With The Hour Of Bewilderbeast from 2000, the English pop singer and studio animal Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy, delivered a convincing business card. Like Beck, he is able to write accessible pop songs, without falling into clichés. Reason for Nick Hornby, the author of the book About A Boy on which the film of the same name (including Hugh Grant) is based, to approach him for the music for
… the film. Badly Drawn Boy did not do half the work. He wrote and produced no less than sixteen new tracks, so this album can be considered his second full-fledged studio album. Pop songs such as A Peak You Reach alternate with instrumental pieces such as I Love NYE, a masterpiece in the style of the Beach Boys at the time of Smile. The warm sound - Gough mainly uses acoustic instruments such as guitar, xylophone and piano - reminiscent of the better melodic pop rock of seventies artists like Harry Nilsson and Elton John: a breath of fresh air. (MS)more