The Hour of Bewilderbeast
| The Hour of Bewilderbeast | ||||
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| Studio album by Badly Drawn Boy | ||||
| Released | 26 June 2000 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock, indie folk, chamber pop | |||
| Length | 63:25 | |||
| Label | XL, Twisted Nerve | |||
| Producer | Badly Drawn Boy, Gary Wilkinson, Joe Robinson, Ken Nelson | |||
| Badly Drawn Boy chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Hour of Bewilderbeast | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 78/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Entertainment Weekly | A− |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| Mojo |  |
| NME | 7/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 8.6/10 |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Spin | 5/10 |
| The Village Voice | A− |
The Hour of Bewilderbeast is the debut studio album by British musician Badly Drawn Boy, released on 26 June 2000. Damon Gough, who performs as Badly Drawn Boy, wrote, produced, and played several instruments on the album's eighteen tracks, several of which also feature accompaniment by members of the British indie rock bands Alfie and Doves. The Hour of Bewilderbeast was released to great critical acclaim and went on to win the 2000 Mercury Prize, and has sold 455,000 copies in the United Kingdom as of September 2011.
The cover art, designed by Andy Votel, is a collage loosely based on Leonardo da Vinci's drawing Vitruvian Man. For the American release of the album, the album's cover was altered to remove a photograph of American actor and director Woody Allen, which was unauthorized by the copyright owners of the photograph. In addition, the song "Magic in the Air" was re-recorded with new instrumental parts to replace a section of the song utilizing lyrics taken from the 1987 song "Love Is Contagious" by R&B singer Taja Sevelle, after Sevelle's publishing company BMG objected to the use of the lyrics.
The Hour of Bewilderbeast was widely acclaimed by music critics. On the review aggregate site Metacritic, the album holds a score of 78 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Michael Hubbard of musicOMH felt that the album "deserves to do well for many more reasons than the act's name, excellent though it is", and that "a surprise is set loose with every track". Calling the album a "concise tour through the gentler side of British songwriting history", Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork Media wrote that the varied instrumentation "[attaches] insect wings to the lovely songs" and concluded that with The Hour of Bewilderbeast, "Badly Drawn Boy proves what shallow saps American liberal arts majors can be behind a guitar."AllMusic's John Bush stated that Gough had written and produced "over a dozen excellent songs of baroque folk-pop for his album debut, and the many gems can't help but shine through all the self-indulgence", highlighting Gough's use of humour in his lyrics.
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