnificent, despite being a little disjointed. It’s virtually impossible to choose a bad song among the 15 tracks assembled here. Instrumental ‘Centrepiece’ is largely incidental, as if left over from the About A Boy soundtrack, but as it’s over before you can tire of it and when followed by a song such as the Burt Bacharach-tinged ‘How?’ it seems inappropriate to grumble… so I won’t! So it seems he’s done it again, another almost faultless album that will undoubtedly attract the same kind of attention as the last one. Certainly a bright future lies ahead for this chap, but did he really intend to commit daylight robbery of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Sexual Healing’ on ‘The Further I Slide’? Have a listen… you’ll see what I mean! (5/5) Release Date: 04 November 2002
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