LaRM day 23 (Angelo Badalamenti-Badly Drawn Boy)

Back from holiday (Dublin was very nice thank you) and it's time for some appropriately dark and unnerving soundtrack stuff for being back at work. Angelo Badalamenti's soundtracks to Blue Velvet (1986) and Twin Peaks (1990) are, of course, creepy, unsettling and wonkily old-fashioned. Blue Velvet is in some ways the more creepy of the two, being less obviously stylised. It's more classically arranged and although it does have odd shards of jazz and swing, it's mostly piano pieces framed with nasty found sounds and discordance. Twin Peaks is more specific in its scene-setting, being a twisted amalgamation of 50's dance music, free-form jazz and general spookiness, but it's also somehow a "nicer" listen, smoother, spooky but not jarring. Everybody in the world knows a substantial amount of the soundtrack to Twin Peaks, whether they are aware of it or not, from the title theme to Julee Cruise singing 'Falling'. Both albums are fantastic in their own right, but Twin Peaks works better as a stand-alone album.

Following which we have something much lighter, it's a Badly Drawn Boy marathon, which starts with debut The Hour of Bewilderbeast (2001). This is an interesting record I think because it sort of sits outside what was happening in indie music at the time. There's a lot more ambition than most people were interested in here, and not in a grandstanding Divine Comedy kind of way, but in a very homely, low-key way. There's a lot going on in these songs and while there are obviously solidly written songs in a "classic" mode, there are plenty of funny noises, and evidence of mucking about which undercuts the surface earnestness of the songs. There are some fine tunes here as well, but while it's the restlessness that makes for the album's finest qualities, it's the restlessness that makes the albums increasingly difficult to listen to. However, second album About a Boy (2002) which was the result of Damon Gough being commissioned to write the soundtrack for the film, manages to stay focussed and concise, and some of the best songs of his career are found here. There's a really warm feeling about his songs at this point, which is what makes some people absolutely adore these records. For my part I could never really find the key to fully getting him. Sometimes the songs are really fabulous and sweet in a cheerfully cosy middle-class kind of way, but too often there's the feeling that ambition and boredom play an equal part in making up Gough's musical inspiration and that really comes through on 2002's Have You Fed the Fish?. It's interesting that such contrasting albums should have come out in the same year, because you get the sense that Have You Fed the Fish was intended to be the "proper" album and About a Boy the filler soundtrack, but it worked out very much the other way around. There's too little cohesion and too smug an atmosphere to HYFtF (If Comet use one of your songs for their ad then you've done something wrong), and it's all too heavily produced. There are still some fine songs but they're drowned by the overall weight of the album and the slick production.

One Plus One is One (2004) is more of the same, but crucially has a stripped back production which allows the songs some room. And there are some excellent songs here. Yet again though, it's the seeming inability to sit still or to let a mood really develop that stymies this album. It's far too long and I end up wishing that he would relax and accept that his best trick is to write lovely, calm, earnest pop songs, with clever arrangements. The apparently restless spirit throws too much into the mix, as ever. When it all works though, it really works beautifully ('Easy Love' for instance) and I can hear just how good a record Have You Fed the Fish could have been with this less showy, easier production. Then it's Born in the UK (2006) which many people think was a bit of a proper return to Hour of Bewilderbeast form, but for me is really a step back towards Have You Fed the Fish and is ultimately all pretty forgettable despite a handful of lovely songs. Finally it's Is There Nothing We Could Do? (2009) which is another soundtrack, this time for Caroline Aherne's TV movie The Fattest Man in Britain. This is more of a traditional soundtrack than About a Boy, mostly made of relatively slight instrumental pieces and a handful of new songs. Interestingly, again, the constrictions imposed as a result of soundtracking someone else's work really seems to bring out the best in Gough, as although it's relatively throwaway, these are some of the nicest and most delicate pieces of music he's written in a long time. There are a couple of more recent albums, but I an't got em.

And so ends yet another day.