Audio CD review:
Badly Drawn Boy - Hour of Bewilderbeast

Badly Drawn Boy - Hour of Bewilderbeast

Band: Badly Drawn Boy Title: Hour of Bewilderbeast Rating: Release Date: 11 July, 2000 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: The Shining 2: Everybodys Stalking 3: Bewilder 4: Fall In A River 5: Camping Next To Water 6: Stone On The Water 7: Another Pearl 8: Body Wrap 9: Once Around The Block 10: This Song 11: Bewilderbeast 12: Magic In The Air 13: Cause A Rockslide 14: Pissing In the Wind 15: Blistered Heart 16: Disillusion 17: Say It Again 18: Epitaph

Customer Reviews Defying Easy Categorization One reviewer referred to THOB as "futurist folk", which is close, but not exact. Badly Drawn Boy's The Hour of Bewilderbeast, winner of Britain's Mercury Prize 2000, defies easy categorization, and that's its charm. These 18 tracks morph genres with such ease you smile at its audacity and casual command. In a way, THOB is like Gomez without the belabored mastery. Damon Gough, who is BDB, is like an old blues giant tossing one off for the simple joy of it - nothing to prove, no one to delight but himself, and his listeners, who will continue to discover pleasures after many, many spins. Most inspired combo: the Rolling Stones meet Blur on "Causing a Rockslide". This Year's Soft Bulletin A wonderfully slack wander into Beck, Beta Band and Nick Drake country with a voice redolent of Barney Sumner of New Order's heartfelt fragility and honesty, Damon Gough is the first musical saviour of the millenium (until the next one). There's one album every year that the musical cognoiscenti adopt and adore with an infectious passion and this must be it for 2000. Just don't expect a live show on par with the Flaming Lips; his reputation as a wilfully hit and miss live act is beginning to precede him. Really quite amazing... I have a few of his early EPs and have totally enjoyed them but never really known what to make of them. Badly Drawn Boy has never even been mentioned in the American music press, however I was able to casually follow his career through foreign music magazines like Q and Select. The ones I own are primarily instrumental and grew somewhat old afterawhile. Needless to say I wasn't really sure what I would be getting when I picked up a copy of Badly Drawn Boy's first full length album while overseas. The hype in Europe has been significant so I was expecting a lot and was really surprised and pleased when I listened to the cd the first time. Badly Draw Boy is one of the few indie rock artists who is able to dabble with various styles without sounding contrived or simply bad. All of his eighteen tracks are quite amazing actually. . . mostly because each track varies so much from the ones before. At moments the album can border on convoluted, but all in all the final product is great. While the entire album will probably be filed under "creative britpop", it really should be cross filed with electronic folk. The sound could be compared to a hybrid of Beck and Travis. . . but that doesn't really totally explain it. The best way to understand the genious that is Badly Drawn Boy is to plop down the hefty fee for the import cd and play is over and over. This is one of those albums that grows on you with time and has enough variety to sustain a listener's interest throughout the duration of the entire cd. A must have for any major music fan. . You can see a complete list of all Badly Drawn Boy discography, or go back to the Badly Drawn Boy tabs