Let’s Hear It For “About a Boy”

The early 2000’s. Wow. We were all trying to chill… either from too many club drugs ( not me, but those of you who were.. it’s cool. Why didn’t you share more?), 9/11 ( me and a lot of other fine folks,) and the whole buzzkill of Y2K.

I mean, we passed both 2000 AND 2001 with out one robot trying to kill us all. Not counting Dick Cheney. I don’t think he was a cyborg yet.

And in to that mix, came all sorts of great, but chill things. Like “Chill Lounges” and “Chill Music.” New frontiers in folk and mellowness.

And Badly Drawn Boy. Another guy who I heard more about than heard, another Brit, his video with the kids’ braces stuck together spoke to a wholesome romantic wistfulness.

And then he did the soundtrack for “About a Boy.”

You may have figured out I’m a Nick Hornby fanboy. Yes, yes I am. And save for the fact that it’s impossible to make a decent film of “Fever Pitch”, the other movies based on his work have been purty damn awesome. Even better, “About a Boy’s” screenplay was written Peter Hedges, a former teacher of mine.

One of the nicest guys you could hope to meet. EVER. You read "What's Eating Gilbert Grapes?" Go back. Buy some of his other stuff.

Anyway,  BDB was a great choice for the movie, a fun mix of odd characters in odd situations, finding themselves in London.

And the CD was one of many found at an FYE in Kingston, NY, as we were rushing to find new cd’s to play in the rental car during a good but challenging recent vacation.

I was going to give this 3 stars, but a second listen bumps it up to 4.  BDB get’s some different styles in this cd, it’s not mopetastic at all. And it works brilliantly with the film.  

But I don’t often see listening to it for it’s own sake. Plus, where the hell is “Santa’s Super Sleigh?” REALLY! But it does stand out better as a CD for it’s own sake then I first realized.

Get this if you are a fan of the film or a Badly Drawn Boy fan. It won’t let you down. If you are looking to learn about Badly Drawn Boy, I’d say track down his other albums first, but swing back to this.

Artist: Badly Drawn Boy.

Album: 19
Year: 2008
Date Listened in Tour: 4/22/09
Rating: ****
Best Song:Silent Sigh