Badly Drawn Boy - Nothing's Gonna Change Your Mind (EMI)
UK release date: 2 October 2006
Well, who'd have thought it, eh? The idea of a famously shamolic figure like Damon Gough releasing a big, epic, even commercial ballad would have been ridiculous back in the days of sprawling, unclassifiable albums and legendarily chaotic live shows. Then again, so would have the idea of him performing a Hugh Grant film soundtrack.
The problem is that we kind of loved the old Damon. This is the man who wrote The Shining, a bona-fide masterpiece that could make the hardest of souls blub like a baby. Nothing's Gonna Change Your Mind is, by contrast, just another ballad. It's a bit '60s influenced, the chorus soars up, up and away and it's got some lovely piano chords at the start.
Yet it's just...there. It's lacking the old BDB charisma, and seems to meanders around without leaving any lasting impression. Maybe the problem is Liam Frost, who's just released the finest album that Gough never wrote in Show Me How The Spectres Dance, which means that this pales in comparasion. Whatever the reason, this is distinctively average stuff from the man capable of moments of genius. Disappointing.
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