You can just picture the brainstorming session that preceded the recording of this album. Cigar Chomping Movie Mogul #1: "OK, we've got another self-obsessive midlife comedy from the bald guy that didn't write Bridget Jones' Diary. There's a kid on the poster with a bobble hat and the title contains the word boy. Now which artist can we get to encapsulate all of that for the soundtrack?" CCMM#2: "Boy, stupid headwear. Hey, anyone know if Culture Club are still together?"
Luckily for the sanity of the world, Mr O'Dowd was out the afternoon the call came in and the job went to third choice Damon Gough (the ex singer of the Motorcycle Boy was on her lunch break, tragically). For some, a collaboration involving Badly Drawn Boy, Nick Hornby, and Hugh Grant is a marriage made in middle class hell, a potentially unbearable blend of faux reasonableness and introverted vanity, but for those who have the time and soul to appreciate a spot of gentle maturity this is a fine, touching album.
The most pleasing revelation about this soundtrack is how well Gough has reacted to discipline. Whereas his Mercury Prize winning debut tended to ramble and rely more on charm than focus and his live shows are often a self-indulgent endurance test, 'About A Boy' feels well crafted and precisely sequenced. A mix of mood setting instrumental snippets (some only 30 or so seconds long) and subtly beautiful musings on adulthood, it's an album that feels like a watershed somehow, a significant step onwards.
Listen to this record and you hear not a background accompaniment to yet more comic romantic fumblings but a talent finally blossoming into something truly special. The quality of songwriting is consistently, impressively high, from the upbeat Beck pop of 'The Peak You Reach' to the gorgeous Elliott Smith-esque harmonies and sighs of 'Something To Talk About' and 'River Sea Ocean'. There are no clever tricks or sleights of hand deployed here, nothing more than heartfelt melodies written with love and dedication, but it's still irresistible, magical even.
The same goes for Gough's orchestral scores. The way the music box delicacy of 'I Love NYE' slowly unravels itself feels utterly natural and straightforward, but there's a well balanced blend of optimism, sorrow and rising serenity that's breathtaking. 'Above You, Below Me' runs on the couplet "I will take you as you are/please accept me as I am", but it's the surging, swaying, spiralling, pirouetting strings that capture your heart. This is music written in the clouds, in the light of the stars.
Possibly the biggest question posed by this album, though, is: what would John Lennon have made of it? There's a sense in these tunes that this is where 'Double Fantasy' and twenty extra years might have led the former Beatle and that it would have been Gough and not the Gallaghers who'd have commanded his respect. Depending on how hugely rock tradition figures in your life, that's either the greatest compliment going or confirmation you should steer well clear.
by Ian Watson