Badly Drawn Boy - Born In The U.K.

2006, Astralwerks/EMD

Listeners hoping for the U.K. version of Springsteen’s social commentary masterpiece will be disappointed: there are no fist-pumping anthems—just song-after-disappointing-song.

Born In The U.K. opens like any other Badly Drawn Boy album: sensitive, hushed, piano-ed, and it then erupts into a rock song/piano-boogie to make Elton John proud—not really a good thing—which is unfortunately the album’s only real surprise.

Sure, Damon Gough still writes songs that your mom can enjoy (for better or worse; mostly worse), and he can play just about any instrument under the sun- but so could Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, and listeners won’t find many of his CDs in their collections.

C-

We’ll wait until the next Badly Drawn Boy album to confirm or disprove our suspicion that Todd Rundgren is using his black magic to possess and control our modern rock stars. Until then, Mr. Gough- and especially this wedding reception-ready CD- remains notable mostly for his ability to simultaneously play a warehouse full of instruments.