Badly Drawn Boy: It's What I'm Thinking: Part 1 - Photographing Snowflakes

A decade after winning the Mercury with The Hour of Bewilderbeast, Damon Gough is back on his own label. In between lies a curious career path of film soundtracks, a disastrous switch from XL to EMI (which produced just one album) and eventual disillusion, all of which spills into his fifth proper album. Producer Stephen Hilton's gently sympathetic backdrop of quietly pattering drum machines and lush strings uses Gough's plaintive vocals as a texture and would probably cause seizures in major-label A&R departments, but suits the mood of hushed introspection, reflection and independence. The songs document Gough's journey back from rock bottom. He apologises for "failing", addresses the post-fame comedown ("10 feet tall, but feeling small") and finally realises his future is in his hands. It's not laden with hits, but in songs like the title track and beautiful, hook-laden What Tomorrow Brings, Chorlton's finest relocates the mojo that made everyone so excited in the first place. This story is far from over.