About A Boy OST

The artless, breathtaking pop miracle that was his 2000 debut The Hour Of Bewilderbeast always meant (admittedly unfairly) that whatever Damon Gough did next was destined to suffer slightly in the comparison. Well, here’s his score for the film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s boy-meets-dad novel - and lo, suffer it does. Slightly.

As wholly charming as it is, it’s not quite of the calibre of Gough’s staggering debut, and (if we’re quibbling) we quite miss the lowing cellos and doleful Northern brass of ex-backing band Alfie (currently busy releasing their own second album).

Also, why on earth would you take one of pop’s most beguilingly oddball voices and make him sound like cerebral word-cruncher Elliott Smith? Well, ask producer Tom Rothrock, erstwhile E. Smith helmsman, who plastic-wraps Gough’s unaffected scruffiness in studio-sheened, reverb-sodden layers until he’s ready for (very) last-minute inclusion on Figure 8. On the plus side, the hyperventilating shuffle of ‘Silent Sigh’, the beautifully plain ‘A Minor Incident’ and the agitated orchestral rapture of ‘Above You Below Me’ are certainly worthy new little brothers for classics like ‘Once Around The Block’.

So: an imperfect but heartening return from the only current torch-bearer for the kind of simple, shimmering, unapologetically childlike pop John Lennon gently pioneered. For that alone, we’re tremendously grateful to have him back.