Track Listing

1. One Plus One Is One
2. Easy Love
3. Summertime in Wintertime
4. This is That New Song
5. Another Devil Dies
6. The Blossoms
7. Year of the Rat
8. Four Leaf Clover
9. Fewer Words
10. Logic of a Friend
11. Stockport
12. Life Turned Upside Down
13. Takes The Glory
14. Holy Grail

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8492 in Music
• Released on: 2004-06-21
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
In One Plus One Is One, lovable, romantic, woolly-hat-clad eccentric Damon Gough has produced his best album since he beat Coldplay to Mercury Music Prize winning glory with his debut (The Hour of the Bewilderbeast). With Badly Drawn Boy shunning LA in favour of a Manchester studio and with Andy Votel back at the production helm One Plus One is a wry, self-mocking and exquisitely personal album that finds Gough re-evaluating the sudden fame that found him working with Joan Collins, recording soundtracks and residing in California.

The opening title track sets the mood with Gough exhaustedly intoning "Back to being who I was before/ Open up your door/ Give me some peace/ Hold me now/ Everybody is waiting outside." Other highlights include the playfully clumsy rhythms of "Four Leaf Clover" and the epic and ingenious "Holy Grail", the latter coming complete with weaving flute, children's choir, pounding piano and lyrics able to break a heart at half a listen. Charming, dishevelled and unpretentious throughout, One Plus One Is One is a superb comeback that will warm the hearts and delight the ears of his loyal fan base. --Christopher Barrett

Album Description
With his new album, One Plus One Is One, Badly Drawn Boy, aka Damon Gough, has returned to the raw sound of his debut, the acclaimed Mercury Music Prize winning The Hour of the Bewilderbeast. Produced by close friend Andy Votel, his latest offering has the more personal feel of a man returning to his roots, and it will carry you along on the journey with him.

CD Description
With a Mercury Music Prize under his belt for 2000's 'The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast', Damon Gough returns with his fourth studio album. Recorded in Stockport, as opposed to Los Angeles for his third album, 'One Plus One Is One' returns to the slightly lo-fi sound of his early work, and contains a mix of cheery sing-a-long songs and moments of lyrical bleakness.

Customer Reviews

Poor arithmetic... but a great album
More effortless class from genius Gough. Another peerless collection of great songs. Intimate, moving, infectious, amusing, lyrical, inventive - you'll be humming these tracks for weeks (especially Year of the Rat, one of the most unashamedly anthemic pieces BDB has ever penned. Can't wait to see the kids' choir on TOTP..)

Unlike, it seems, almost everyone else on the planet, I thought Have You Fed the Fish was a fantastic album. OK, so it wasn't Hour of Bewilderbeast Mk II, and it did attempt a more orchestrated, mainstream sound. But I think this has distracted some people from acknowledging that the quality of the songwriting was as high as ever. You Were Right, for example, is one of the greatest singles of the last decade.

One Plus One is One proves that, if anything, the songs are actually improving. Some people have given this album a half-hearted response, saying it's just more of the same - as if an artist with the talent of BDB has to innovate with every new album simply to counter the restlessness of the audience and please the critics. Many bands struggle for decades to come up with a handful of great songs - BDB seems able to knock them out one after the other. This album is the latest batch from the conveyor belt of genius, and it's hard to pick out highlights, there's so much quality on offer. Summertime in Wintertime, Four Leaf Clover, This is That New Song - all classics.

Buy this and you'll listen to nothing else for a long, long while.

Peace, love and......jazz flute!!!
This will never be regarded as a great album, and clearly lacks the coolness and mysticality of Bewilderbeast, but it does mark a significant return to form for Damon Gough. Judging by some of the lyrics in this album, and various past interviews, BDB himself felt his music and perhaps his professional life was lacking direction. As he sings in the title track 'Its time to close the doors on myself...As the past becomes the future it gets clearer that it still boils down to love and peace.' Love and peace is really what the album itself boils down to. It is full of uplifting lyrics like in 'Another Devil Dies' and 'Year of the Rat,' which both somehow inspire you to be a better person.

Gough has really gone back to doing what he is best at - writing simple tunes with great lyrics. Whilst the songs themselves are catchy and decent without being brilliant, there is a lyrical maturity reminiscent of the incredible 'You were right' that was never too evident in Gough's earlier work. He manages to say some pretty wise and even profound things without sounding in any way forced or condescending. What really shines through in this album is what a nice bloke Damon Gough has managed to remain throughout his rise to fame. He's totally comfortable with himself and the music he's producing - who else is cool enough to have children singing on two tracks on the same album and get away with it?! Not Cliff Richard, and certainly not Michael Jackson...

Badly Drawn Boy simply doesn't make bad music, and anyone calling themself a fan should definitely add this to their collection. There are 5 or 6 good songs, and lyrics that really make you listen. For any fans of Anchorman, there is even a dashing of Burgundy-esque jazz flute. What more could you ask for?!

Great Album
I must admit that I am new to BDB but the moment I started listening to this album I really loved it. I especially liked "Easy Love", "Summertime In Winter", "Another Devil Dies", "Year of the Rat", and "Fewer Words". Hell to be honest I loved them all and I will buy all his other albums.

Just a word of advice to people who like to complain, please go listen to an album before you buy it. It is usually what intelligent people do. You may want to write that down in case you forget. Anyway I think people should appreciate someone who hasn't been corrupted buy the music industry. I believe this is someone who is totally original, which is something of a novelty these days.