''About a Boy'' is the second album by English singer-songwriter

Badly Drawn Boy Damon Michael Gough (born 2 October 1969), known by the stage name Badly Drawn Boy, is an English indie singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Gough chose his stage name from a character in the show ''Sam and his Magic Ball'', which he saw ...

(Damon Gough), released in 8 April 2002 under Twisted Nerve Records and

XL Recordings XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes. It has been ran and co-owned by Richard Russell since 1996. It forms part of the Beggars Group. Although only releasing an average of six albu ...

, and in America under the short-lived

ARTISTdirect ARTISTdirect is an American online digital media entertainment company. Overview Founded in 1994, it owns several websites, including artistdirect.com and artistdirectinterviews.com. These websites are a group of affiliate websites offering mul ...

Records, as the soundtrack to the film '' About a Boy''. Gough was chosen to compose and perform the entire soundtrack. In his book ''

31 Songs ''Songbook'' (published in the United Kingdom as ''31 Songs'') is a 2002 collection of 26 essays by English writer Nick Hornby about songs and (more often) the particular emotional resonance they carry for him. In the UK, Sony released a stand- ...

'', ''About a Boy'' author Nick Hornby lists Gough's track "A Minor Incident" as one of the songs that has had an effect on his life.

Track listing

Personnel

* Damon Gough – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, piano, synthesizer, keyboards, celeste, Fender Rhodes,

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...

, harmonica, backing vocals,

horns Horns or The Horns may refer to: * Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells * The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain * ''Horns'' (novel), a dark fantasy novel written in 2010 by Joe Hill ...

, strings, flute, percussion,

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- colline ...

, co-producer ; Additional musicians * Sasha Krivstsov – bass *

Joey Waronker Jon Joseph Waronker (born May 20, 1969) is an American drummer and music producer. He is best known as a regular drummer of both Beck and R.E.M., and as member of the experimental rock bands Atoms for Peace and Ultraísta. Background Waronke ...

– drums * Pete Thomas – drums *

Tom Rothrock Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

– drum programming, synth sweeps, synth, bass, co-producer *

Jon Brion Jon Brion is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and composer. He performed with the Excerpts, the Bats, 'Til Tuesday and the Grays before becoming an established producer and film score composer. Brion has ...

– fuzz guitar,

Chamberlin The Chamberlin is an electro-mechanical keyboard instrument that was a precursor to the Mellotron. It was developed and patented by the American inventor Harry Chamberlin from 1949 to 1956, when the first model was introduced. There are several ...

, bass, vibes, voices * Mike Brenner –

lap steel The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional a ...

, lap steel noises *

Steve McLaughlin Steven John McLaughlin (born October 2, 1971) is a former American college and professional football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) and the Arena Football League. He played college football for the University ...

– keyboards, co-producer * Patrick Seymour – keyboards, conductor * Jonathan Reese – orchestra leader * Pete Beechill –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

* Jeff Turmes – saxophone * Chuy Flores – backward noises * Suzie Katayyama – orchestra arranger & conductor * Sharon Celani – backing vocals * Gia Ciambotti – backing vocals * Ashley Arrison – backing vocals *

London Metropolitan Orchestra The culture of London concerns the music, museums, festivals and lifestyle within London, the capital city of the United Kingdom. London has frequently been described as a global cultural capital and is one of the world's leading business cent ...

– strings

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control Badly Drawn Boy albums Albums produced by Tom Rothrock 2002 soundtrack albums XL Recordings soundtracks Romance film soundtracks Comedy film soundtracks Drama film soundtracks