7.3
Damon Albarn's superstar mashup hit, including Danger Mouse from Gnarls Barkley, is something intricately interesting. It doesn't sound like Gorillaz, nor does it sound like the old Blur. (By the way, Blur is the band that made the WOOO HOO! song.)
The Good, The Bad & The Queen starts with a mellow guitar riff and that famous (or should I say, infamous) Damon Albarn voice comes out, and a great bass tone, then etc. 80's Life is sort of a "I'm in Heaven and I'm really clueless about it" tone. These two songs set up the whole album, basically.
Northern Whale has these fart noises which are really awesome, accompanied by some piano. Kudos to Danger Mouse for this. Kingdom of Doom lacks any striking, but its one of the better songs in the album. Just wait for the chorus and you'll know why. Herculean has just about the best drums you'll hear in the whole album, and mind you, its much better than Only Human (from Jason Mraz). Herculean's documentary-like mumbling-singing is really enticing too.
Behind the Sun is just as blur as 80's Life, but its a bitter more boring but Damon's voice is really stretched here. The Bunting Song WOULD have been as good as Herculean if it had better drums instead of a simple stick whacking.
Nature's Springs and A Soldier's Tale sounds like Gorillaz, simply put. Because Danger Mouse also made Gorillaz's Demon Days too. Hahahahaha. Not surprisingly funny.
Three Changes has a really awesome set of drums and the farting sounds are kinda back, in a new and unforeseen way, then comes Green Fields, which is another 80's Life, but more funky. But this song is overshadowed by the epic hit that is The Good, the Bad and the Queen, the album's last song, its title track, lengthing to heights of 7 minutes.
It starts with a heart wrenching piano solo, then it gets into place, and then the best singing from Damon will come out, talking about just about the only happy topics in the album. The acoustic-electric guitar will then strut, then the drums get even more loud, and you'll know that this song is much more awesome than its beginning piano solo alone. Its barely 3 minutes and the song gets into wicked climaxes of piano, guitar, drums, bass, synthesizers and you'll feel psyched by it all. After a while (two and a half minutes), the thing'll seem to feel more tired, but you know that its there, and you can't get enough of it, its the greatest thing you'll ever hear this year, and you know you'll- then it abruptly stops. But its not over. A short fanfare will resonate from your speakers, signalling the true end.
The title track is the main reason I bought it. And its true. Nothing's been better than it. My favourite song of 2007. Beautiful, brilliant, awesome, striking.
Track Picks:
3. Northern Whale
4. Kingdom of Doom
5. Herculean
11. Green Fields
12. The Good, The Bad & The Queen
