The Good, The Bad and The Queen is Wicked

The *other* guitarist from Verve, I thought.

i will have to hear this when i get off work though.

Not to say he's up there with either of them, but still.

I got the first single "Herculean" and quite liked it, but I have to say, the second track on the CD single was very "Damon, I hope you didn't bother Paul Simonon with this rubbish!"

And, what exactly is the symbolism of hiring a string section to play barely audible "sweetener" that is these days always done with a synth?

I am really just flabbergasted that anyone gives stuff like this any time. And the OMM gave it five stars!

I really do think it's deliberately dreary; the lyrics are all about exhaustion and hopelessness. But the melodies creep up on you.

It's very much a singular album - not meant as the mission statement of a new band, but rather as a single piece with a deliberate theme and aesthetic. Which is largely grim, dreary, rainy, and bleak. Dirges is a good way of putting it, I think.

Also Marianne Faithfull did "Green Fields" much more justice on her last album.

i just read his last blog post and wtf "a great perky 2step remix of [clint eastwood] doing the rounds on the pirates" - yeah the pirates like RADIO ONE

Well, it's more they all come from the same base.

Basically, if they'd had an 'urban' award back in the 1977 era, the Clash would have got it. Four years ago, it'd be Dizzy Rascal. It's not actually as mad a change as it seems.

bloc party are (casually) into grime/dubstep. theres one track on the new BP album that bears some influence of that. albarn must be somewhat familiar with those scenes as well as he likes to keep up to date somewhat with new british/black music. i dont see it as that much of a stretch that they might have concentrated on making all these paens to london from hearing/hearing about burial or whoever.

i might just be biased of course.

Damon's ALWAYS been about London, or, at least, has been for about 15 years, so this move from him's not a surprise; it's a homecoming after Mali Music and the success of Gorillaz in the US, perhaps.

As for BP, second albums by praised indie bands, especially those from the South East, are always about fame / drugs / London, aren't they?

Yeah, this is exactly what I took away from that live thing last night. Why do this album?

I quite agree with the "dirge" descriptions, and I'm quite happy with dirges, but this stuff seemed wasted on Tony Allen, didn't it?

*sings* We step through London, the streets holding onto us..

crazy talk

I also really like Demon Days and TGTBATQ, but I found 13 to be pretty heavy, all in all. Some good tunes though.

Pros are those (like Ned) who can get the basic gist in a listen or 2.
Amateurs are those (like me) who gotta listen a million times to sort things out.

But whatevs.

OK, I was a bit too enthusiastic after one listening, perhaps not better than '13', but 'Think Tank' should have been a laughing stock.

You mean the notion of the album, based on what you've read here, or the album, having heard it?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/22/AR2007012201393.html

An excerpt

"His songs, reportedly once intended for a solo album, are melancholic and mopey, with the bandleader shrugging his shoulders when he should be getting on the good foot. On "Kingdom of Doom" the singer laments, "I see everything in black and white . . . Drink all day 'cause the country's at war."

"This is dour music for dour times, but no excuse to keep Allen on the sideline. A few of these songs are completely drumless affairs, leaving Simonon and Allen only one chance to connect -- on the fragmented "Three Changes." With a serpentine bass line sliding through Allen's muted rumble, the moment hints at what the Good, the Bad and the Queen should have been: the Great."

Okay, this is the last time I try to defend a project I don't even have THAT big of a boner about, but it should be pointed out (for better or for worse) that Albarn has repeatedly said that The Good, The Bad & the Queen is the title of the album and the band has no name. (A statement that should only be further fuel for the haterfire).

The notion. I don't go out of my way to hear Damon Albarn projects.

(Runs away from molotov cocktails.)

No.

Don't care much for the rest of the album, but 'Herculean' is utterly, utterly beautiful. Especially those jaw-dropping first 30 seconds.

Another album is on the cards. I presume the band name will remain as <______________>.

I found it rather tedious on first listen. Haven't attempted a second listen as a result. Might have to go back now and re-check it out.

I liked the album kind of but it was very background-musicky, not a lot of bright moments. Tony Allen is mixed really shittily, I think the album would've been better with the drums on every track turned up like 2 notches. Damon Albarn sounds like an old fart on this album; my roommate said he's doing his Lyrics Born impression.

He looks like an old fart too now.

The album's a grower. There's some real beauty in there if you've the patience to let it unfold.

They made a new album.

This is the lead single, a very sad thing about brexit, it's sort of nothing special and sort of amazing at the same time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p1mq19htTc

...PARKLIFE

Nah, just kidding, it's very good

Okay, so this is pretty much the best album Damon's been involved with this decade. I'm really surprised by how much I love this, given that I found the first LP a bit of a snooze.

Yeah, it really feels like he's put his heart into it in a way he hasn't done in ages.

I agree! As much as I like The Now Now and The Magic Whip (which has grown on me a great deal over the last couple of years), there's a spark on this record that I haven't felt from a Damon project in a long time.

I want to hate this because of general Albarn-aversion and the strong whiff of whimsy (that bloody cover; the nods to hauntology) but I ended up liking the first record despite myself and this is sounding very good.

Now I've annoyed myself with an imaginary review titled: 'anthems for a post-Brexit Britain?'

Yeah I was liking this as well when I listened earlier. It has literally everything going against it except the fact it's quite good

Willing to call this the best Damon thing since 13. Admittedly there's not really any competition for that (except arguably Demon Days)

maybe i'll have to give it another listen. it certainly sounded like damon's best album since plastic beach when i listened (not that anything he's done since then has been much good) but it didn't really stick with me. "best since 13" seems impossible though when there's think tank and demon days

i'm a think tank denialist

unless you want to consider it the 'out of time ep', tracklist ambulance/out of time/on the way to the club/caravan/battery in your leg there that's acceptable. both the songs with 'song' in the name are overrated imo

One of them is "good"

those 5 + the two 'song's + gene by gene are all great

i also need to revisit the tgb&tq debut i guess because i barely remember it at all

Think Tank only has like 2 bad songs wtf

afraid to listen to this tbh

the debut has 'herculean' which is, to harp on a theme, albarn's best song since the last millennium imo

that's all i remember from it and i do love it

title track is a nice little rave-up

Merrie Land is really excellent

God I love these records.