Good, the Bad and the Queen, The
self-titled
Joe Meek was a famed and tragic English record producer whose 1962 song “Telstar” (a spacey instrumental tribute to the world’s first communication’s satellite launched that same year) became the first British record to hit #1 on the U.S. charts. It’s hard not to imagine Damon Albarn as a modern day Meekan oddball British auteur whose musical vision has surprisingly captured the interest of American audiences in a time when most English musicians can’t get arrested on these shores. Of course, thus far Albarn’s success has been tied to an easily digestible cartoon pop group whose main inspiration comes from hip-hop. Albarn’s new “supergroup” is an entirely more esoteric affair. Yes, Danger Mouse is still manning the boards but, the sepia-hued chamber pop created by Albarn and his fraternity of musical greats – Tony Allen (Fela Kuti), Simon Tong (The Verve) and Paul Simonon (the mother effin Clash!) – is going to have a much tougher climb up the charts. Not that it makes a heap of difference.
Albarn claims this album is a letter to the London of today but, it’s impossible not get swept into the grandfatherly smell that permeates every number. Opener “History Song,” is made exceptional by Simonon’s punk-reggae bass note swell up, intertwining with some rocksteady organ stabs, but it still sounds as though it was played in a dusty attic. Lead single “Herculean” goes for baroque, with lush piano flourishes and the distant sound of monks on backing vocal, while the doo-wop flavor of the oddly titled “80s Life” (thinking of Billy Joel perhaps?) places itself in a time just a decade removed from the Blitz. An era when British youths like Joe Meek were beginning to craft a distinctly English cultural identity that would take over the world come the British Invasion. Small wonder then that the final song and album’s name sake is an immaculate homage to solo-era John Lennon, the quintessential post-war British baby grown up. With Blur, Gorillaz and now this, Albarn has developed a fully-matured catalog as well.
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