Badly Drawn Boy has spun songs of glorious melancholy for most of a decade, beginning with 2000's Mercury Prize-winning debut The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast. But after 2006's Born In The UK, Gough seemed worn out. The vicissitudes of record label politics sapped his enthusiasm and he vanished into the post-Britpop ether.

It's a pleasure, then, to hear Gough is back and firing on all cylinders with It's What I'm Thinking, Pt. 1: Photographing Snowflakes, the first in a projected trilogy. The album finds Gough back on the Manchester indie label he co-founded in the late '90s, Twisted Nerve. He's also back working with DJ, producer, artist and all-round crate-digging compadre Andy Votel. Here, partnered with his old pal, Badly Drawn Boy has created another homespun mini-masterpiece worthy of his artist's moniker.

Gough is a longstanding fan of The Boss, and Photographing Snowflakes could be his tilt at Tunnel Of Love-era Springsteen. The lyrics are typically downcast, but the music, even when it is tinny and lo-fi, is suffused with warmth and optimism. The jaunty melody of "I Saw You Walk Away" reaches for uncharacteristic high notes even as Gough laments: "If I don't crucify myself, somebody will." The gloriously simple… read more »