Demob Happy

Quite interesting, incidentally … 6/10 I have been a keen advoate of all things Damon Albarn post-Graham Coxon (i.e., Blur’s ‘Think Tank‘ and beyond) so was understandably quite excited by the album release of ‘Monkey, Journey to the West‘. I had not seen the Chinese opera-spectacular which this album scores but I didn’t let that [...]

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Forward Thinking 9/10 While ’13′ had some great tracks, there were two many square pegs being forced into round holes. The sonic experimentation seemed contrived and ill-matched to the album’s emotional thrust. ‘Think Tank’ rectifies this with an easier marriage of Albarn’s experimental tendencies and pop sensibility. It is an albun given levity by his [...]

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‘No More Distance Left to Run’ 7/10 This album certainly marks the end of an era, whether it be Britpop, the 1990s or Blur in their original formation, before Graham Coxon left the band. Whereas the brilliant Think Tank could be said to be a Damon Albarn project in the vein of Mali Music, Gorillaz [...]

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’4AM At Toumani’s’ 8/10 Damon Albarn’s Mali Music project is an overlooked album of beautiful mood and texture that barely belongs to the hideous ‘category’ of world music. This is very much a subjectivised, western account of African moods and musicianship, taken largely from muddled field recordings and mixed down in London. Mostly the range [...]

Spoons - Mali Music [ 5:19 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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“Stroppy little island of mixed up people” 8/10 Was Damon Albarn’s creative split with Graham Coxon the best thing that ever happened to him? Since Albarn called time on the 1990s Blur era with a best-of compliation, Albarn has reached something of a creative peak – irreverently declaring the likes of Country House ‘a joke’. [...]

Good Bad Queen - Herculean [ 3:59 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Monkey business 8.5/10 Demon Days improves massively from the Gorillaz debut with an album chock full of memorable, innovative pop, garnished with effervescent production. If anything, the cartoon imagery (or you could call it marketing) sticks less easily to this album, with moments of folksy downbeat like ‘Every Planet we Reach is Dead’ sounding like [...]

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