Badly Drawn Boy: The Hour of Bewilderbeast (CD)

Winner of the Mercury Music Prize in 2000, The Hour of Bewilderbeast is one of the most charming, eccentric, and deeply human debut albums British music has ever produced. Damon Gough — recording as Badly Drawn Boy — created an sprawling, ambitious patchwork of folk, orchestral pop, and intimate acoustic sketches that somehow coheres into something utterly beguiling. Across 18 tracks it wanders freely and beautifully, from the luminous The Shining to the quietly devastating Stone on the Water and the delicate Another Pearl, always guided by Gough’s distinctive woolly-hatted warmth and an instinct for melody that feels genuinely gifted. Ramshackle, tender, and overflowing with ideas — a one-off masterpiece.

Tracklisting: The Shining · Everybody’s Stalking · Bewilder · Fall in a River · Camping Next to Water · Stone on the Water · Another Pearl · Body Rap · Once Around the Block · This Song · Bewilderbeast · Magic in the Air · Cause a Rockslide · Pissing in the Wind · Blistered Heart · Disillusion · Say It Again · Epitaph

CD in great condition