I have a hard time liking an artist who doesn't come off well in interviews. Perhaps that's unfair of me, since there is always the possibility that a journalist has misrepresented or failed to give the full context or tone of the quoted words, but no matter whether I love the music - once I have read a couple of interviews where a singer comes off as smug, conceited, or arrogant, I can never quite think of his or her albums in quite the same way. The exception, I thought, was Badly Drawn Boy, aka Damon Gough. I don't think I have ever read an interview with Gough where I didn't cringe a little at something he said, but nevertheless, I always eagerly anticipate - and generally enjoy - his work quite a lot.

So I was particularly excited for the opportunity to see Badly Drawn Boy in concert. The October 12 show at the Avalon in Hollywood demonstrated that Gough has phenomenal talent, and his new album is nearly as good as his work on the About a Boy soundtrack. Tuesday found him eager to play LA; and he anticipated a good show, as Gogh said some of his best concerts have been played in this city. He dedicated the show to LA songwriter Elliott Smith, who he referred to several times over the course of the evening ("Fewer Words" was written after watching a video of Smith shortly after his death; "This Is That New Song" was written with Smith, among others, in mind).

A brief Badly Drawn Boy history: Gough's first LP under the Badly Drawn Boy moniker was Hour of Bewilderbeast, released in 2000, which became a college radio smash hit that made Badly Drawn Boy a hipster household name. Then, for two years no full lengths were released; but instead, a series of EPs. In 2002, Gough released the soundtrack album for About a Boy, the Hugh Grant movie based on the Nick Hornby novel. It was here that he began to get noticed by a mainstream audience, and the soundtrack remains, arguably, his best work to date. The same year, Gough released the disappointing Have You Fed the Fish?, which, despite a couple of high points - "You Were Right" is without a doubt one of Gough's finest songs yet - ranks as his weakest record.

Badly Drawn Boy seems back on track for the most part with the recently released One Plus One Is One; there's some absolutely lovely stuff on this latest disc. In particular, the title track, "Year of the Rat," and "Four Leaf Clover" are standouts. Gough took the opportunity to share the entirety of the new disc with the album with the audience on Tuesday - he played straight through it. He separated his performance into two halves, with an intermission (that's "interval" to Damon). He apologized at several points for this strategy, claiming that feels "like a recital," but the audience didn't seem to mind - I even heard two attendees behind me contemplate whether to leave at the half, having apparently come only to hear new material.