The Hour Of Bewilderbeast

Product Information

The Mercury Music Prize-winning album was released in 2000 and was Damon Michael Gough’s debut after a few years of putting out EPs. The album was a commercial success, going platinum in the UK and delivering three top 30 singles. vocals 1, 2, 4-10, 12-14, 16-18, acoustic guitar 1, 2, 5, 6, 9-18, piano 1, 7, 11-13, 17, string arrangements 1, electric guitar 2, 5, 7, 9, 13, 16, 17, lead guitar 2, 5, 7, 9, 16, bass guitar 2, 5, 9, 17, slide guitar 2, tambourine 2, 14, organ 3, 17, guitar 4, 8, keyboards 4, 5, 13, 15, drum machine 4, 8, vibraphone 9, xylophone 11, Wurlitzer 12, harp 12, effects 13, harmonica 14, cymbal 17, percussion 17, whistling 18 If you had to mark the timeline when the sorta-genre “post-Britpop” came together, somewhere in the middle of 2000 would be close. a b Hochman, Steve (29 September 2000). "Badly Drawn Boy Charms With Understated Folk". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015 . Retrieved 19 October 2015.

Manchester-area musician Damon Gough, he who is Badly Drawn Boy, counted Doves and Coldplay as pals, even as the three were put in direct competition throughout 2000 for UK music industry honors like the Mercury Music Prize and the Q Awards (where they all faced off in two different categories). Something of a compromise was made at the Q Awards, as Parachutes took home Best Album and Badly Drawn Boy was deemed the Best New Act, but the Mercury Prize only goes to one winner, and that year it was The Hour of Bewilderbeast . At that ceremony, when Gough strolled up to the stage cigarette-in-hand to accept his trophy, some of his first words were shout-outs to Coldplay and Doves. The Gallaghers' fourth album was their first on their own Big Brother label included Go Let It Out, Sunday Morning Call and Who Feels Love? The Hour Of Bewilderbeast is an unrepeatable success story. We know this partially because Gough has never come close to repeating it. No subsequent Badly Drawn Boy release has recaptured its oddball mystique and homespun charm. Each one has fallen short of its impact and acclaim, too — though to be fair, he set a pretty high bar for himself by winning the Mercury Music Prize on his first try. That’s another aspect of the album that feels impossible to recreate: Would such an unpolished, willfully discursive collection with such humble stakes even have a shot at being honored as Britain’s album of the year anymore? Compared to its predecessors in Mercury Prize glory — a sleek and zeitgeisty cross-section of ’90s event albums from the likes of Primal Scream, Suede, Portishead, Pulp, and Roni Size — it’s remarkable that Gough even snagged a nomination, let alone took home the trophy.My music is heartfelt and emotional. I’m a rollercoaster type of person. I drove myself to do music because I didn’t want a normal life. I envy people who can just enjoy a ‘normal’ life. I love people and I love life, but I struggle with it, and music has saved me in a lot of ways. When I create a new song, it gives me such a sense of achievement.” a b Blashill, Pat (12 October 2000). "Badly Drawn Boy: The Hour Of Bewilderbeast". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 20 April 2001 . Retrieved 9 February 2015. The increasing amount of polish on Have You Fed the Fish? in 2002 and One Plus One Is One in 2004 was welcomed by fans, and his following at home in the UK stood strong, but the air of professionalism was met in the US with some grumbling from those who preferred to see the stitching exposed and felt the new consistency was a shortcoming. Not only was this not exactly fair to those records, which have held up pretty well themselves, but it also placed on Badly Drawn Boy the kind of expectations that can put artists in an impossible bind. Gough couldn’t be truly spontaneous if he was trying to recapture the same spontaneity of Bewliderbeast . Mr Shady released his third album, which included the mega-hit Stan, featuring Dido on vocals. Remember Dido?

When Gough and I first met, he was 27 and I was working at Manchester’s City Life magazine. Badly Drawn Boy was still just a rough sketch. It was 1997, three years before Bewilderbeast, and he rang me up one afternoon out of the blue. “Is that Luke?” a faltering voice said. “My name’s Damon and I’ve started a record label with a friend of mine and we’re putting out my first EP and a mutual friend of ours said you might be able to help me…”Even today he refuses to take it off to show me what’s underneath, “But I’m not Darth Vader or anything…” That was four years ago—16 years after the album’s release. Since that sunburst intro, I felt compelled to study the whole of Gough’s catalog. In a discography rich with treasures along the lines of Sam Beam/Iron & Wine, I still consider “The Shining” to be his most resplendent (although “In Safe Hands” from It's What I'm Thinking (Part One Photographing Snowflakes) undoes me in equal measure) in part because it sets in motion an unlikely masterpiece.

sound effects 4, 13, co-producer 4, 8, 11, 13, 18, engineer 4, 8, 10, 11, 13, 18, drum programming 8, 18, loops 13, theremin 13

Badly Drawn Boy‘s debut album The Hour Of Bewilderbeast is being reissued by XL Recordings in December, in deluxe CD and LP editions. Polly Jean's fifth album included Good Fortune and This Is Love and won the 2011 Mercury Music Prize. The Hour of Bewilderbeast appeared on several year-end lists. Pitchfork ranked the album at number 18 on its list of the top 20 albums of 2000. [19] NME ranked the album at number 4 on its list of the 50 best albums of 2000. [20] In addition, the album received the 2000 Mercury Prize, a prize Gough was favoured to win. When Gough received the prize, he tossed the prize money on the ground and said: "I always assumed I was never going to win because good things don't happen to good people normally." [21]