The Good, The Bad & The Queen - Damon's back
The Good, The Bad & The Queen, not a band at all
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Monday, 23, Oct 2006 10:28
Who's Next? As a certain legendary band once asked. We seek to delve into the music industry and come up with a bountiful collection of stars to be. Or is that just wannabes?
This week it's the turn of the next super group, The Good, The Bad & The Queen.
Damon Albarn has never attempted to be agreeable, likeable or understandable. After letting God knows how many organisations promote his new band's Electric Proms appearance he dropped the bombshell that The Good, The Bad & The Queen wasn't actually the name of his new band at all, but the title for his group's new album. The band remains nameless, which leaves only their music to examine and enjoy.
So this nameless and shameless bunch of outlaws is actually Clash bassist Paul Simonon, former Verve guitarist Simon Tong, Tony Allen on drums and Damon Albarn performing piano and vocals. Herculean, the first single to be released by Albarn's new project is an intriguing blend of Thinktank like vocals and pace along with the glitzy production of Danger Mouse. Theoretically this should be the ultimate combination of the likeability of the Gorillaz with the credibility of Blur, however, this is Albarn and things are never that simple. Although Herculean is nothing but brilliant you can't help but think this project is doomed to be shrouded in Albarn's tough and unrelenting exterior. In other words, some of it will sound like Democrazy.
But the signs are good and Herculean doesn't disappoint. It finds the band on the kind of outstanding musical form you'd expect. Albarn's vocal has gone through the kind of distortion present on Feel Good Inc, but his lyrics are sharp and he's back to attacking those who dare to challenge the welfare state. They're clever and intricate words over some gentle piano, and the effect is blinding. It's not Parklife, but it's challenging and compulsively listenable. Every member of the band has played before huge audiences and Albarn chose to launch the band in a Devonshire pub called the Pig's Nose. And why not?
Herculean is released on Parlophone on October 30th.
Karl Pike