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CD Review: Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast

The Hour Of Bewilderbeast - the debut LP of Badly Drawn Boy - is an exceptional piece of work.
It opens up with "The Shining", a beautiful melancholic intro with an even more beautiful song. Followed by "Everybody's Stalking", it's darker, heavy guitars. "Camping Next To Water", a song full of soul and melancholy. "Stone In The Water" leads you to "Another Pearl", which is less experimental, more radio friendly (as "Once Around The Block"). "Body Rap" shows a funky hip-hop part of the album, which is first strange, now I love it. "Magic In The Air" is again a melancholic, sweet song (perfect for a rainy autumn day). "Cause A Rockslide" is probably the most experimental song of the album, especially the instrumental at the end. It seems to end in chaos, suddenly leading straight to "Pissing In The Wind", a simply heartwarming song. "Disillusion" is a designated radio single, it has a kind of disco feeling. The record closes with "Epitaph", one of the best closing songs I ever heard.


Final comment: There are very few records that fit as good together as "The Hour Of Bewilderbeast". It's so hard to listen to one song of the album without thinking "Oh wait, now comes ...". And it's strangely disappointing if it doesn't follow. The only album with a similar feeling for me is "Queen II". It's just an classic record. Sadly Badly Drawn Boy changed his style after that a bit. Don't get me wrong - he still creates very beautiful songs, but not as coherent as "The Hour Of Bewilderbeast".

Highlights: "The Shining", "Everybody's Stalking", "Camping Next To Water" and "Disillusion"

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