The Good, The Bad & The Queen - The Good, The Bad & The Queen

Released: 2007

Label: Parlophone, Honest Jon's

When I bought: 2007

Damon Albarn plus Paul Simonon from The Clash plus Simon Tonge from The Verve plus Tony Allen who helped create the Afrobeat genre.

A pretty strong 'supergroup'.

I listened to this album perhaps twice when I bought it in 2007 and remember being really bored by it.

Now I'm older, greyer and generally less angry at the world, would a re-listen spark joy?

No.

Urgh. This album is just so dull. First of all, the mix is terrible. I get that when you have the bass player from The Clash you want to hear him, but the bass just dominates the sound.

As a result, Albarn's vocals are buried for much of the album, and the melodies aren't strong enough to hold the attention.

The album is primarily led by piano and acoustic guitar, and Albarn is trying his full 'I'm an authentic geezer' act, but it feels likes no one is really pushing themselves.

This album was adored by critics at the time. I don't get it. To me, it's just four guys sitting around making not particularly interesting music.

Everyone involved in this has done much better stuff. It just made me want to listen to Blur or The Clash or The Verve.

The best tracks... erm, '80's Life' has a 60s doo wop feel, and even a bit of The Libertines vibe.

'A Soldier's Tale' is a nice enough tune, while 'Three Changes' is the most interesting, with a bit of energy evident and some great drumming making it stand apart from the other tracks.

The final song - 'The Good, The Bad & The Queen' - has a predictable rush to the end with everything happening all at once.

No songs stick in the mind. The production by Danger Mouse is rarely interesting.

But I'm sure everyone had a lovely time making it.

Park life!

4/10

Comments

Pointless Nostalgic – Jamie Cullum

Year Released: 2002 Label: Candid Year Bought: Can't Remember Jamie Cullum burst into the nation's consciousness with a performance on Parkinson in April 2003, a showing that was soon followed by the huge-selling album 'Twentysomething'. It was 2002's 'Pointless Nostalgic' that put Cullum on Parky's radar, and shows the jazz singer and pianist beginning to hone the act that would make him such a breakthrough. There's a host of standards here – 'In The Wee Small Hours of The Morning'. 'It Ain't Necessarily So', 'I Can't Get Started' – alongside a couple of originals and a cover of Radiohead's 'High And Dry'. I remember that song being a big deal at the time for some reason. I think it was seen as rare merging of jazz and alt-rock. Cullum's version is not bad, and actually keeps it quite light and subdued without slipping into a dirge. Cullum was just 23 when this was recorded, and perhaps it's his yo...

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

Year Released: 2004 Label: Domino Year Bought: 2004 January 2004. I'd just quit uni. Was back at the family home in Bishop's Stortford. The place I'd been so desperate to get away from, and I was back and already bored. And then things got a bit less boring. I remember this so clearly. I was having a shower and the radio was on, and on came 'Take Me Out'. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. At first I thought it must be an old tune that had passed me by, but no, it was announced as a new song by a band called Franz Ferdinand. It sounded glorious. It sounded interesting. After the staleness of the post-Britpop years, and beigeness of Coldplay, Travis et al, there was actually a British band doing something interesting. I loved it, and when the album came out the next month, I gobbled it up with glee. Listening back now, and I still love it. The hushed opening of 'Jacqueline', the sleaze of 'The Dark of the Matinee', the homoeroticism of 'M...

Ringleader Of The Tormentors – Morrissey

Year Released: 2006 Label: Sanctuary Year Bought: 2006 Released in 2006, 'Ringleader of the Tormentors' in many ways represents the apex of the Morrissey resurgence that began two years earlier with 'You Are The Quarry'. Whereas that album peaked at number 2 in the album chart (although it did spawn 4 top ten singles), its successor gave Morrissey his first number 1 album since 1994's 'Vauxhall and I'. 'Ringleaders...' raised some eyebrows at the time as Morrissey sang explicitly about something he had previously made a virtue of not discussing. His sex life. "There are exploding kegs between my legs," he sings on 'Dear God Please Help Me' – a tune that swells and grows to a climax with strings written by Ennio Morricone. "Now I'm spreading your legs with mine in between," he later adds. Perhaps this new found desire of the flesh was due to this album being recorded in Italy, and references to the country season the ...

All The Records I've Ever Owned

Search This Blog