Number 24Trotter’s Top Ten position : Top Ten in 2000
UK Chart high : 13 in 2000
So when I started plotting out this top fifty I had BDB's debut pegged around the high 30's - then I listened to it again to figure out what I was going to write about (despite appearances, these things are actually planned!). Things changed. 'Hour...' still holds up remarkably well, packed full of tuneful gems, tiny little blinding bits of sounds and half-formed ideas that last for seconds but could support whole songs (such as the first 20 seconds of 'Fall in a River'). Damon Gough clearly poured his heart into this record (it's actually just over an hour) and there's a weird charm running throughout all the various musical styles on display that hold the whole thing together. Maybe as it's from 2000 it's just old enough to hit my nostalgia button - there's probably a cut-off date of June 23 2001, I dunno - but no other album on the list so far has made me smile as much as rediscovering this one did. I'd also forgotten he won the Mercury with this - so kudos to them for that - and had Joan Collins star in the video for 'Pissing in the Wind'. Of course he went on to rely too much on marketing that silly hat and talking waaaaaay too long at gigs and maybe used up a few too many ideas here, but hey, we've got a corker of an album to show for it. 'Once Around the Block' is an absolute gem and I remember exactly where I was where I first heard it (or more accurately twigged it was him that sung it). Charming, inventive, witty and evoking simpler times - you could do worse than rediscover this too.
Look at Once Around the Block ; Disillusion ; Pissing in the Wind
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