Dr Dee

Being as manly as I am I have been building and putting up shelves, and it was Damon Albarn's new album 'Dr Dee' that accompanied me. The users of Twitter will know how excited I have been for this album and Albarn has not disappointed.

It's a strange one, I'll say that now - with opera style vocals looping in and out from, what seems like, nowhere. The instrumentation has me feeling as though I'm in a dream, I could feel  my eyes closing as I listened closely - not to say that this album is boring, it's far from it! But the reverb, flutes, vocals, and many other features have you so relaxed that it's hard to keep your eyes open.

I do love a good concept album, especially if the story line is an interesting one. Through the album I tended to question who was this Dr Dee character? When I first heard the album I thought it was a collaboration with a rapper (then soon realizing that I must have been thinking of Dr Dre), it's hard to gather up the story thoroughly when some songs are sang in foreign languages but from what I have gathered it is mystical. 'Apple Carts' is the one that has me thinking back to those obscure days where people danced and chanted around Stone Henge with flutes and bells, I can just imagine Albarn sat in the middle of their circles with his acoustic guitar and singing to their chants.

Speaking of instrumentation, it is fantastic, it reminds me of Sgt Pepper's (The Beatles) in that sense, especially the dramatic orchestral intervals. I've never heard anything like this, it's what the music world needs right now, a completely weird album that has everyone thinking. 'Watching the fire the waltzed away' - even the title has you pondering at what one earth this song could be about, 'Marvelous dream' is a brief description of what this album is; a marvelous dream. Only those with warped minds will truly find the enjoyment from it, but I'm completely convinced that anyone who is a fan of Blur, the Gorillaz, African music, or British folk will find immense enjoyment out of it and completely understand and agree with anything I have said.

Well done Damon Albarn, you utter, utter legend.

Damon Albarn

As I've explained before; I'm going through a huge Damon Albarn buzz at the moment, with all this excitement of his new album. I love the man, I think his voice is great - it's not the most amazing voice, nor the most distinctive, but it's memorable - I know that I can remember each time I've listened to Blur, I just get taken away by that voice of his, it's so soft and calming but then it can change into something high energy that can get you pumped for anything. The way his voice softens when he holds an acoustic guitar in his hands is beautiful, it's what the voice of Albarn suits in his older years, none of that high energy 'Song 2' stuff - it's not something he can pull of anymore but still we love to hear him sing it, don't we!?

Albarn has a very strange and mystical was of telling stories through his lyrics, which is shown more through his later years with the Gorillaz and now on his solo venture with 'Dr Dee'. In the early days of Blur his lyrics echoed the works of the Kinks, telling tales of what it is to be British and young - making the nineties audience feel patriotic again. We need that back, I do love his weird tales of manatees and apples but we need Albarn to have us feel proud to be British again, which will happen.

I know it will, Olympic Ceremony? I think so. 

Damon Albarn - Dr Dee.

Just pre-ordered Damon Albarn's new album, can't wait to give it a listening too. I've been excited about hearing it since his appearance on Jools Holland, and from the songs I've heard it will be a good one!

Parklife!

I've been listening to this quite a bit today so here you go, happy Blurmas!

Shitelife! (The Brits 2012)

What a sham of a night. Really, really not great - not compared to how it used to be but I could put that down to the state of British music these days. James Corden, I have to say, did a great job of presenting the ceremony, as he did last year, and I'm hoping that maybe next year he will be back to present it  (that's if I even bother watching it).

Best male artist, Ed Sheeran? Are you having a giraffe? I only know one of his songs, that one about prostitutes and pastry and I'm sorry but that does not qualify for a Brit award - I could write a song about a whore going into Greggs. And who were presenting these awards? Plan B didn't even know where hell he was, Kylie Minogue looked like a bruise in that dress, and George Michael - well, what a boring bugger. What happened to people like Roger Daltrey presenting awards?! People who actually made British music to be proud of. Those days are long gone.

Adele's performance was nothing on her performance last year, she sounded a lot different this year - her voice was a lot deeper and kind of ruined the song. Still, one of the top performances of the night along with Noel Gallagher's fabulous performance of 'Aka what a life!' - I can safely say Mr Gallagher was the only one who gave a great live performance. And Blur? Well I must say, I was looking forward to their performance all night, but they were pretty poor and disappointing too. Damon Albarn sounded so strained, like he was forcing the words out of himself and Dave Rowntree's drumming was nothing to be proud of, he kept it tight but it just wasn't Blur sounding - it sounded half arsed. Phil Daniels though, what a fella, honest to God legend who is the only person who can be described to have 'swagger', I have to say I squealed little when he came out. But I have to say I was half expecting Liam Gallagher to jump on stage and start to singing 'Shitelife' - I'd have probably sang along with it too.

The thing I'm mainly pissed off about is the fact that their better performances of songs were cut short and made to be shown on ITV2, did anyone manage to catch them? What a turn around, that performance of 'Tender' was just beautiful, the choir made it what it was. And that's it, Albarn is just getting too old for 'Parklife' and 'Song 2', so is Graham Coxon - though I've always thought that his voice never went particularly well with Albarn's. The top performance was of 'This is low', it was just astounding to think that you were watching the same band who were five minutes ago doing nothing but disappointing me.

Apparently there's been some controversy with Adele getting cut short? My God British public, 16 years ago controversy at the Brits was Jarvis Cocker mooning Michael Jackson!