Badly Drawn Boy - It’s What I’m Thinking (CD, Vinyl LP)

Right. That beardy Mancunian tramp is back in our lives and we should be grateful. He makes the majority of us look like Christian Bale (though Brett already does - wooooh! Hold it ladies!), even after we've been on a tequila & kebab marathon, shat ourselves & woken up face-down in the gutter afterwards. No longer blatantly ripping off Elliot Smith or Brucie bonus (well you can't fake that kind of despair and he'd look an even bigger twat in a cut-off t-shirt) but I'm actually not entirely sure WHAT he's actually doing now. We don't wanna open the deluxe CD package, it looks too posh. So we're having a listen to the more than moderately interesting "collage" of the album his old mucker Andy Votel has constructed. It's the only "promo" thing we've got to go on. And it sounds just like an old Twisted Nerve/Finders Keepers thing really. Loads of mad old folk/cinematic/kitsch/psychedelic twists stitching the skeletal fundamentals of his new album back together to resemble some woozy aural Frankenstein's monster after a few mushie brews. It really works rather well, though I bet the actual primary album is a bit Kenny Loggins - his last few have been far too MOR for my tastes. So the Elton John of Pavement Pizza Towers has been shambling around in that fucking smelly hat for over a decade now! But, ya know, it's kinda reassuring to have him back! Although given that this is mooted as the first of a trilogy I may be soon eating my words....