Badly Drawn Boy releases ‘Is This A Dream?’, his first song in seven years.

All artists have an image and normally you can relate to a mental picture of them when you hear their name. If you say Freddie Mercury (okay he’s had a few changes) most people go to the iconic vest, faded blue jeans and big moustache, reminiscent of the magical Live Aid performance. If you say Badly Drawn Boy you go to the casual, relaxed bearded man who always wears a beanie hat, well I do anyway! It seems to have been a while since we have heard from Badly Drawn Boy, otherwise known as Damon Gough, in fact it’s a seven year break, so a welcome return to writing and ‘Is this a Dream’ is a great piece to come back to form with. 

Politics instills all sorts of emotions in us. I think it’s fair to say many people are a little bit disillusioned with national and international politics at the moment and there are reflections within the music that is  currently being made. Whilst the times are worrying, it’s great for creativity, as it’s inspiring a lot of music! ‘Is this a Dream’ takes us on an interesting journey that has energy, with a hard drum beat that powers lots of instruments that provides a nearly chaotic backing to the vocal. The deliberate production of so much accompaniment is brilliant, when you’re mirroring what you see as madness in life, then music lets you audibly do that. The reference to stardom, “Thanks Mr Andrews for giving me the bed red book” makes you think about how this influences someone like Damon Gough and changes his perception of the world. It is fascinating and there are lots of clever lyrical twists that really show an artist who is prepared to put out more of themselves in their music than a lot of contemporaries. 

If all this seems too much, then the song itself is great. It’s catchy and is really well crafted. The chorus acts as a lovely break away from the verse and bridge and we’re reminded of what a talented writer and singer Badly Drawn Boy is. The Mercury Prize winner is showing, that even after 7 years away from releasing new music, he still has what it takes to put out an absolute cracking song that is political, personal and clever. What would be good here is that new people are turned on to this and start to use this creative force for their own inspiration and give music a new energy to evolve into.

 Singer-songwriter     Indie 

Author: Phil Arnold

Phil Arnold is a musician, producer and music reviewer from Devon, in the South West of England. Whilst not writing music reviews, Phil also writes and records under the name of Ugbrooke.