It's been 20 years now since Blur hit the big time internationally with that slice of Duran Duran-inspired dance pop 'Girls and Boys.' Frontman Damon Albarn has been through many musical incarnations: Blur, Gorillaz, The Good, the Bad, and the Queen, and now a debut solo album 25 years into the music biz.
Everyday Robots is a mellow affair. In a way, it's like Albarn's own version of Bjork's Vespertine: quiet, sparkly, intimate, hushed - with field recordings of children playing, simple percussion, and his trademark melancholia still intact.
Albarn sings a lot about disconnection, non-connection, and technology taking us away from each other instead of closer together. Not entirely the most original lyrical idea, but he is an adept lyricist at this point and all the descriptive details really set the songs above hum-drum talking points.
Plaintive piano and acoustic guitar are some of the main sounds on the album, which only slightly breaks the formula on the upbeat 'Mr. Tembo' adding a gospel choir and a lively pulse that is absent from a lot of the rest of the collection.
Some of my favorite Albarn songs are the ballads: Blur's 'To the End' and 'The Universal,' Gorillaz' 'Empire Ants,' and The Good, the Bad's... 'Kingdom of Doom' to name just a few. The addition of downtempo Damon is right up my alley.
One of my favorite albums of the year so far.
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