Damon Gough has gone back to basics. Having decided that the stadium rock of 2002's Have You Fed The Fish didn't really suit him after all, the tea-cosied Badly Drawn Boy has returned to the more whimsical style that made him so popular in the first place. It's turned out to be a good move - One Plus One Is One isn't the most sophisticated album you'll hear all year, but it's got a ramshackle charm that's impossible to dislike. Layered with flutes, violins and glockenspiels, these indie-folk songs are infused with a sense of weary melancholy; Gough recently lost a childhood friend and sings movingly here about the transience of life. Occasionally it all becomes a little too sentimental - a couple of tracks even feature a children's choir, which pushes the kitsch factor up to dangerous levels. For the most part, however, this is engaging stuff that suggests that the Boy has got his career right back on track. Hats off to him.
