The Good, The Bad and The Queen

Can anyone think of any other British artist who's come up with three albums as diverse, melodic and soulful as Parklife, Demon Days and now The Good, the Bad and the Queen? No, nor can I. It's about time that Mr Albarn was recognised as a stellar British talent who has the innate ability to capture the mood of a nation but with the crucial and clinching evidence that he has the lyrics and melodies to go with it. If anyone had any doubts, this album should dispel them.

The Good, the Bad and the Queen is a loose, lingering experience shot through with grandiose messages and gorgeous melodies. It's London's dirty dozen compiled from the dark heart of a city unsure of itself after the Iraq War and the gathering gloom of terrorism and evnvironmental catastrophe.

It's a slow-burning, suggestive album that creeps up on you rather than hits you between the eyes but eventually it triumphs into a deep, intimate piece of work that demands attention and multiple listens.

Albarn has come a long way from the shiny happy Blur days to the current status of dark star but this growth and development has been nothing short of stunning. The Good, The Bad and The Queen is up there with his best work and has a wisdom and craftiness about it that it ultimately joyful and rewarding.

Imagine fragments of classic Britpop bands -- the Clash, the Verve, and Blur -- coming together into one brilliant multifaceted supergroup. That's the Good, The Bad and the Queen,

Okay, the band technically has no name, but for purposes of clarity, I'm going to call it by their debut's name. But even without a name, this astoundingly vibrant group creates one of the best albums of the year this far -- a scintillating, gritty concept album, full of weariness and ennui.

It kicks off with a slow ponderous acoustic guitar, which slowly melts into a dark web of organ, keyboard and electric guitar. "A ship across/The estuary/Sundays lost/In melancholy," music legend Damon Albarn murmurs in his low, softly rough voice. "A storm of strings/Far away/The hangers on/Saved the day...."

That was just the buildup to the songs that follow, focused on life in London today -- thoughtful, confused, melancholy, but with a bit of hope. The songs flow alog like a rive, intertwined but distinct -- mostly slow-moving rockers wrapped in ringing and shimmering synth, plinking piano, gritty bass and little zips of sound, like dark threads.

I'm assuming Albarn and Co. wanted this to have a sort of haunted urban feel, like someone walking through London's night streets and musing on what he sees. It's that extra depth that takes "The Good, The Bad and the Queen" from a great album to a magnificent one, themed around the bittersweetness of life in modern London.

The Verve's Simon Tong and the Clash's Paul Simonon weave their ringing guitars and slightly fuzzed bass into deep, intertwined melodies, backed by some solid subtle drums by Tony Allen. Finally there's some some ripples of organ, sweeping violins, plinky piano, and undulates of dark synth. It's even more haunting that way. The instrumentation is all woven together, with this guitar or that organ slipping in and out of sound.

But as brilliant as the instrumentation is, Albarn's voice is the star of these songs. His voice is pretty smooth, but with a rough edge like someone about to cry. And in certain songs like the autumnal "Bunting Song" and the title song, he sounds like he's wearily looking back on his life and struggles.

And the lyrics are are layered and intricate as the instrumentation -- allusions to politics, war and sorrow fill it ("Ravens fly/Across the moon... There's a noise in the sky/Following all the rules/And not asking why"). But there are glimmers of hope and love too: "And I was losing it all the time/But she stayed with me and found me out and above all things I've learnt/It's that honesty that secures the bond in the heart."

"The Good, The Bad and the Queen" is a virtually flawless album by a brilliantly talented superband, who have turned out some of the darkest, deepest, most unique rock music of this year. A magnificent piece of work.

Since the beginning of the new millenium, it has seemed like Damon Albarn has been concerning himself more and more less with Blur, after Think Tank it seemed Blur was on its last legs, and to add to the fact he was enjoying success behind a cartoon singer in Gorillaz. So in many ways Albarn has become the 'king of the side-project'.

Now for The Good, The Bad and The Queen, depending on your view, this can be seen as either as a solo project or a super group. Even the fact that the moniker the band had been given was not officially the group's name can make slightly misleading. Nevertheless with players such as the Verve's Simon Tong, Africa 70's Tony Allen and The Clash's Paul Simonon, it might as well be a supergroup.

But unlike say Audioslave's debut, Albarn's new project becomes more of a showcase for his latest songs, which is not bad in any way. In fact, this is probably the best stuff he's written since Parklife. Although, it must be stated the lyrical content is much more melancholy than what he sung about in 1994, which is understandable for some one who is approaching middle age. Instead nearly every song here is about the enjoyments of life and how we are blessed to be allowed this chance, with occasional war references.

The music takes on a more operatic style here, which now when I look at the 19th century cover, its easy to see where Albarn was heading with this project. Of course, produced by Danger Mouse (I swear that guy will be producing records in the afterlife) there are some hints of Gorillaz in here.

Stand out tracks include the beautiful 80's Life, the suprisingly catchy Kingdom of Doom, the life affirming Behind The Sun and the war poem A Soldier's Tale. It does take a while to get into, but in the end what you'll find is some beautifully crafted songs, and not to mention some pretty nifty drawings in the booklet by Simonon.

I suppose all thats left to ask is with all these successful projects, what will become Blur? Until an answer is given, here we can enjoy Albarn at the peak of his talents.

Buy Now.