The Hour of Bewilderbeast

So boring. There’s nothing interesting about this record at all.

What a fun discovery this one is! Reminds me at times of Sufjan Stevens, Cloud Cult, Eels. Interesting to read the comparisons to Nick Drake and Elliott Smith—I suppose I can hear it, and those other artists I mentioned came after Badly Drawn Boy, but I think this is clearly distinct.

Imaginative, interesting arrangements, memorable melodies. “Once Around the Block” is a highlight, but I actually liked everything on this album! So excited to explore Badly Drawn Boy further!

Today's album is British indie rock. Some good songs in the mix, but mostly very bland. Nothing to write home about. It's one of those albums that is hard to focus on for any length of time, and is about 30 minutes too long. Some interesting stylings and techniques throughout, but just not enough to make this a strong showing for me.

Favourite songs: The Shining, Disillusion (would be my favourite song except for the random last minute of the song), Bewilderbeast, Everybody's Stalking, Another Pearl, Once Around the Block

Least favourite songs: This Song, Cause a Rockslide (what's with the random 1 minute break in the middle of the song to play out of tune radio?), Camping Next to Water, Fall in a River (good song, except for the needless 30 seconds of underwater noises), Epitaph

3/5

There are a few of those bands that make albums where 3 or 4 songs reach amazing heights and the rest feels ok, but not great.
But when you take 4 or 5 of their albums together you can cherry pick and combine the ultimate classic. A band like Elbow has that. And so has Badly Drawn Boy.

Some of these songs are amongst the best I've heard, but as an album, it doesn't reach that height.

Damn, really cool stuff. This was a total blind spot and did not disappoint. What a wonderful, quirky surprise. I feel like this is everything people pretend Neutral Milk Hotel is.

4/5

Middling British indie - like a few others on the list! Pleasant enough, and pretty nostalgic for me, but probably not an essential for future generations.

Have a little bit of PTSD of music from this era which makes it hard to listen without prejudice but I enjoyed this a bunch. Very scattershot and possibly could be ten minutes shorter but works throughout

Some really cool ideas and pretty decent songs buried under trying to do weird things with pretty much every song that usually ruins a song, where a minute or two of a song is usually used up to build on the next song or just make noise. The album is also overly long, with some things repeating for seemingly no reason. I can't help but like this a little bit, but it's definitely a type of album that's been more so surpassed by internet music artists such as Jack Stauber.

Nice album, but nothing much.

Not terrible per se, but not particularly interesting or memorable either. The first song started out well instrumentally, but the vocal melody set my teeth on edge. Overall I thought this was too long and a bit boring. It reminded me of Gomez, Grandaddy and Elbow in parts, but I'd much rather just listen to them.

Elliott Smith he ain't.

Somehow I never got into Badly Drawn Boy in spite of being into a lot of similar bands but I'm listening now and really enjoying it. I just love aughts era indie.

Había escuchado un par de canciones antes, no es un autor que me entusiasme pero no está mal. Pero tampoco es una obra imprescindible.

Herkkä ja varsin kaunis levy. Vähän tasapainoilen kolmosen ja nelosen välillä, mutta menköön nyt 4/5.

Really enjoyed this, great atmosphere and mood to it.

Oh my god this goes on forever. He's not a great lyricist, is he? Will this ever ennnnd...

Alt rock, meh. I find this album flaccid and boring. Magic in the Air is a pretty decent song. Disillusion is more my speed.