Gorillaz - The Fall
RAJ: Why did Damon Albarn insist on calling this thing, obviously more of a doodle he used to kill tour bus time than any real kind of song collection, an album? I'd like to think it's a way of getting out of some "must release six albums" kind of contractual obligation with this totally free release, because that would neatly fit my view of Albarn as a super-cool rockstar-icon screw-The-Man kind of bro. In any case, this thing probably has the most value as a tech demo - Albarn put this together using only a few select instruments and a wide variety of iPad apps, and by those standards, the production quality is shockingly good, probably on par with the traditionally-recorded-in-studio Plastic Beach. Of course, there isn't much actual songwriting going on here. These are more early demos than crafted songs, although there's a few select tracks that are catchy enough that they merit revisiting. That said, I'm still pretty happy that this was even released. Albarn is obviously closer to the hip-hop world than a lot of his peers, and this feels like his emulation of the mixtape trend - just unleashing unrefined creativity to the world for free, not unlike Lil Wayne spitting from the dome. It would be a more interesting world if more rock stars gave us unrestricted access into their instinctive creative impulses.
Gorillaz - "Revolving Doors"
Gorillaz - "Hillbilly Man"
James Blake - s/t
RAJ: As Troy pointed out in the comments a few days ago, the real question with James Blake's debut full-length was what relation it would have to the three great EPs he put out over the past year. Somewhat disappointingly, the answer is that he pretty much abandoned the R&B-influenced off-kilter dance tracks of the CMYK EP and the electronic atmospherics of The Bells Sketch EP completely. The self-titled album sounds entirely like an extension of his Klavierwerke EP- subtle electronic manipulations of Blake himself singing and playing piano. Burial comparisons have been thrown out for this Blake mode, but it might be more accurate to point towards spare indie rockers like Bon Iver and The XX.
The album does start off very strongly, with three tracks that exhibit a really effective version of Blake's ghostly-vocals-bouncing-around-inside-a-machine aesthetic. The click-stutter beat in "Unluck" is the one solid groove here, while "Wilhelm's Scream" and "I Never Learnt to Share" modulate and warp repeated mantras to mesmerizing effect. The latter track in particular repeats the phrase "My brother and my sister don't speak to me - but I don't blame her", and there's this tremendously moving point where the last "her" becomes a "them", a minor switch that speaks volumes and is also accompanied by a sweet outro.
But after those first few tracks (which, not coincidentally, would have been a fantastic EP by themselves), the album quickly starts to get a little too same-y. There's a few blown-up test tubes in the more electronic tracks that follow, and there's also a group of tracks which are really just Blake singing and playing acoustic piano ballads only the smallest discernible electronic influences - and while the guy has a decent voice, it's not really enough to make those spare tracks particularly interesting. There's definitely enough in this album to show that Blake has immense promise, but I'm having trouble fathoming why he seemed intent on limiting himself, given the awesome things he's been able to achieve in a wide variety of other genres and subgenres.
James Blake - "Unluck"
James Blake - "I Never Learnt to Share"
Unluck is r good
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