The Good, The Bad, & The Queen - The Good, The Bad, & The QueenAfter several plays all the way through, I have to agree with the pre-release buzz about this album's likeable uniqueness and eclectic nature. As you'd expect from a band made up of members of Blur, The Verve, and The Clash, and especially on an album admittedly made as "a tribute to West London", the disc oozes Britishness. Not Brit-pop per se, nor tunes tailor-made for Radio One, but songs that could have come from no other spot on a global map.
Produced by Danger Mouse, the dozen songs in this set feature some echo-y strings here, a few Beatlesy hooks there, touches of dub, doo-wop, Morricone-Western, jazz, psychedelia, and Paul Simonon's throbbing basslines high in the mix throughout.
Not as immediate as a Blur album, and not as free-wheeling as a Gorillaz record, The Good, The Bad, & The Queen is more of an arty pastiche, but one of those rare enjoyable arty pastiches that are all too uncommon in music. This disc proves (at least to me) that , love him or hate him, Damon Albarn is not only a musical daredevil, but probably one of pop music's few true visionaries.
The Good, The Bad, & The Queen Tour Dates:
March 11th Toronto - Kool Haus
March 12th New York - Webster Hall
(tickets on sale Wednesday, February 7 at Noon here)
March 14th Washington DC - 930
March 16th Austin - Stubbs(SXSW)
March 18th New Orleans - Republic
April 28rd Coachella
The Good, The Bad, & The Queen - Green Fields (Live):
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