The Hour of Bewilderbeast

When I read that this artist was compared to Nick Drake and Elliot Smith I thought I was in for another morose melodramatic album.
I was so very happily surprised by this. The instrumentation is gorgeous. Sure it’s emo, but it is had and shoulders above those artists in musicality. Absolutely lovely listen. Very strong four stars.

I really, really like it. It's ramshackle and melodic and sad and weird. I met Badly Drawn Boy after this was released. He was cool. It's a shame that he never got close to matching this.

Am I so out of the indie sphere that this sounds novel and interesting? Maybe! To me this was a wonderful listen! The album has such a gentle sound for the most part, and yet the instrumentals are deceivingly intricate and varied, the sort of production you can truly enjoy with some good headphones. I'm a sucker for that. I didn't even notice the length so many complained about, as each time a new song came up I was hooked onto whatever they were doing next. All of it flows beautifully well together. Love it!

Standouts: The Shining • Everybody's Stalking • Fall in a River • Camping Next to Water • Another Pearl • Once Around the Block • Pissing In the Wind • Blistered Heart • Disillusion • Epitaph

Pretty nice.

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. The cover gave me incredibly low expectations and perfectly matches the stereotype of what a 2.57 looks like on this site. But then I listened and I felt like I was in an indie movie. Not bad little dude.

I get it, but I’m not sure I get it, you know? This record is fine, and I wouldn’t begrudge anyone who fell in love with it when it came out and still holds it dear. But, I don’t know how much power it has to convert people 25 years later. It’s a lot like the typeface used on the cover: endearing and novel for 2020, but a bit cliche now.

"Disillusion" was the song that caught my attention most, but it's a very late swing in an album that otherwise all feels remarkably similar. It's a solid debut effort, but doesn't feel like it rises to the hype.

Maybe it’s because I listened to it right after Def Leopard. But I liked it.

Could have sworn one of these songs was on the Garden State soundtrack. Kind of a 3.5 for me. I have the same issue here as I do with Bright Eyes and other similar artists, which is they even though I like the sound, I have trouble concentrating on it for extended periods of time, so it makes it less enjoyable as an album. Can’t quite explain it since these guys are probably a lot what I would sound like if I could write songs.

The best thing about Badly Drawn Boy - and I remember thinking this back in the early 2000's too - is that he literally looks like some bloke on the high street, maybe sitting in a bus stop smoking a roll-up cigarette in the rain, wearing scruffy Adidas sambas, a soggy knitted beanie hat on his hat, plastic carrier bag from Iceland at his feet.

Pretty inoffensive folk-pop. The music and vocals are warm and pleasant. It's good, very good at times. But not groundbreaking or life-changing. The most 2.5 album imaginable.

I've loved this album for a long time. It's always felt like a cohesive suite rather than merely a collection of songs. Only nit is the aggressive left/right panning in "This Song" which I find hard to listen to.

I want to like this, truly I do. It just dragggs.

Not sure what to think of this one. It kind of sounds like Elliot Smith mixed with the shins. I like the shins alright, not huge on Smith. I thought it was a pretty good album, not sure if I’d listen again but not writing it off.

This album got a lot of low reviews, but it’s really not that bad of an album. I think its biggest flaw is the length. This could have been 10-12 tracks and that would have made it a really solid album. I’ve definitely heard Once Around the Block many of times and it’s driving me crazy wondering how I know that song. Anyways, 3.25/5

Some of these song titles ("Fall in a River," "Cause a Rockslide," etc) sound like a series of events in a disastrous camping trip. Was this the source of the melancholy that pervades this record? It's ok sweetie, come inside and we'll get you some dry clothes and a cup of tea.

Seriously though, I can't say that this is terrible - there are things in many of these songs that I like, interesting bits of guitar and strings here and there. But I couldn't get interested in the lyrics, so I got tired of it all around song #8 and there were still 10 songs to go. I think this is another one of those albums best heard one song at a time in a radio set. A whole album of it is just too monotonous.

3 stars

Misleading album title. This was actually an hour and three minutes of Bewilderbeast. There were certainly some good songs here and interesting instrumentals, but it did feel like some filler could have been cut. Occasionally was reminiscent of Elliott Smith. Favorites were The Shining, Stone On The Water, Magic In The Air, and Disillusion.

Not really my thing, but I did enjoy this. Felt like this was pretty accessible alt rock that was fine to listen to. 3.5/5

Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
joyless
/ˈdʒɔɪlɪs/
adjective
not giving or feeling any pleasure or satisfaction; grim or dismal.
"she had to face the thought of a joyless future"
"mate, that 1001 album I listened to this morning was such a joyless affair"
Synonyms: unhappy, sad, depressing, miserable

hey look, it's a Mercury Prize winner

in 34 years of Mercury Prize history, two albums I like well enough to own have been winners, so I daresay my tastes don't overlap with the selection panel much

anyway this is. uh. adequate. I'm not impressed.

Badly Drawn Boy play... well... poorly composed music. If “The Hour Of Bewilderbeast” had been released in the early 90s, it could have been described as “just another alternative rock band.” But with its release in 2000, it's more like the last gasp of a style that was never meant to last. On top of that, the album has a poorly produced sound that 10 years earlier could have been seen as a protest against the overproduced 80s. This way it's really just a sign of incompetence that the drums don't sound properly integrated because the bass is poorly mixed. It's all a bit sad, because Badly Drawn Boy aren't actually a bad band. Their music is just boring.

New to me, and thought it was pretty cool. Interesting mix of sounds and instruments, a little slow at points.