Badly Drawn Boy
The Hour of Bewilderbeast
Twisted Nerve (U.K.)

To write a review of any kind, a critic usually has to make a snap judgment. When dealing with the latest films, books and music, the goal is to get your opinion out there while the work in question is still a hot topic, or in the case of film, still in the theater.

Consequently, those of us in the commentary business tend to make snap decisions. Virtually any critic will tell you he's panned an album that later grew on him — or praised as the second coming of Christ a film that simply didn't hold up after repeated viewing.

You'll find no convenient, hastily formed opinions in this review, though. Badly Drawn Boy's debut album was released in the U.K. in late June, and I've probably listened to it close to 100 times since then. It's still as refreshing and perfect as it was the early summer day I bought it, on import, for $22, which may have been my best investment of the summer (though I have gotten some killer laffs out of that singing fish).

For the uninitiated, who on this side of the pond are legion, Badly Drawn Boy, a.k.a. Damon Gough, has spent the last two years or so churning out EPs packed with postmodern pop. Gough's songwriting draws influences from Radiohead and Revolver and Rubber Soul-era Beatles, but with a good deal of folk and a bit of hip-hop, soul and dub thrown in for good measure.

Instrument-wise, there's French horn, cello, harp, piano and sirens. Harmonica and tambourine. Acoustic, bass and numerous electric guitars. There are a vibraphone, drums, drum machines, slide guitars, organs, keyboards and numerous percussion instruments, not to mention Gough's rich, smooth voice, which draws lazy comparisons to Elliott Smith and John Lennon.

With all of BDB's rampant genre-switching and crate of non-rock instruments, you might expect this album to follow the same path as similarly ambitious works like The Beta Band's debut album or even Badly Drawn Boy's earlier EPs. Which is to say that anyone making a forecast would likely predict an album of a few hits, a lot of near misses and little cohesion.

That, surprisingly, is not the result. The Hour of Bewilderbeast is a tightly-woven, 63-minute pop gem. Each of its 18 tracks is essential.

No track better encapsulates Gough's range than the six-minute long "Cause a Rockslide," which starts out as an otherworldly falsetto and bass drum stomp before it morphs into the sample-filled organ and theremin noodling you'll find on albums by groups like the Beta Band and Olivia Tremor Control. This, in turn, gives way to a fleeting, Nick Drake-style folk ballad as the song leads directly into the next track, "Pissing in the Wind."

"Once Around the Block" — the single released a few months ago as a teaser to the album — shows off Gough's tunesmanship, pop sense and wordsmithery by mixing flanged guitar, groovy '70s rhythms and honey-sweet oohs and ahhs with lyrics like these:

"You're trying to outrun your fear.
You're running to lose.
Heart on your sleeve and your soul in your shoes
Take a left, a sharp left and another left
Meet me on the corner, and we'll start, again."

For the most part, The Hour of Bewilderbeast is 2000's perfect summer album, but there's just enough lovelorn emptiness packed into "Stone on the Water," "This Song" and "Blistered Heart" to carry the album's momentum over into early fall. Hell, I've spent the last two months hoping time would temper the superlatives I knew would pepper this review. It hasn't.

You'll have to pay upwards of $20 to buy this album on import, but it's more than worth it, as — barring some Radiohead rabbit-from-the-hat trick — The Hour of Bewilderbeast will likely go down as the best rock album of the year. Maybe the decade.

The Hour of Bewilderbeast is tentatively scheduled for an October U.S. release. If you just can't wait, or are familiar with how often U.S. releases of U.K. imports get pushed back even further, try one of these online stores.

— Eric Wittmershaus (ericw at flakmag dot com)