The Hour Of Bewilderbeast - Badly Drawn Boy

Every year when the nominations for the Mercury Music Prize are announced, there is always at least one artist who I have never heard of, but seems to have excited the music critics so much so that they are declared the out and out favourites to romp away with the prize. The year 2000, was the year that I discovered Badly Drawn Boy, and more importantly, his music, which I think is more folk than rock, it is more acoustic than musical, but it still has the Indie influence which saw a resurgence at the start of the Millenium. His appearance is not one of a musician, and if I passed him on the street, I would probably think he was a bum, as Badly's (aka Damon Gough) ...  Read the complete review

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly why 'The Hour Of Bewilderbeast' has received the high critical acclaim that it has. This is not a work of astonishing originality or extraordinary accomplishment, far from it. This album is very middle-of-the-road, unadventurous and unexciting. Many people have praised the album from its' genre-skipping nature but closer inspection reveals this to be neither as impressive nor as interesting as it might have been. His movement is not genre-defying leaps between polar opposites in the musical world, rather he stays firmly within the restrictions of what can best be described as largely acoustic, especially guitar-based sounds. ...  Read the complete review

This album seems to be on a bit of a weird label for what it is- XL Recordings tend to specialise in dance stuff, and this album is basically a guy messing around with a guitar and a few synths. I'd heard quite a lot of Badly Drawn Boy's stuff (both his EPs) before I heard the album, so I vaguely knew what to expect. All the same, I loved it the first time I heard it, and I wouldn't hesitate to reccomend it to anyone who likes music with atmosphere and soul. Mostly acoustic-y stuff with weird wibbly electronic background noises, it creeps up on you. A cracking album. ...  Read the complete review

Badly Drawn Boy is essentially just one person, Damian Gough. Gough hasn't exactly appeared from nowhere, with a long succession of singles behind him, but his debut album is still a remarkable feat. It's the type of output that comes when your record company will back anything you release. Lucky then, that he owns the label in question 'Twisted Nerve'. 'The Hour of Bewilderbeast' is so easily summed up by its first track, 'The Shining'. So much to offer, so varied, yet as mellow and unassuming as any success story should be. It starts off with a beautiful heavy string flow while all the while a sweet trumpet heralds the main ...  Read the complete review

This debut effort from Manchester’s newest arrival on the music scene has been a critical and commercial success, and once you hear it you realise why. Mr Boy (or Badly Drawn to his friends) has created a delicate and moving collection, full of catchy melodies and carefully crafted instrumental arrangements that stir and relax the senses in equal measure. The best way to describe the style is indie-rock-folk, but this really doesn’t tell the whole story: this is an acoustic centred album that has just the right mixture of pace and quirkiness to keep it out of easy categorisation. No one can complain about value for money either - 18 tracks and a running time ...  Read the complete review