Everyday Robots
25 April 2014
Parlophone
3.5 stars out of 5
Former Blur front man Damon Albarn has finally released his
first proper solo album, and he’s titled it Everyday
Robots, after its first single. Featuring contributions from Natasha Khan
(Bat for Lashes) and Brian Eno, the LP is an autobiographical stroll through
the more melancholy moments of Albarn’s life. Musically, Everyday Robots is more Gorillaz than Blur, centered on keyboards
and looped samples rather than guitars and drums. If one were to sling insults,
one could call this a “mature” record, though a mature record that has a firm
grounding in a quiet experimentalism rather than crappy AOR hooks.
The title track is basically that opening scene of Shaun of the Dead, where everyone is a
zombie on the bus to work, only here the metaphor is robots. “The Selfish
Giant” is a quiet, sad ballad featuring Khan as a “ghostly echo”—one wishes
there she had a greater presence in the song, but alas, no. “You and Me” has
the feel of a Berlin-era David Bowie track, which is perhaps less surprising
once you realize it features contributions from Brian Eno. The closer, “Heavy Seas
Albarn has produced a decent if not essential record in Everyday Robots, one that is enjoyable
if not captivating. While lyrically cohesive and even poetic, the music seems
declawed and sanitized. File this one somewhere in the middle of the Albarn
canon, above the misses, but well below the hits.
reviewed by Richard Krueger
No comments:
Post a Comment