The Hour Of Bewilderbeast
Badly Drawn Boy
2000
Album Summary
The Hour of Bewilderbeast is the debut studio album by British musician Badly Drawn Boy, released on 26 June 2000. Damon Gough, who performs as Badly Drawn Boy, wrote, produced, and played several instruments on the album's eighteen tracks, several of which also feature accompaniment by members of the British indie rock bands Alfie and Doves. The Hour of Bewilderbeast was released to great critical acclaim and went on to win the 2000 Mercury Prize, and has sold 455,000 copies in the United Kingdom as of September 2011.
WikipediaI just don’t get it? I don’t know what people hear in this album that I don’t? What is on here that makes anyone swoon on about it like it was their first born? The music is not groundbreaking or genre defining. It’s neither a breakout sound or mesmerising enough to keep me on high alert for the start of each track. It’s the same indie sound that blends each song into the other due to the nondescript style of the music. I tried listening to the most played track, according to Deezer, over and over hoping to catch a peek of what the cool kids were revelling in...I didn’t even get a glimpse. 1 Star!
I’m familiar with a little Badly Drawn Boy, but this is the first time hearing this album. Mostly gentle and pleasant - but never boring - with some darker undercurrents that occasionally bubble up to the surface. The songs have a way of being unique and quirky without crossing over into annoying. There’s a lot of cleverness in the arrangements and the lyrics. Some Highlights: “The Shining” features some great horns in the opening the turns to a really nice guitar song that builds the orchestra back by the finale. Really nice. “Camping Next To Water” seems to be about someone stranded in the woods alone living on fish. Really great song! “Once Around The Block” has a pleasant, quirky vibe - a fun listen. “Magic in the Air” was very a really nice love song that has just the right amount of sweetness. “Cause A Rockslide” is interesting with cool lyrics (“your sweetness would cause a rockslide”) and a trippy second half I enjoyed. “Pissing In The Wind” takes things in a country direction with fun lyrics and a shambly feel. It is probably my second favorite song on the album after… “Disillusion” is a groovy dance track with a great beat and rhythm section Great song - my favorite on the album. “Say It Again” has some more really clever lyrics. Great song that builds and builds as it goes - “dried up thoughts but my nose is runny.” Just when you think you have THE HOUR OF BEWILDERBEAST pinned down the album throws a curve ball into the music and/or lyrics. The surprises really work and never feel out of place (except maybe “This Song” on headphones). With each listen there’s something new to discover. Somehow Badly Drawn Boy weaves all these unique pieces together into a cohesive, enjoyable album.
What an odd and lovely little album. There's so much great music, melody, instrumentation, and vocalization on this one. Lyrically intricate and poetic. Great mix of "chill" and energetic energy, dynamic in a way that's interesting and not jarring to listen to. Loved it.
This album is no longer in the latest editions of the book, and I can't say I disagree.
This is a hell of an album. I had forgotten just how good. The melodies come fast and furiously and with beauty a subtlety. The listener is required to wade through some studio trickery which almost but not quite distracts from the incredible songwriting. Allmusic.com references Harry Nilsson as his closest influence, frankly I don't here it; First of all Damon's voice is not like Nilsson's and I think of him more as an interpreter of other's material. I hear a lot of Beatles (think Sgt Pepper's) but what I really hear is Todd Rundgren, I think of THOTB as Something/Anything for the year 2000. A brilliant debut that does now and always will sound fresh. 5 🌟
Me and my mate used to drink in the same pub him in Chorlton. He’s reyt grumpy when you ask him to song you a song. Indie!
I know about Badly Drawn Boy from the About a Boy soundtrack- which I listened to pretty religiously for a while after I found it in a used CD store :). I hadn't heard this album but I like it too.
Someone included Once Around the Block on a mixtape for me a while back but that's all I know of Badly Drawn Boy. I've always liked Once Around the Block because it's in 3 and sometimes you just need a waltz so I'm interested. First track is called The Shining and I'm nervous. Oh, a cello. How lovely. And a French horn? Go on... O! It's about the sun! And it's pretty! I love it. Next song is Everybody's Stalking (good Midnight Cowboy/Nilsson reference) and I'm dancing at the bus stop! (Can't really understand the lyrics but they might be creepy since it's about stalking.) I love this one, too! Also on my love list are Pissing in the Wind, Say it Again, Epitaph, the disco sound of Disillusion, and Stone on the Water (another waltz). The piano at the beginning of Magic in the Air reminded me of Hard Candy Christmas from Best Little Whorehouse... This Song is very strange. I listened to it twice on speakers and would have absolutely believed it was Simon & Garfunkel. But then I was relistening on headphones on my walk home and thought I might be having a stroke. There is some very very strange (and off-putting) stereo effect happening there. I almost fell over. There are a few tracks on this long album that didn't do much for me but overall I really liked this and will listen again.
An artist that has never come up on my radar, with an album of songs I don’t recognise. This is why I love the 1001 Album challenge (if you want to call it that). It’s allegedly one of the best albums ever created, and I’m going in clueless but optimistic - I like the album art. Songs I already know: none Favourite after listening: Bewilderbeast, Everybody’s Stalking Songs I disliked: This Song - the weird rapid panning between each earphone gave me a headache Overall: 9/10 This album was near perfect, and very much to my taste. It reminds me a lot of Eels and that’s definitely no bad thing. It’s the kind of album where if I was listening to it and somebody spoke to me, I would want to pause the music rather than talk over it. It’s so beautifully composed, and he has such a nice voice. 90’s alt music it always going to go down well with me, and I’m going to be coming back to this album a lot (except that one song). Edit: turns out it was released in 2000, so it’s technically not 90s alt, but definitely feels like it.
Here’s a good rule of thumb for a lot of these early 00’s albums (particularly the British indie ones) that the list curator loves to include: If you haven’t heard anyone talk about the band in 20 years, it’s probably safe to say that you don’t need to hear it before you die. This record plods along, doesn’t really offer anything revolutionary or particularly upbeat. It’s a bit depressing, innit? Like if Elliot Smith stole Radiohead’s lunch money. As a counterpoint to this record, I’ll offer up Grandaddy’s “The Sophtware Slump”, also from 2000. It’s a well engineered, experimental indie rock headphone album and at least Jason Lytle sounds like he [gasp] had a little fun making the record.
This fucking sucks and I hate it. I won’t mince words today or waste time trying to find merit where there is none.
Once around the block is one of my favorite favorites. Never would’ve guessed the rest of his would be this good
Stone on the Water is great, mostly instrumental. Say it Again also good. This Song got annoying with the reverb, but it was short so it was fine. As an indie hipster, this is the kind of album I wish I could say I had found. Truly incredible.
Takes me back to the days when I was selling wine in Carringtons. Love this album
No esperaba ni tantito de este disco: entre el nombre de la banda, la cara del tipo, la portada… Y la sorpresa fue que me empezó a gustar desde los 6 segundos cuando empieza a sonar un corno francés. Se me hace un disco que está muy bien producido y mezclado y lleno de detallitos en los instrumentos que le dan mucha profundidad. Quizá la canción en la que juega como idiota con el balance de lados (This Song) en el estereo podría caer mal, pero incluso dentro de eso siento que tiene un buen detalle, considerando que es 1999. Por otro lado, la canción que es totalmente instrumental (Bewilderbeast) me pareció genial, con sonidos que tienen algo de psicodelia, algo de pop, algo de todo. Para mí, un gran descubrimiento (porque solo conocía una rola que salía en el soundtrack the About A Boy) y lamento que, según lo que leo, esto es lo único decente que llegó a lanzar.
British, 00s, Indie rock + Interesting, Still new, Various, Smth alternative, Right folk = Male, Long play - THIS SONG {6/18}
The lead in cello and French horn put me under its spell! I really enjoyed the melodies and will add this to my listening library at least for the short term. Not sure it is a forever-love yet.
One of my favourite albums ever. Often derided as indie dirge, but it really does touch me!
I remember this and the Andy Votel mix of Round the Block! On relistening, it’s awesome. Rich, layered, complex, beautiful. I’ll definitely listen to this again.
Man, that was nice. What an excellent piece of collected tunes I've literally never heard before. I loved the instrumentation. And consider looking up the contributing artists list if you ever get bored. More folks took part in this album that Band-Aid.
A bit disorienting times, but a really great listen. A bit of neutral milk hotel, a bit of nick drake, and a lot of fun!
I'm not sure how to explain how much I liked this album. It is kind of weird in a very positive way, feels fresh and original. It has good music and a great flow. If you're into indie music, you'll enjoy it.
That was actually really beautiful, I really loved that No complaints, just great indie, 10/10
This was a surprising album given that I’ve never heard of either the album or the artist before but it was really solid. The shining and camping next to water were standouts. Second half I didn’t enjoy quite as much but giving it a 5 mainly just to remember it
I didn’t know what to expect from this album. I definitely didn’t expect to fall in love with it but here I am looking how to add it to my collection
I don’t know how to classify any of this but I loved this album. Good find!
Like the varied beats. Nice how the instruments cine in and fade out as do the vocals. Nice raw somewhat sometimes out of tune singer. Like to listen to this.
This album goes through an impressive variety of styles while still maintaining depth. The instrumental tracks were my favorite. The only songs I did not like were the sappy alternative/singer-songwriter ones. Maybe that style was cool when it was still relatively new.
Genuinely amazing. I didn’t like the vocals a ton everywhere, but the absolutely amazing instrumentation pulled it out anyway. I love this album.
Great album! I loved it, only downside I could think of is that it's a little dragged out? 50 minutes would've been long enough. Great album anyways!
loved this album when it came out so it was nice to listen to it again and to my surprise it's still very good.
wow this was so good. A lots of types of songs. It was snowing and I was listening to this while driving in bus, great atmosphere!
Pretty good. Will listen again. Fusion of a lot of genres folk-country, hip-hop, etc.
Uma das melhores surpresas até agora. Mistura de Surfjan com Elliott Smith. Nada absurdamente original ou empolgante, mas muito agradável e interessante
This Song literally tickles my ears when using headphones! Mostly pleasant album- some of it gets creepy.
An often good, occasionally great cross section of where indie rock was coming from and going at the turn of the millennium, featuring one of the best songs ever, "Once Around The Block," right smack dab in the middle.
Some great songs, some ok songs, but definitely gonna check out other albums
Worth revisiting! This album was totally in line with stuff I listened to ten years later. I’m assuming this influenced everyone from Wilco to... umm all those indie peeps later.
Solid would relisten probably a 4, tracks 1,2,5 pretty lit felt like it dropped off over time another pearl and magic in the air cool also
Never heard of this band but really digging their album would listen to again. Sounds chill af, about it :)
I really like this so far. It reminds me a little bit of Lior, who is one of my very favorite artists. So there were some songs I really liked and others not as much. I think in general I would look for more of this artist.
The Shining has hints of Neutral Milk Hotel. Everybody's Stalking has that seedy 90s discomfort. I was ready not to like this, but there's a bright acoustic melancholy here that's resonating with me on a Monday. I like the ebb and flow. The occasional instrumental track - Bewilderbeast and Blistered Heart reminded me of the Life Aquatic soundtrack. Not every track was a winner but this is the unexpected kind of discovery that drew me to this album project in the first place.
really catchy, pleasing, indie music. Hard to guess when it was produced. Could have come out this year for all I know.
I really liked this. Great background music for beer drinking. It was a mix of Wilco and Radiohead to me. I will be listening to this again.
Zeitkapsel in eine auch ziemlich weirde Ära. Schön, das wieder zu entdecken, schön auch, sich mit 20 Jahren Abstand bisschen in die Umstände der Entstehung reinzulesen (Manchester abseits von New Order, Oasis und Take That, etc.) 3,7 dafür.
Um 2 poppige Säulen („Once Around the Block“/„Disillusion“) herum schlafwandelndes Meisterwerk. Mit jedem Durchlauf tritt ein anderes Detail in den Vordergrund, konzeptueller Mosaik-Indie mit knappen Hang zur Unheimlichkeit ehe sich doch Heimeligkeit sanft durchboxt. Und dabei auf eine selbstbewusste Art Englisch; genuine Eigenständigkeit, erkennbare Handschrift, kauzige Haltung. In den instrumentalen Passagen nah an Filmmusik. Kein Wunder, dass sich der der schlecht gezeichnete Boy direkt für den Soundtrack zu „About A Boy“ - einer weiteren Verschränkung von UK Herrlichkeit aus Literatur und Film - qualifiziert hat. Morgen stoß‘ ich mit einer Dose Baked Beans an auf flirrend stabile 4.4
I know the band sounded familiar, but I couldn't place where. It was the first song The Shining, that I remembered! Rest of the album is really good, great background working music.
A little overly long but very enjoyable. The songs are well written and I enjoy the chamber pop sound, even if it's been overdone in recent years
Interesting, strange, at times intriguing, at times serene. A nice background album that sometimes captivates the mind and sometimes lets it wander.
Soft britpop. Might take a few more listens but my first impression is that I like it. Seems to have a lot of texture.
I've seen Badly Drawn Boy in concert and I know several of the tracks off of this album. I don't think I've listened to the album as a whole before. With 18 tracks, perhaps it's a little tough to get the album above a 4. I would listen to this album again. "Once Around the Block" is probably my favorite track.
Easy listen, played on a rainy Sunday and it was very peaceful. Could easily throw in the background anytime.
Like and early Fun. album. Lots of cool horns and strings with light pop
Lovely, textured atmospheric album. It's fun how the tracks journey through multiple genres, all while maintaining the Badly Drawn Boy sound.
Like Nick Drake, if Rivers Cuomo sang vocals. Hippie bullshit, but I kinda like it. It’s lush and full and melodic and dreamy. Worth another listen or three, even if the songs are pretty repetitive.