Albums I Adore (and Why You Should Too!) : Merrie Land

Damon Albarn is in love with England. England is a place that's been on this man's mind in one way or another since he started working on music. Of course, there was his work with Blur, and how he turned his group from capitalizing on the dying British music trend that was Madchester into being the leaders of an entirely new movement with Britpop. Much of his work during the early and mid 90's was the epitome of Britishness, with shoutouts to the Portobello Road Market or Primrose Hill. Above all else, Modern Life is Rubbish and Parklife were painting a vivid, colorful vision of London, one where despite its problems, living there wasn't so bad. With time, however, Damon's music had started to drift away from Britain in a sense. Later Blur records were much more influenced by American rock than British music and in particular British culture. This went doubly so for Gorillaz. While that group has had its share of British guests, many of them had come from all over the globe, from America to Syria. Even Damon himself had considered Gorillaz more of an American band, with how much more the concept and music had resonated with global audiences than with ones back home in England. With Gorillaz and other projects like Africa Express, Albarn had been looking internationally. One group of his, however, had Damon going back to his roots in a way.

2006 brought with it the rise of The Good, the Bad and the Queen. Damon Albarn brought with him drummer Tony Allen, guitarist Simon Tong and bassist Paul Simonon for a 12-song cycle taking a melancholy look at a post-Iraq War London released at the start of 2007. The quartet went toured throughout 2007, with the odd show in 2008 and 2011. These shows wouldn't be the last time that some of their members teamed up either. Damon roped in Paul and Simon to work on the next Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach, with Paul also acting as bassist for the expansive world tour supporting the record and Simon subbing in for Jeff Wootton on guitar for a few dates. Damon and Tony had also launched another group that was called Rocket Juice and the Moon after the cover art for the album they made together (not unlike how The Good, the Bad and the Queen got their name.) Damon guested on the track Go Back on Tony's 2014 album and Tony in return showed up on Damon's solo tour that same year. Nothing seemed to materialize of any new material from the unnamed supergroup, however. This changed when in 2017 Damon let it slip about the band coming back together again for the release of a second album. Damon certainly seemed excited to tour the record and touted it as "the greatest thing... [he] ever made..." I was certainly hyped with this announcement. I adored this group's debut outing, as one could probably tell from the post I made reviewing the first record. It's still the best album I've ever listened to! My only concern going into the release was about the production. Danger Mouse left a huge mark on the first album, and with that became one of my favorite parts of it. When Damon announced that it was Tony Visconti stepping into the producer role this time, I was very intrigued in how this would affect the album's sound and direction. If you couldn't tell from the title of this post, this decision still turned out to be a great one. 11 years on from the first record, this band is back in action and as great as they have ever been, rebounding like they never even split apart and ready to tackle Britain post-Brexit referendum.

1. Introduction -  "I see what we do as The Good, the Bad and the Queen as cinematic," according to Paul Simonon in an interview. It makes total sense with that in mind to start off this record with a movie clip from an adaptation of The Canterbury Tales, but this intro also has another purpose. It makes the album feel like a journey, one that travels throughout British history and a more personal journey sorting out a person's emotions at a changing country. This works as the perfect mood-setter for our trip through Merrie Land.

2. Merrie Land - This title track was also the album's lead single and from the first listen I was floored with what I heard. The first thing that I took away from this song was just how dense it was, both in meanings and in the way Damon had sung his lyrics. There is lots of powerful symbolism and imagery here, like "the horses, the foxes, the sheep and the cows, bow down on their knees. To the fanfare of progress it's always the same, we cheer on the clowns as they roll into town and their faces look tired and sad to me..." It's so beautiful and striking but I think what makes lyrics like these work, not just on this track but on the rest of the record, is how they're delivered. Damon Albarn tries out something a little different with his vocals on this record where it's much more stream-of-conciousness, almost like spoken word at times (which we'll really get to hear towards the end of the record.) It was a style he picked up from Lou Reed after meeting up with him to record for Plastic Beach. Just this change really helps make this album stand out from not just this band's first record but anything else Damon has recorded yet. It's a style I really wouldn't mind hearing again (maybe on a new Gorillaz album?) The song gets strung together by a really nice lowrey organ performance by Damon that makes this track move along nicely. I adore the instrumental break where Demon Strings comes further into the mix, it's one of the most powerful moments on the record and brings chills down my spine every time I hear it (this feeling will be pretty common throughout the record.) You know, it really says something when a song this incredible is still somehow one of the lesser cuts from this album.

3. Gun to the Head - Of the three songs that have a recorder on the record, this track utilizes it the best. The recorders at the beginning feel like they're starting up some ancient royal ritual (like a ritual union?) This is also the first track where this record begins to take a turn for the weird. Here, nightingales plead to keep their homes and unicorn heads are but one of the landmarks. Merrie Land at points begins to feel less and less real and more like some bizarre fever dream powered by illusions of what life used to be, like it ever was that at all. This song also harkens back to a Damon style of old, with the music-hall influences of early Blur records back in full force alongside a chorus that feels like the shotgun marriage of a Parklife track with the future Britain faces now. "We don't care, cause we're all, animal lovers! We like to share our lives with them!" That first part sounds straight out of the 90's until you reach "when everything else that keeps us together conspiring to tear us apart" and you feel like you were ripped out of the colorful image of Blur's London, the Merrie Land as it were, and given a nice dose of reality. That hook really makes this song infectious!

4. Nineteen Seventeen - One of the things I love about this album is that Tony Allen gets some more to do on this record. He doesn't get shafted for a drum machine like he was at times on the first album and makes his presence known on every track (except for Ribbons.) My favorite drumming of his is on this track, especially during the impressive intro and gets the track really bouncing! "I see myself looking backwards in time today..." It feels like a lot of this record is moving in and out through different times in history at a dizzying pace. If the last song brought us back to the time of vaudeville theater, it feels perfect to slot this song in right after, themed after a time where vaudeville was at its heights. 1917 also was near the end of the first world war, when the U.S. had waged war on Austria-Hungary. Damon uses some pretty powerful imagery to invoke that time as well, noticing "a thousand white crosses in a cemetery." This whole track feels like I'm on a flying swing at an old carnival, trying not to look down on the chaos and destruction of war.  The outro is really awesome too. There aren't as many long outro jams like there were on the first album, but when they show up they are grand. Those sounds of what seem like bombs falling are seriously perfect for the song's subject matter.

5. The Great Fire - If you love the weird, creepy vibes that the early Gorillaz phases gave off, you'll love this one. It's spooky and haunted, being the most atmospheric song on the album. It's like a haunted Halloween tram ride through England passing by the violence of a people torn apart from each other. The dubby beat and synths help to paint this dark picture. My favorite part is when the synths and drums kick in by the way, on the "rapturous waves" part. All the spooky background vocals really fit too, like you can feel ghosts swarming all around you even if you can't quite see them, making them all the more terrifying.  Lyrically, it's not as tight as the other songs on here, but I love them for what they are. The narrative they create is one less straightforward than on other tracks, where it feels more akin to the almost nonsense lyricism of quite a few Gorillaz tracks while still being intense. "Sticky brown Chinese, coke and a dummy, metal detector, blue skies, joyous waves, alcoholism disguised with a balloon or two on Preston station!" This one could also be seen as another travel through time, moving backwards from World War I into the Great Fire of London back in 1666, explaining the "Cubs make fire on the edge of the golf course" line.

6. Lady Boston -  "[There was] this beautiful sound filling all the hallways and the Gothic stairways and the nooks and crannies of the castle." That quote was from Damon Albarn, on the recording of Lady Boston with the song's choir. I could just cut off my discussion about this song here, because it's too perfectly said and resonates so closely to what I feel listening to the track. A bit of backstory might help before diving in too deep. During the recording of Merrie Land, Damon rung up an old friend of his, Gruff Rhys (whose debut album I have talked about before,) and it was Rhys who hooked Damon up with the Cor y Penrhyn male choir featured in this song. It was recorded in the Penrhyn Castle in Wales, and Damon saw a painting on the walls and named the song after finding a person in that painting that seemed somewhat different from the rest, only having the name Lady Boston to go off of. The song became the amalgamation of all of Damon's thoughts around that time, thinking about the painting and the castle and its history of Welsh quarrymen and being built off of Jamaican slave plantations. What resulted from this is what's by far the best song on the album. It feels like the next natural evolution of the Blur ballads of old, like I'm flashing back to "Best Days" or "Out of Time" in this journey through British history. "Cut to the seagull, the quarryman, the castle, the barnacles, the cliff edge, the joy." Such a perfect and creative use of imagery. Tony Visconti's recorder sounds really nice on here too, a bit unexpected when I first heard it but it's so welcome. Speaking of parts I adore, the "I'm on the back of you" refrain is so marvelous, and gives way to what is not just the best part of the song but the best part of the album and one of the musical highlights of Damon's entire career, the outro. Throughout the song, there's this gorgeous Cor y Penrhyn choir behind Damon. That alone sounds great as is, but in the outro the band cuts off entirely and keeps the choir on, singing "Dwy wrth dy gefen, dwi wth dy gefen di." That translates to "I'm on your back, I feel sorry for you." That final moment is simply magical. A true moment of togetherness in these troubled times. Is this Damon Albarn's best ballad? I would say so.

7. Drifters and Trawlers -"I've done enough today, sweet lord I've done enough today." I thought on first listen that this was supposed to be the lighthearted track working as a bit of relief after the big centerpiece of the record and a fun way to start off side B. It sounds very breezy, with rollicking guitars and what could seriously be one of my favorite parts of the album, the impressive penny whistle playing from Gerry Diver. It's like I'm on this old shipping boat sailing on by towards Plastic Beach while the seagulls swarm around me. It seems to have the makings of a great summer jam, but the lyrics are certainly a different matter. While they are very catchy, there's an overwhelming sadness to them driven home by Damon's tired vocals.

8. The Truce of Twilight - This song is Merrie Land at its most mystical. Lions and unicorns sleeping by shop doors! It's a story of fortune tellers and idols and waterslides! I especially like the horned ooser symbolism thrown in there too. Not only does this add to the tracks dark mysticism, but it also helps complete the narrative the song tries to weave. The horned ooser refers to the Dorset Ooser of 19th century English folklore, a wooden head that became associated with morality and humiliating those who acted immoral into behaving a certain way. The ooser could be the symbol for the fear that people have for going against the ways of old and looking dead eyed at the future in the process, like in the lines "glassy eyed demography" and "they're not dreaming just looking to midnight." The glassy eyed demography line also speaks to the divide between the so-called "Merrie Land" and facing reality, as if people have been too busy at this carnival taking in old British culture and thinking of how good it could be to go back to the ways of old (that may not have existed at all in the ways that they are thinking about them) instead of seeing what's really going on in the UK right now and trying to start up a conversation about it.

9. Ribbons - Listening to Ribbons, my mind drifts back in time to the beautiful A Soldier's Tale or the sadly overlooked Everyday Robots B-side Electric Fences. This songs channels all the best aspects of Damon's softer tracks. It's soothing with powerful vocals, the best Demon Strings performance on the album and some of the best lyricism I've ever heard from one of his projects. I can't even say I have a favorite line from this, there's so many to choose from. "I am the maypole, dancing with the sun," "I am the arrow stinging in your side. I will never let you go," it's all so rich with imagery and emotion! If I had to choose one, I would choose "I am the murder, falling out the sky. I wear my ribbons black until I die." The vocals on that part are the best on the album, fitting for such a powerful lyric.

10. Last Man to Leave - Everything has gone to shit. I know that this idea has been used plenty a time throughout Damon's discography, from the apocalyptic Demon Days to the emotional nightmares stored throughout 13, but few songs in his repertoire convey this kind of doom as bluntly as this. This song is in the eyes of a man who's gone insane, swinging in and out of consciousness struggling to hold on and pleading for dear life. Everything sounds disoriented, from Damon switching between a falsetto and a normal speak-singing voice to the powerful lyrics. My favorite little detail is the guitar plucking from Simon when Damon pleads "DON'T LEAVE ME NOW!" It's the coolest guitar work on the album for how it contributes to these drunken sounding cries to make this sound like a stage play that's falling apart at the seams, just like the country Damon loves.  I especially love "We like the bed that we made to lie in much better, thank you!" I saw this as the people of The Truce of Twilight responding to pleas for conversation and understanding before splitting apart from the European Union, refusing to leave Merrie Land and connect with others. "What will you do?" Damon asks as the curtains close and the scene fades to black. But as everything seems like it's falling to pieces, could there be a light at the end of the tunnel, a hope for a brighter future for Britain even with the stroppy little island of mixed up people being split apart?

11. The Poison Tree - Maybe not. "I didn’t want to include The Poison Tree on the album. I wanted to end it with a very punk song. But we realized that The Poison Tree was taking us by surprise, it sounds like a last waltz: everybody goes home and wakes up the next morning screaming “What have I done?” Had things gone to Damon's original plan, I don't think I would have minded having a punk song to close things off. Having a powerful, uplifting happy ending like the first record or like on Humanz could have been pulled off well. But in an album with quite a few surprises under its belt, this kind of an ending is a welcome one. That's not to say that Albarn hasn't ended albums on more sorrowful terms before, the last two Blur records come to mind here. It just came as a bit of a shock for me to close things off for what could be Damon's last record for quite a while on such a tattered mournful note as opposed to the outlooks taken by the endings of Humanz and The Now Now. The piece itself is gorgeous, as Albarn cries over the lowrey organ, Paul's heavy-hitting bass line and Tony's laid-back drumming. The violins are absolutely stunning and get to me every single time I hear them. God, the piano is so great on this as well! "If you got dreams you keep, and you're leaving me, I'll see you in the next life, don't follow me." If the Last Man to Leave felt like the climax, then The Poison Tree is the falling action. Relationships are split apart as people bid their farewells to unity and go off on separate paths, never to even think about rekindling together again. The last lyric is particularly striking as well and always gives me the chills. "Of a last crusade to save me from myself." It's like an admission that maybe nothing could really save this relationship from falling apart, from "lying on a fallow field." Now that I got to talk about the song itself, one of the most emotionally impactful parts of the record is the name.


The track refers back to William Blake's 18th century poem, working on one level as another callback to old British culture alongside the dummy motif in the videos and the photos from vintage black and white films on the cover and in the lyric booklet. The real impact lies in how Damon is connected to this poem. Long ago, back through the rose-colored years of the Parklife era, Blur slipped in a track they started during the recording of Modern Life is Rubbish, but never quite finished because there weren't quite lyrics attached to it. In a stump as to what to sing about, Damon only wrote the chorus while the rest used the original Poison Tree poem for lyrics. The song, called Magpie, even sounded like a callback in and of itself to the Madchester sound of Blur's debut Leisure meshed together with what Blur had formed into around the Modern Life is Rubbish era. I had already listened to Magpie a while before this album had come out, but I didn't look into the backstory of it until the track list for Merrie Land was revealed and people pointed out the reference, instantly amazed when I saw the connection for myself. In an album that felt like it had its share of callbacks and echoes of past Damon work while still feeling like its own thing very different from anything else in his library, it was really touching to see this poem getting brought back up again. It felt like things had gone full circle, and I really appreciate that.

This album is an absolute masterwork, being not just Damon's best album this decade, but also one of the best albums he ever made, only being bested (possibly) by the first record with this group.  Merrie Land is shocking, emotionally heart-wrenching and expertly crafted by some of the best minds in music coming back together to create the best artistic statement of 2018. While just having the main album by itself is enough of a blessing, those who bought the deluxe or super deluxe version were fortunately graced with two bonus tracks. While neither track would quite fit on Merrie Land, they're both fine pieces of work on their own and rapidly becoming some of my favorite Damon Albarn b-sides.

12. St. George and the Blackbird - While on first listens, I seemed to slightly prefer the other bonus track, time has slowly given a chance for this one to grow on me so much that I actually like this one even better now! It's a soothing, heavenly folk song with these really pretty keyboards alongside the acoustic guitar. Damon's vocals are in top-form here as well. Am I the only one who gets reminded a little of Stop the Dams with this?

13. The Imperial - This one feels much more laid-back than any other track on the record, with its jazzy Latin trumpets adding some energy alongside some pretty awesome drumming from Tony Allen.  I feel like I could try to talk more about this, but I can't really make heads or tails of the lyrics and what they could mean, other than seeing images of high tide sandcastles and drunken politicians by the seaside. It's just an absolute jam of a track, and it works very well as what it is. It's superb as an extension of Merrie Land, even if it might not fit into the main album.

I just wanted to add this because it was funny and great.

And so we have come to the end of Merrie Land, and with that, 2018 for this blog. It's been a lot of fun writing down my thoughts about music and media on here. I can feel like I'm starting to grow just a tiny bit as a writer, able to better communicate my feelings about a work and find things to say about one. I don't know what 2019 has in store for me, but rest assured I'll be coming back here to write when I find interesting things to say. Speaking of, I'm gonna be talking about some anime pretty soon here. There's been a whole year of great stuff and I can't wait to share my thoughts about what was cool! Hope you'll be along for the ride.

Later, dwi wrth dy gefen!

Circle of Friendz: Africa Express Presents....

Welcome back to the Circle of Friendz, my never-ending joy ride across music history to talk about the many, many groups with ties to everyone's favorite cartoon band, Gorillaz. I realize that this project is one that's for the long-term.  I mean, I'm only 8 albums deep into a 79-album experiment! Think of all the hundreds of hours of music that is! That's why I have always considered this project as, above all things, a journey. At least, that makes the idea of listening to all these albums and talking about them seem like a much more interesting prospect. In any great journey, the adventurer gets to see lots of different sights, each as distinct as the last, traveling what seems like a never-ending road. Here, I think that my experiences with this project are fitting to the idea of a great journey. It's been a great surprise to see just how diverse each album I've listened to so far has become. I mean, I've hopped from Welsh indie rock to ska to jazz, never content to settle for too long on one thing (Does that remind us of anyone?) I think this album is the first one I've reviewed so far that feels like a journey of its very own.

Who is this? The Syrian National Orchestra
What did they do for Gorillaz?  Performed on White Flag for Plastic Beach (that will be brought up later.)
When was this performed? June 25, 2016
Where was this performed? The Southbank Centre in London
Why is this so good? Before I talk about the Syrian National Orchestra, I should probably talk about the man behind the animated mask, Damon Albarn. Damon Albarn is a man of collaboration and experimentation. For years, he's showed up not just on other's projects but also had many, many artists come home onto his home turf with his own records. While he mostly kept to his own band Blur during the 90's, occasionally reaching out to people like Phil Daniels for the landmark Parklife and playing keyboards for his girlfriend's band, Elastica, this changed heading into 1999. Damon had found interest in hip-hop and electronic music, the electronic influence seeping heavily into Blur's 13 as the Britpop sound Blur had eroded into the passage of time. While Blur got more experimental, Damon wanted to take that even further. It's because of these new influences and this new desire for a change in style that led Damon to make Gorillaz. While Blur leaned mostly into Britpop and alt-rock music, Gorillaz was much more than that. The constant genre-switching reflected Damon's new interests that he could never fully explore with Blur. One aspect of Gorillaz that also wasn't expanded on much was his focus on collaborations. Gorillaz was and still is a way for Damon and his wide array of friends to scrape off their egos and perform music without focusing as much on their own celebrity status. This was amplified by a project that released a year after the debut Gorillaz album, Mali Music.

Mali Music grew out of a trip to Mali in the early 2000's that fostered a love of Africa by Damon. This effort was a much more low-key affair than Gorillaz or Blur before it were. While new copies of the album have Damon's name on the wrapping, don't be mistaken for thinking that this would end up being a new effort from either of those bands. Damon only has vocals on two tracks on the entire album. Instead, he hands the reigns over to local Malian musicians for the vast majority of it while he acts more as an overseer. It was from this album that grew from it Africa Express. In 2006, after Demon Days had finished and The Good, the Bad and the Queen was finishing up, Damon Albarn alongside many other musicians began a project that would act as a meeting point between western music and African music. Several people who would wind up being involved with Africa Express also happened to work with Gorillaz at some point, from Kano to Faia Younan. The goal would be for African music to leave a greater mark on the worldwide musical landscape. Africa Express would a project that would go on and off over the years, and the album I'm covering today was one of their latest efforts, a spin-off of sorts it seems like.

On June 25, 2016 in London, a 50-piece orchestra of Syrian musicians had gathered at the Southbank Centre alongside a number of different guests, both Syrian and not. This had been the first time that the orchestra had been gathered together in the same place since the end of the Escape to Plastic Beach world tour from 2010. In that time, civil war had broken out in Syria. In the ongoing conflict, thousands had died and even more lost their places to live, fleeing all across the world in hopes of a place to stay. After that world tour, there was a chance that the group would never have seen each together, either from displacement or death. But on June 25, 2016, the odds were defied and the entire group that Damon Albarn (or Murdoc Niccals, whoever you want to believe) had called on to play on the third Gorillaz album had reunited in one spot for another show. In the opening speech that Damon gives at the start of the concert, I can hear the disbelief and amazement coming off of him that he was able to have this massive undertaking finally come to light.  This show is a sight to behold. It's almost two hours of pure magic. I could feel this sense of warmth surround me when I was listening. Even my notes reflect this, or lack thereof for a few songs. Listening to some of these tracks, I just felt so caught up in the music to where I lost track of my surroundings! The show is primarily Middle Eastern orchestral and folk music with some western tracks thrown in the mix and given the amount of depth and wonder that only this show could provide. There are quite a few highlights throughout the show. As with other Africa Express performances, Damon takes a sideline to the array of musicians, but when he's there he absolutely shines. He pulls off a beautiful cover of Blackbird from The Beatles with Paul Weller. It's actually quite fitting that Blackbird was chosen for this event to be covered. Paul McCartney had given several reasons behind the tune's birth. The most common element of the stories involves taking a look at the civil rights movement of the late 60's. Having a song that could be about the black struggle could fit in well with the overall message of Africa Express. It's about being able to overcome any challenge and truly soar above the clouds, with this message being demonstrated through being able to make and play music as a group and overcome differences.  Damon also comes in to play a special version of the Blur track Out of Time. Out of Time is my favorite Blur song, coming from my favorite Blur album, Think Tank. It's lyrics perfectly convey that sense of loneliness that comes from someone leaving and a lack of communication. The vocals are quite possibly even better than they were on the track as it's accompanied by the gorgeous orchestra that gives the song new life. I'll be talking more about the original song on another section of my blog sometime or another.

Moving on to the guest performers, there are lots here. Of particular note for Gorillaz fans is that Faia Younan and Eslam Jawaad show up here. I'll be covering both of them sometime later for Circle of Friendz. Faia has two wonderful songs here, Zayene el Marie and the folk song Ya mahla'l fus'ha. She's got a beautiful voice and stands as one of my favorite performers at this event. Speaking of standout performances, there's a very fun performance of the Gorillaz track White Flag here, swapping out Bashy and Kano's grimey verses and the synths for a more stripped-back instrumental relying purely on the strength of the orchestra. Plus Malikah drops some fucking fire, she's easily my favorite guest here. She's got enough energy for everyone there! But the best of the bunch was a track that isn't related to Gorillaz. That honor goes to Al Ajahleh. It's an 18 minute epic of an intermission, where what it lacks in vocals makes up for that in the incredible performances on display by the orchestra, Bassekou Kouyate and Seckou Keita. When the track started I thought it was just going to be a 2-minute interlude going into White Flag, as that was what happened with a portion of the track on the Gorillaz tour (OK so it does kinda tie into Gorillaz.)  Then it became truly its own, as the track expanded farther and farther. Bassekou tears it up on his ngoni, which is this ancient West African string instrument that was used by storytellers every so often. I also really gotta give props to Seckou's kora playing, which adds a bit of unexpected funk to the song that I really loved. The track Bayat Samaei feels like a musical journey all its own with all the changes it makes in its run-time. It sounds like the score for a fantasy adventure movie and all its dramatic twists and turns.

If the goal of this concert was to get even one person to go home and try looking up some of the artists there, it worked for me at least. This was a pleasant reminder of just how powerful music can be, how it can tie together all of these distant people and cultures under one idea. It felt like, even if only for a moment, the world felt at peace as music filled the air. That's a pretty good feeling, don't you think? I give Africa Express Presents... a 9.5/10.

Albums I Adore (and Why You Should Too!): The Good, the Bad, and the Queen

     Welcome, one and all, to the fourth edition of Albums I Adore, talking and raving over the albums that are very near and dear to me. This episode, I'm covering another Damon Albarn masterwork, his 2007 album The Good, the Bad, and the Queen. This album comes from a supergroup of Damon on vocals, Simon Tong of The Verve on guitar, Paul Simonon from The Clash on bass, and afrobeat master Tony Allen working the drums. The group doesn't technically even have a name, since according to Simonon "names are for a marriage." Nethertheless, record companies, concert organizers and fans alike call the band by the name of their album. This album has roots in 2004, the same year the Demon Days recording sessions started, as Damon Albarn took a trip to Nigeria. he recorded with Tony Allen, who he recently started a partnership with recording in London several days a week before the trip, alongside Simon Tong who had just finished touring with Blur as a replacement for Graham Coxon on guitar. Along with them for the ride was producer Danger Mouse, a man who would become from my perspective very important to the album's sound, having been working with Albarn on Demon Days around the same time. The dark atmosphere of Demon Days would have a very lingering effect on this project, but we'll get to that later. Soon enough after the trip, Paul Simonon was played the demos by Damon and agreed to join the project, even if all those demos were scrapped to start over. After Demon Days had finished production, this new project was marching along before releasing Herculean as a single in 2006 and their album a few months after that. These recordings led to what I would consider Damon's best album that he has ever made. The album was described as being another dark concept album coming off of Demon Days, a "mystery play about London" and its people in times of violence, melancholy, longing and hopelessness. The London protrayed here, very much unlike the London described on Parklife and Modern Life is Rubbish from Blur, is one ravaged by wars that go nowhere and tidal waves sweeping people away. It's much less idyllic in the portrayal, one much more wrapped up in current events. This type of landscape is where our story begins...

1. History Song - This first track acts as a perfect opener to the album. It's very dark, moody and most importantly very foreboding. The track also works as not just the opening act, if you wanna think off this album as a narrative, but also on its own as a warning to people. "If you don't know it now, then it will do..." demonstrates that bad things can happen to the people who don't have an understanding of history and the wrongdoings of the past, becoming unable to prevent tragedies from occurring or even being an active participant in these activities. I really love those last few seconds as the drums and piano wind down, and the line "Sunday's lost in melancholy" works as a perfect metaphor for the London that gets described in this album.

2. 80's Life - It seems the most natural song to come after a warning to people who don't know their past would be a look into the past! I imagine this song as looking through this black and white film reel of a very idealistic view of the London of a different time. In terms of melody, it certainly does feel like one of the lightest on the album, covering up its dark lyricism. Damon says that the light has all gone dead, that everything is absolutely hopeless. Comfort is found in the sound of police sirens flying by before other tracks bring us back into darkness. The subject of war gets made loud and clear here and throughout the album, as Damon hopes for a world without endless war. This song is absolutely lovely, and its another track where I love the winding down at the very end here as well, a compliment that will extend to multiple tracks on the record.

3. Northern Whale - This song sounds like one of several tracks that sound like it could fit well at home with the catalog of Gorillaz. The synth work and pianos working together feel like something that would be right at home with D-Sides alongside tracks like Highway (Under Construction.) Tony Allen gets shafted for a drum machine here, but damn the beeps and boops of the synths here really pick up the slack here alongside the drum machine programmed by James Dring. This lyrics are about a whale who got stuck in the Thames River in 2006, whereas before the album it had been a love song towards Damon's partner Suzi as she went on a trip to Antarctica. This is also the first track to really bring tidal waves and water imagery into play on the album, which get brought up several times throughout the album.

4. Kingdom of Doom - The lyrics have some of the best imagery on the albums. I can truly picture ravens flying overhead a dingy bar filled with people drinking to ease away the pain of endless war while the band plays on a makeshift stage within. I especially like the piano work chugging along throughout. Really love the hook too. This was brought back alongside Three Changes on Damon's 2014 solo tour and I truly hope it can be brought back for any concerts for the upcoming The Good, the Bad and the Queen record for just how much fun everyone seems to have playing it. I totally get why this one has become a highlight for many people that listened to the album.

5. Herculean - A large part of the reason I even wanted to make this review in the first place was to talk about just how much I absolutely LOVE Herculean. First, I really dig the megaphone effect Damon is using here. This vocal trick certainly isn't new, he's been using it since Oily Water on Blur's Modern Life is Rubbish, although it's become synonymous with Gorillaz specifically for me now. It definitely adds to the atmosphere of this song I think. It's parts like that that make me feel like 2D is singing here in place of Damon Albarn, something that stretches across the entire album. It feels like 2D is taking a journey across the UK and seeing just how destroyed his home country is emotionally and making comments on them. I can also really feel like I'm actually in London with the narrator (2D or Damon or whoever) walking past the gasworks or looking out the window to seeing people's daily routines. I also want to use this song as a prime example of just how Danger Mouse's production adds to the album as a whole. The production here felt very layered and crisp. The static of the megaphone really meshes well with the keyboards and synths, which really works well with the drum machine and Simon Tong's guitar at the beginning. It's the type of production that encourages repeat listens to pick up on all the little details. The last two minutes of this track have to be Damon Albarn's finest moment in my eyes. After the second verse, the song descends into this heavenly outro where Damon's oohs are crushed behind the overpowering synths, the drum machine and the amazing choir work. The string section here provided by Demon Strings, who also worked on Demon Days, gels nicely with everything here too, even if they aren't as noticeable in the studio version as they are in the incredible live version. The outro helps to make this song work both as an incredible single and as the centerpiece to this album, as this outro feels like I have ascended to some higher plane of existence and I'm looking over London as it turns itself to hell. This track alone is proof enough that this is Damon's A-game in every aspect, lyrically and musically. It helps that Danger Mouse makes it sound like the best Demon Days track that never made it to the album.

6. Behind the Sun -  Speaking of Demon Days, this is another gem that I think could have worked well on that album, thanks to the presence of the megaphone-style effect, the wind sampling and the keyboards. I absolutely love how harmoniously Demon Strings and the keyboards work well together here. I really like the chorus for this one too, it's super pretty! The chorus also makes this song feel like it's taking a look back in time and comparing that to how the state of things is now, "looking at the people we've become" compared to that time far gone, "to the place where you played when you were young." Absolutely wonderful.

7. The Bunting Song - Now you may be asking "Well what exactly is bunting?" ...Or was that just me? I honestly didn't know until Damon Albarn pointed out what it was before a live performance of this track. As I've come to learn, bunting is this form of fabric often made into decorations for different occasions. It's often made into little triangle flags, like the bunting used at the live shows for this album, but they can come in a variety of styles and colors. Onto the track itself, it's another one with this really cool outro that only completes the sort of imagery I have in my head when listening to this thing. Kinda like the intro on Demon Days, I find myself imagining being in a haunted forest in the dead of night, searching around for something. This time around however, this expedition feels less horrifying and dark and more mystical in a sense. The pitch black skies I imagine from the Gorillaz track are replaced by rich purple hues. I imagine trees lined with bunting all around me as "the wild things" described in the song perform some kind of festival or holy ritual. As the traveler you don't quite get what's going on but you're so entranced by the experience that you don't dwell on it too much. It's a magical experience of a track, really.

8. Nature Springs - Tony Allen is at his finest on this track. While the album in general uses him very sparingly, when he is used it's awesome, this song being no exception. His drumming has a very nice groove to it that keeps this song afloat nicely. The outro also has to be one of my favorite moments from the album for just how perfectly every aspect comes together. Damon has this really good whistling section that comes in alongside a very solid Demon Strings performance, Tony's stable drumming and Paul Simonon's deep basslines, another one of my favorite parts of the track. Simon again has a really good part that blends in well to the track to make this all in all and outstanding performance from everybody in the group.

9. A Soldier's Tale - After the big outro of Nature Springs comes the quieter, stripped back sound of A Soldier's Tale. This album is filled with beauty, and this song in particular is absolutely beautiful! I adore the acoustic guitar here as Damon weaves a charming poem of a soldier and his thoughts and emotions during wartime, tying in nicely to the last track. There's also a hint of what's to come from Damon's solo work in one lyric, noting how "emptiness in computers" bothers him. Damon's solo album seven years after this one would tackle the relationships between man and technology at several points in that album. The whistling section in this one is really well done and adds to the track's atmosphere, as it did on Nature Springs. I love this song for just how calming and peaceful it sounds, it's almost like a really atmospheric adult lullaby!

10. Three Changes - I would like to thank Danger Mouse in particular for this track being on the album at all. He took a look at three different demos the band had made and somehow sown them all together into a very coherent whole. In part one, Damon describes the violence that has only increased in this very hectic form of London while Tony makes his mark on the track with his very prominent drumming alongside the organs and horns. Simon's guitar has this loud crunch to it that it has nowhere else on the album to really add to the madness, like it's becoming just as violent as the residents of London are. Part two slows things down a notch before racketing back up for part three. In terms of imagery here, I imagine this song as being in this dangerous graveyard where people passing by it become much more prone to random acts of violence, but unlike the last interaction a Damon Albarn project had in a spooky graveyard the band acts more as observers of this bizarre phenomenon than trying to fight it off.

11. Green Fields -  We're in the home stretch of the album, as the violence has started to subside leaving only a man to their thoughts. Back to that imagery I love so much, I imagine a return back to the bar from Kingdom of Doom after noticing the late night phenomenon of the last track, where the narrator is back on the bottle and reminiscing about London and how the violence that spread in Three Changes had come to rest, leaving behind a hometown that seems unrecognizable from what it once was, the "green fields" that "turn into stone." War, the environment, and violence has destroyed London, maybe even for good. Not all seems lost, however. The ravens flying across the moon have begun to rest as Damon sings of needing only destiny and dreams. Musically, Simon Tong really steals the show here, I love his steady guitar work and how he can really show off in the outro and chorus. I just adore how raw the guitar sound sounds here. Now the narrator leaves this pub, tired and broken looking back at the state of his home. But what does he see when he steps outside?

12. The Good, the Bad and the Queen - The man sees a sunrise, coming out of the clouds and judging all the satellites. People are starting to rekindle their relationships, the morning is calm and quiet and the narrator feels more alive than ever. There's the realization that despite all the troublesome times, despite the disputes and disasters, there will always be a younger generation who will be right on the front lines to combat injustice while many continue to work and play as they usually do. Maybe this whole experience wasn't quite the apocalyptic scenario it was built up to be. Because at the end of the day, there always will be a sun shining overhead. London will keep marching on. Also this is the best album closer I have ever heard from a Damon Albarn album (next to maybe Souk Eye.) This song works in a similar way to Demon Days' title track, a reminder that things won't be all so bad in the end, that there's always a light at the end of the tunnel to look forward too. I feel like any words i say cannot express just how powerful this ending feels, especially with how much the music does the talking here. The rest of this album has very powerful lyrics and haunting slow tracks to back them up. This track is a much faster and more upbeat affair to the rest of the album. Every single member fires on all cylinders as I feel wrapped up in warmth and light in over four minutes of pure power after the lyrics rest. While everyone in the group is at their A-game, I gotta give a shout out to Damon on the piano here. You can just hear the passion and feel the emotion on those keys. It's such a satisfying conclusion to this utterly fantastic album.


     So this is my favorite album ever, so it feels really damn good to just have my thoughts out there in a long-form format. It's for works like these that motivated me to even make the very blog you're reading right now. It feels refreshing to be able to flesh out my thoughts on the things that I love without having to conform to character limits. As long as I can write, i can feel fulfilled. Thank you for reading and I'll see you soon. Maybe the next post won't be about music, I'll be finding something else to tackle.