Customer Reviews

About a Boy Soundtrack (Reis)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Badly Drawn boy tackled a different kind of project in this album -- the soundtrack for the amusing movie adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel, "About A Boy." His blend of melodic folk-pop and all-too-brief instrumentals are just like the novel -- bright, breezy and subtle. What's even better? "About A Boy Soundtrack" is just as good when separated from the film.

It opens with a sunny piano melody, just a cute little ditty that doesn't last half a minute. Then it shifts into the mellow, sharp keyboard pop of "A Peak You Reach," before blossoming into a blend of poppy folk (the soothing "Something To Talk About" and fun "River Sea Ocean") and folky pop (the slightly eerie "Silent Sigh and bouncy "File Me Away").

Sprinkled through these are instrumental interludes, some less than a minute long. But despite their brevity, these little instrumentals manage to feel well-rounded and full. One a particular highlight is "Delta (Little Boy Blues)," an enchanting pop tune augmented by horns and what sounds like an organ.

No wonder Nick Hornby wanted Badly Drawn Boy (real name: Damon Gough) for the soundtrack to "About a Boy." While there are occasional lapses -- "S.P.A.T" is a fragmented electronic mess -- the mellow, autumnal sound of this soundtrack is just entrancing. Yes, the Hugh Grant movie about a Peter-Pannish thirtysomething was good -- but the music alone is a prize.

Gough is to be commended for having his songs "flow" into one another -- it feels a bit like a sprawling, many-toned song that has been carefully divided into bits and pieces, then stitched back together. It doesn't have the experimental feel of his non-soundtrack albums, but the delicate piano, guitar, strings, harmonica and blazing brass blend into a smooth, mellow sound.

Gough's voice sounds sort of... well, timid, as if he doesn't want to make it too prominent in the music. But his voice is a pleasant voice, almost childlike in its exuberance and emotion. Which makes his sometimes melancholy songs sound even more so, when he sings almost pleadingly, "Silent sigh, silent sigh silent sigh/Keeps down all move me down/Could we love each other?"

It's no "Hour of Bewilderbeast." Instead, this breezy pop album is "About A Boy," a "bewilderbeast" in its own category. Badly Drawn Boy's second release is a thoroughly pretty, sweet and often entrancing creation. Bravo, Damon.

BDB is incredible. He shows his talent and versatility in this album, which is SO much more than your typical soundtrack. If you've seen the movie, you will realize how much his songs reflect the mood and plot. However, even if you haven't, it stands alone as a wonderful album. Kudos to one of the ONLY original artists on the music scene today!

This is the fourth BDB album I've bought and it's simply an amazingly brillant piece of musicianship. I've listened to this album a ridiculous amount of times and I never cease to enjoy every song on here. BDB finds a perfect balance mixing quirky instrumental tracks with an equal number of wonderful vocal pieces, creating an album rarely surpassed by musicians today. With enticing lyrics and catchy tunes, the soundtrack to "About a Boy" will please its buyers and delight any who take a moment to listen to BDB work his magic.

A great soundtrack for the "About A Boy" movie. This eclectic, energetic, wistful music conjurs up a range of emotions depicted in the movie. My wife loves the CD too. Very original.

I've been looking for the soundtrack everywhere. It's one of the most original, uplifting, "gladdening" -as the original review copy reads - soundtracks out there. Love it!

Like most of you who are reading this review, this wasn't my first BDB purchase -- that would go to Hour of Bewilderbeast. In fact, this was my 3rd BDB album purchase.

This album is amazing. Just different enough from his non-soundtrack albums to be interesting yet containing all of the things you love about him. On first listen, you may think the musical interludes are filler -- you'd be wrong, though. On subsequent listens, this album reveals itself as the perfect creation it is. I'd liken it to Marvin Gaye's What's Going On in the sense that all the songs have a very similar feel, and musical interludes have some melodies repeated throughout the album.

So buy this, jump in the car on a rainy, autumn day and prepare to be completely astounded by how good these melodies and songs are.

I keep coming back to Badly Drawn Boy after his amazing debut album. Unfortunately, time and time again I end up being disappointed. On this soundtrack album, you only get a couple decent songs. You'd be better off buying them in MP3 format and saving a bit of dough.

The songs and music here were written by Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Gough), and while a couple of tracks are outstanding, a lot of it turns out to only be good as background music. To be fair, of course, that is what it was intended for, but I thought it would be more of a "listen to" than it has turned out to be. You find yourself wanting to forward to the good songs, or to program just to play a couple. One outstanding track is "A Minor Incident", But I think I would consider downloading that as an MP3 in lieu of buying the CD.

`About a Boy' is Badly Drawn Boy's second album and is the soundtrack to the film of the same name. This has a very similar feel to `The Hour of Bewilderbeast', which is probably why he was chosen for this project and offers more of his acoustic, quirky, but strangely joyful music.

This has fully formed tracks, as well as brief orchestral interludes that score certain parts of the film, but to be honest it sits very well together as a complete album and is credible in it's own right. I adore `Silent Sigh' which is probably one of the more moving tracks Gough has ever written. That piano intro gets me going every time and by the time the lyrics kicks in I am gone. Perfection.

If you enjoyed the music in the film then definitely give this a go, but if you haven't even seen the film and just like Badly Drawn Boy's music, then don't hesitate as this is as good as previous work (and work to come) and I heartily recommend it.

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3 1/2

An impressive array of production arrangement went into rounding this out to be an underrated if imperfect gem in a declining catalog.