Have You Fed the Fish

The second full-length album (not counting his superb soundtrack to About a Boy) by Damon Gough, a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy, reveals the true depths of his songwriting and arranging talents. While his debut, The Hour of the Bewilderbeast, knocked us dead with his fey, indie-folk-rock sensibilities, Have You Fed the Fish shows a musician striving for top-shelf greatness in the pantheon of British pop, à la the Beatles, Oasis, and Radiohead. Lush arrangements with strings, horns, a very grand piano, and guitars abound, with a richness rarely found in pop and rock music these days. Gough's songwriting is topnotch and by turns catchy and clever, stinging and personal. But you've been warned: this album gives us less of the indie-pop hero you may want to love, and more of a classic rock idol in the making. Beck/Elliott Smith producer Tom Rothrock is at the helm, and the glossy sheen that results may offend some lo-fi "slacker pop" aficionados. --Lorry Fleming