Happy birthday, Damon Albarn!
The “Damon Appreciation Article”
Talented musician, frontman and expensive bell owner of Gorillaz Damon Albarn has turned 50 last March. The man has put out over 30 albums with the projects he worked on over the years, and has written a couple of musicals and operas in his spare time. There’s no other way (I’m so sorry for this joke) to celebrate a musical genius’e 50ths year on Earth than have fans pick out their favorite songs of his.
Editor’s note: This article was inspired by the similar one Q Magazine did in their May 2018 issue. And, let’s pretend this zine was released in March…
Intermission
Blur, Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993) — chosen by Hunce
I really enjoy ‘Intermission’ for a couple reasons. The fact that this song was sneakily put on in the middle of the album as a hidden track for the song ‘Chemical World’ off the album Modern Life is Rubbish and its addition to the album was possibly an afterthought.
Intermission is a nice two minute and a half jam that starts out with Damon playing a nice little tune on a piano and then slowly descends into a fast pace chaos once Graham Coxon starts playing the guitar. The song then later speeds up so fast it just goes of rails until it picks itself back up where it once started with Damon on the piano.
Every Planet We Reach Is Dead
Gorillaz, Demon Days (2005) — chosen by Robert (Succ)
Demon Days has some of Gorillaz’s best work on it, and Every Planet We Reach Is Dead is probably the first Gorillaz song that really got me hooked on this band. The mix of piano, synth, and that sexy, sexy guitar is a recipe for a song that has a unique somber yet sleazy sounding feel, one that is distinct even among the varied work of Gorillaz. Damon’s love-lorn lyrics are solid and fit the soundscape that has been created very well. This song paints a vivid picture in my mind, which consists of a late-night seedy bar with few patrons, dimly lit and a place where time seems to be a little slower than the rest of the world. I’m sure this song would be improved with some alcohol as well. Someone take me to that bar.
Ticker Tape
Gorillaz, Humanz (2017) — chosen by Must
I would never say Gorillaz’s newest album ‘Humanz’ is exactly my favorite of their albums, it has its problems for sure but then again, most things do and that’s a good thing. But one of it’s biggest highs of all the tracks in my eyes is on the album’s deluxe edition, with a little song titled ‘Ticker Tape’. A song that brings flavors and trademarks from each phase of the band’s life, this slower tune gives us the breather that the album really needs and it’s incredibly welcomed.
The song is about a ticker tape parade where nobody comes out, and that makes it tragic in a way, but the beauty of Damon’s crooning yet melancholic vocals mixed with Carly’s gentle vocals (with backing from Kali) makes it one of the most beautiful on the album but also in the entire discography. It gives us the profound lyrics that Damon is known for, plus some nice live bass from the band’s former bassist Junior Dan, it’s a very nice mix of the best of each phase’s more somber side and that is why it just may be my favorite of Damon’s work. (For now that is, keep shittin’ them out you beautiful man)
Demon Days
Gorillaz, Demon Days (2005) — chosen by Jordan Powers
I must say, it is very difficult to pick one particular favorite Damon song, but if I had to choose, then my favorite Damon song out of his entire discography is Demon Days.
While Damon’s strongest areas are usually within the context of the music itself, this song contains some of Damon’s most profound and thought provoking lyrics. It’s as personal as it is a reflection of the world around him, as it covers many of the struggle he’s encountered throughout his adult life and many of the demons in life as a whole, which is why it’s the perfect closer to sum up a phenomenal, timeless classic of an album whose message is just as relevant now as it was 13 years ago.
It’s a song with an important message of hope and optimism in a world with so much suffering and hardship, which makes it the perfect way to close such a consistently somber and dark album. With the optimism and brightness contrasting the rest of the album, the song is like the ‘answer’ to the questions being asked in the previous tracks. To this day, it is still one of the most beautifully poignant pieces of music that I’ve ever heard, and will surely stay that way for a very long time.
Trimm Trabb
Blur, 13 (1999) — chosen by Hughesta
13 is an incredible significant album in Damon’s career. Recorded after a horrid breakup with his girlfriend, and during a time of intense personal conflict between the band member’s themselves, it’s the harshest, meanest, creepiest, and darkest album Damon Albarn had made at this point in his career, and even now it stands head and shoulders over some of the other darker records in Damon’s catalogue (The Fall, Everyday Robots) as the most sonically crushing. There are heavier songs musically on 13, and heavier songs lyrically, but no song combines the two as well as late-album cut Trimm Trabb.
The song starts with nothing more than an eerie piano and bass loop and some very ominous vocals. Once the main forward progression of the song kicks in, Damon delivers some of the most emotionally-bereft vocals of his career, as he talks about being a loner in a society that’s become more and more focused on flash and panache. The song grows in scale like a tapeworm, delivering more groove and subtle details as it goes further on and on and on and on, droning methodically and uncomfortably until it suddenly explodes in an awesome rebellion of noise and violence.
Damon’s lyrics don’t change, but his voice is filtered with menace and disgust, and as the ending draws nearer Graham Coxon turns his guitar into a wailing banshee, screaming into an empty void for love and warmth. But it doesn’t come, and the song ends the way it began, with eerie pianos, bass, and indiscernible vocals where the only clear meaning is regret.
Miss America
Blur, Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993) — chosen by Mutant Standard
Miss America is my favorite Damon song because it conveys this weird sense of melancholy that I find charming and endearing when he does it, and it’s from my favorite Blur album.
End of a Century
Blur, Parklife (1994) — chosen by ana
It’s funny how much you can relate to a song written so long ago, a song about the coming of a new era… The years come and go, people change and grow, but the feelings and emotions continue the same.
I’m a big fan of Damon’s lyric writing, of his ability to transform feelings into words, and, I think End of a Century is a great example of both. Together with his delivery (and of course, with the rest of Blur) the song really expresses this strange feeling of loneliness and sadness, in which things that should be important just feel empty of meaning, and that hits close to home. It’s a very special song for me.
Jamie Hewllet (artist, music video director, designer and many other things) has also turned 50 recently, on the 3rd of April of this year. He has created Phoo Action, and is the co-creator of Gorillaz and Tank Girl. In his spare time, Jamie has designed limited edition bottles for Absolut Vodka, worked on the opera Monkey’s Journey To The West with Damon Albarn and designed vibrators (I’m not kidding, look it up!).
Saturday Come Slow
Massive Attack, Heligoland (2010) — chosen by RotoDisk
I have heard many songs by our great overlord, Damon, that I thoroughly enjoy, but my favorite would have to be Saturday Come Slow from the album Heligoland. While this would generally be considered a Massive Attack song, Damon provides some of the most stunning vocals I have ever heard. Combined with Massive Attack’s beautiful, moving instrumentals, this track instantly tugged my heart strings and took me to a magical place.
My favorite lyric from this song would have to be, “In the limestone caves…” because I automatically envisioned myself in a limestone cave thanks to Damon and Massive Attack’s ambient, breathtaking and mesmerizing duet.
We Got a File on You
Blur, Think Tank (2003) — choosen by RadRighteous
So imagine this: you’re listening to the already amazing album Think Tank, with such bangers and tasty tracks, when, between two tasty tracks, there is this small 45 second song, with a badass build-up, some badass guitars, and lots of yelling, which by association, is badass. It almost feels like a theme song for a stylized action cartoon in the early 2000’s. I love it and I love you reader, but not enough to keep writing. Sorry.
Rockit
Gorillaz, D-Sides (2007) — chosen by Semendayz
My favorite Albarn song – as well as Gorillaz song, for that matter – is Rockit. Rarely do you see a song so willingly experimental, that it actively devalues itself. Meaningless lyrics, droning music, hardly any soul whatsoever; a perfect mirror image of the pop music it intends to parody. …Wait, I just remembered Doncamatic exists. That counts, right?!