The Good, The Bad, or The Somewhere Inbetween?
This, as I'm sure you're aware by now, is the latest musical incarnation of Damon Albarn. The Good, The Bad and The Queen are Paul Simonon, once of The Clash, Simon Tong, former guitarist with The Verve and Albarn's Gorillaz mate Tony Allen on drums.
They debuted the whole of their forth-coming album at the recent BBC Electric Proms and it seems that not everyone who saw them do it was blown away. That doesn't necessarily mean it's poor or disappointing though as, if this first single is anything to go by, the full LP will be a grower.
Initially 'Herculean' washed over me as if I wasn't there, but repeated listens and the radio plays it has been getting has seen it slowly eat away at me. This track is simple, laid back and very melodic. The keyboard hook is especially catchy; the overall tune takes a bit more work though. The vocals have an electronic edge to them such as you'd find on a Gorillaz record, however the music is back to the full band style rather than dance music. Whether their sound can have comparisons drawn to Blur remains to be seen.
Their debut album is due out on January 22 and we're told that lyrically this record should be reminiscent of 'Parklife'.
'Herculean' is delegated the same day of release so don't read too much into any chart position it may gain. As a taster of what might be to come from this band in 2007, it's interesting but I'll reserve judgement on Damon Albarn's latest project until I've heard more.