Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Gough) – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drum machine, tambourine, handclaps, whistling, slide guitar, harmonica, Wurlitzer electric piano, lead keyboards, organ solo, drum machine organs, percussion, crash cymbal, vibraphone, xylophone, harp, string arrangement, sound effects Indie music is littered with obviously brilliant artists who undermined their own success with an overly ambitious approach. This phenomenon was especially common with albums from the indie boom of the early-21st century, when a "hipster mentality" transformed dozens of likely classics into semi-frustrating relics of their era. Although he was far less weird than many of his contemporaries, England's Badly Drawn Boy began his career within this paradigm. In fact, The Hour of Bewilderbeast is among the best examples of a potential indie pop classic that nearly collapses under its own weight. I'm still willing to classify it as one of the most significant indie debuts of its generation, and I can understand why it was a critical darling at the time of its release, but it has to be one of the most flawed records to receive that level of critical praise. Essential listening for anyone who's interested in early-21st century indie pop, even if most listeners are bound to be confused by a decent chunk of the album. Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2. The band's eleventh album saw Robert Smith conclude the "dark trilogy" that had started with Pornography in 1982 and continued with 1989's Disintegration.

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. The trio released their debut album, which included The Cedar Room, Here It Comes and Catch The Sun.

Catalog

Even today he refuses to take it off to show me what’s underneath, “But I’m not Darth Vader or anything…” Mr Shady released his third album, which included the mega-hit Stan, featuring Dido on vocals. Remember Dido? The Hour of Bewilderbeast (liner notes). Badly Drawn Boy. XL Recordings. 2000. TNXLCD133. {{ cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) ( link)

From the haunting string and muted brass opening to The Shining, you can tell that The Hour Of Bewilderbeast is no ordinary album, Experimental and occasionally schizophrenic in its song composition, it is charming, beguiling, lo-fi, folk-psychedelic slash indie musings at its best. 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.”Badly Drawn Boy‘s debut album The Hour Of Bewilderbeast is being reissued by XL Recordings in December, in deluxe CD and LP editions. But, I say, that only really works if you’re Mark E Smith, doesn’t it? Badly Drawn Boy’s music had reached a more mainstream audience… “You’ve got to the crux of it there,” he says. “I’ve always battled against that. I gained an audience from Bewilderbeast, and then after About a Boy, lots of couples starting coming to the gigs.” If you had to mark the timeline when the sorta-genre “post-Britpop” came together, somewhere in the middle of 2000 would be close. Exceptional composition 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. Hubbard, Michael (26 June 2000). "Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour Of Bewilderbeast". musicOMH . Retrieved 22 July 2011.

But what I like most about Badly Drawn Boy is that he seems to treat normality or ordinariness as the construction it is, not by necessarily challenging it in an open way, but by just being who he is, which is, I suppose, about as authentic as you can get. For my sins, I listened to Elliott Smith’s 2000 LP, Figure 8, to get some perspective on this. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, but it did cement the point in my mind. Smith’s tragedy is his unrequited crush on convention, which you can hear in the song structures and the lyrics. Smith always seems to be buying into an ethos he’s not entirely equipped to live with. Where Gough wins through is in his ability to recognize the fallacy of convention, and to dare to flaunt it, but not by wanton provocation. 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. a b Hoskyns, Barney (December 2000). "Badly Drawn Boy: The Hour of Bewilderbeast". Spin. 16 (12): 28. ISSN 0886-3032 . Retrieved 22 July 2011. Another infamous meltdown was at a festival in Northampton when Gough joked: “I don’t think I’ve been to Northampton before… I’m sure I’d remember because it’s a shithole.” A woman in the audience took exception to this and the row ended with Gough throwing a tambourine at her. He’s at pains now to explain he always instantly regretted these incidents.

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 Polly Jean's fifth album included Good Fortune and This Is Love and won the 2011 Mercury Music Prize. Conaton, Chris (21 January 2016). "Badly Drawn Boy: The Hour of Bewilderbeast (15th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)". PopMatters . Retrieved 29 February 2016.