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.

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] a b Browne, David (23 October 2000). "The Hour of Bewilderbeast". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019 . Retrieved 9 February 2015.

Notes

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

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. 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…” 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 Stone On The Water is simply beautiful, building from a soft, slightly mournful, acoustic beginning, to a tap-your-feel tune, which if anything ends slightly too soon. Straight on its heels is Another Pearl, with a fuller, more electric sound, and then the strange little music snippet Body Rap. If those musical changes don’t keep you intrigued, nothing will.

Release

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.