Since winning the Mercury Prize with his debut album, The Hour of Bewilderment, Damon Gough (a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy) has had difficulty capturing its artistry. The last five studio albums gradually declined in ingenuity, and in record sales, culminating to a cool reception for 2009’s Is There Nothing We Could Do?. Less than a year later, Gough has released the first album in the trilogy series, It’s What I’m Thinking Pt.1 – Photographing Snowflakes. The ten-track, 45-minute album is definitely more introspective than his past efforts, but there’s nothing new here in the age of ever-popular baroque pop, and folktronics.
Gough’s hollow vocals drown in the caldron of common pop rock instruments, often arranged to deconstruct the innate melody of the songs, as in “The Order of Things”. This LP is like a skeletal tree with more ornaments than it can bear. If Gough had paid as much attention to its rhythm section as it does to its harmonies, then perhaps Photographing Snowflakes would have been more engrossing. Bring in a real drummer who knows how to give texture to the songs, instead of employing the drum machine. Loney Dear (QRO spotlight on) plays all the instruments in the recording studio; and Emil Svanängen (QRO interview) may be guilty of overdoing percussion dept. now and then, but at least every little instrument has a character. And while the drum machine works well for the shoegaze electronica of The Radio Dept. (QRO album review), or the synth punk of Handsome Furs (QRO album review), for Badly Drawn Boy, it sounds like an afterthought.
Unfortunately, Photographing Snowflakes is more misses than hits. The English musician could not have picked a track worse than “It’s What I’m Thinking” to champion the longest song of the album, clocking in at 6:27. The slow dragging, never-changing tempo, accompanied with the bluesy slide guitar, makes this song almost unbearable. How ironic that Gough dispassionately utters, “Thank you for your time, not wasting mine.” The highlights, “Too Many Miracles” and “A Pure Accident”, showcases the songwriter’s finesse for catchy pop melodies, but they don’t quite reach the soaring heights they are capable of. Gough could learn a thing or two, by contemplating on his lyrics, “As we both want the same thing / From the ashes, we will rise”, on “A Pure Accident”.
Gough’s wispy vocals only add to the humdrumness of Photographing Snowflakes>, but what keeps it from going straight to yard sale bin are: his sincerity, and the glimpses of pop perfection. But there isn’t enough to outshine the mostly dull, and disparate arrangements. After ten years since his ‘defining work’, Gough hasn’t been able to redefine himself. If the next two installments of the trilogy suffer the same fate as Part 1, Badly Drawn Boy may only have a handful of faithful fans left to sketch out his career.
MP3 Stream: “A Pure Accident”
