The Hour of Bewilderbeast

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Derided as a joker, dismissed as an indie elitist--few believed the hype that frothed from critical mouths about Damon Gough, a bleary-eyed, bestubbled Mancunian with an acoustic guitar and a shambolic stage manner. But The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast--the debut album by Gough's alter-ego, Badly Drawn Boy--is utterly superb, an 18-track collection of futurist folk as intimate and well crafted as Nick Drake's Bryter Later. Gough leads a backing band comprising Mancunian post-folk chums Alfie, and together they unveil a breed of rock entirely without bombast--the intimate folds of "Stone On The Water" entrancing, rather than bludgeoning. And it's funny, too. "I'm dying..." Gough announces on "Everyone's Stalking". And then, bourne up on a swell of parping brass, he finishes the sentence with relish: "To put a little sunshine in your life!" Droll, yet touching, seldom immediate, but forever sublime. The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast weaves quiet, but affecting, spells. -- Louis Pattison

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Customer reviews

review by: ahttt date: 2007-07-30 rating:
Yeah....
I used to have an art teacher who sported a magnificent mustache and extremely long "luxurious" hair. In order to create a stimulating working environment in his art classes, he used to put this album on. After two or three lessons I was hooked. I had to get my own copy. The rest, as they sometimes say, is history. That was seven years ago, when I was twelve or thirteen, and I think all of the music I've since took an interest in can in some way be traced back to this album. This was the "Big Bang" of my obsession with music. If it weren't for Ok Computer, I'd refer to it as my "favourite album of all time".

Listening to it now the amount of absolutely essential tracks is staggering. I could write essays on every single song here...but I won't. Instead I'll just mention that Stone on the Water was THE song that made me want to play guitar (I've since learnt that it's the easiest song on the album to play. Hooray!) and that the sheer scope of sounds, moods, emotions and ideas on offer here is devastating. I love the bit in Fall in a River in which the entire song really does appear to fall in a river, complete with bubbles and a distant muffled drowning sound befor the song is "saved" by a Mediterranean sounding guitar tremolo. I also love the point at which Cause a Landslide seems to lose its mind, descending into a nightmare of organs, electronic sounds, disconcerting samples and a theremin solo, before sanity is resumed by way of a quirky little folkish coda.

Then there's the searing art-rock of Everybody's Stalking. Only recently has it occurred to me just how downwright JAZZY those guitar sounds are. See? Subliminally, Badly Drawn Boy got me into jazz, and so so so much more...I'm so glad that this song can still be found in his setlists.

And I haven't even mentioned the "singles" yet, those songs familiar to everyone, like The Shining, Another Pearl, Once Around the Block and Disillusion which alone serve to justify the album purchase.

I'll end by saying that it's quite hard to find a pair of songs more beautiful and moving than Magic in the Air and Epitaph outside of Iceland. Here the emotions on display are so raw and fragile that upon listening I feel guilty for having disturbed something so deeply personal!

The lo-fi production values, sheer magnitude of memorable songs and the countless "quirks" make for an album (and yes, this IS an album in the purest sense of the word in that it's a full and complete listening experience rather than a collection of songs) which should appeal to anyone, even if they're not as biased by personal reasons as I am.

Essential purchase. Any music collection lacking it seems vacuous in comparison.

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review by: date: 2005-08-01 rating:
Perfect modern folk
Stunning album: quirky, pastoral and yet modern, this is like Nick Drake reborn into the 21st Century - with a sense of humour. The cover is a great clue as to the contents...buy it for Once Around The Block and discover a tapestry of deftly woven tunes. The only distraction is that a few of the tracks come across as audio vignettes - incomplete, promising fragments. Nonetheless, this is a debut well worthy of its critical acclaim.

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review by: date: 2004-06-12 rating:
Fine debut
The first time I heard this album was on board a flight to Cape Town. I then had the riff of Everybody's Stalking running through my head for the next fortnight! That and Stone on the Water are the most immediate tracks, but this is a surprisingly subtle album, full of delights. In particular, BDD's backing band is remarkably excellent - almost under-used in places, but excellent playing.

In fact, it would be one of the finest debut albums ever launched, though the studied eccentricity adopted by Mr. Gough towards his loyal audience. His attitude at live gigs is perverse in its cynicism - but this at least there is one way to appreciate the talents of this strange and shy artist. Buy and enjoy!

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review by: date: 2003-06-17 rating:
The Hour of Bewilderbeast
Badly Drawn Boy has made an album of beautifully delicate tracks that float gently above his creative genius. This album is a mixture of folk, indie and 'acoustic ambience' although it may take a few listens to truely appreciate. It's not something that I can have permanently in my CD player, rather it sits happily in my CD collection until I feel in the right mood to listen. Gough dosn't have the best of voices but that adds to the albums charm, he's a clever lyricist and both voice and words give him a certain fragility. The music is very soft yet at the same time quite majestic. Not for fans of Cannibal Corpse or Hard House :)

Standout tracks: 'The Shining', 'Everybodys Stalking', 'Once Around The Block' and 'Pissing In The Wind'.


review by: Flash Wilson date: 2003-04-28 rating:
An intriguing, worthy winner of the Mercury Music Prize
At first glance, Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy) resembles a one man band - an eccentric with a crochet hat, harmonica and guitar. However his music is unique to the extent that Dylan and Bowie were, in their day.

This is a gentle collection of feelgood songs, sometimes in an old fashioned style, "This Song" having a vibe of Simon and Garfunkel, and a retro disco feel on "Disillusion". It is over an hour long, and although initially confusing, has an alluring naivety to the music.

The tracks have a largely musical bias, and when the lyrics do jump in they are surreal, like "I will never grow older because I drink from waterfalls" and "all we have is an old ball of string, will it reach to the end of this dark labyrinth?" The album proves Gough's versatility, but has no apparent purpose, or focus, in the manner of early Pink Floyd albums which wandered along to see what happened without trying to be any one thing.

Coming back to this album now, after the initial immersion in it while it was new, I am not sure when I would play it or long to hear a particular track. However, it is a pleasant addition to your collection for esoteric moments in your life - maybe this will eventually hit the spot.

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