Damon Albarn, one of the world's most versatile musician

    If you ever go out or spend a little bit of your time on Internet, you may have heard once feel good inc, or, if you're lucky, Song 2. These two songs would have never existed without Damon Albarn. And that already tells a lot about the man he is.

 

    1989, London, Damon Albarn creates Seymour with Graham Coxon, his school friend, Alex James and Dave Rowntree. They rapidly changes the band's name to Blur and in 1990, they release their first single, She's so high, which reaches number 48 in the UK singles chart. But it is in 1991, with their second single There's no other way which becomes a hit, peaking at number eight, that they get famous in the UK. They then release their first album, Leisure, and their second, Modern life is rubbish in 1993. Blur is now most known by Parklife, their third and best album, released in 1994. Parklife is representative of Blur's original style and contains two of Blur's biggest hits : Parklife and Girls & Boys.

     In the mid 90s, while grunge is thriving and everyone is listening to Nirvana, wearing flannel shirts and destroyed jeans, Blur is creating their own new genre, becoming one of the biggest group of the 90s and icons of Britpop. In 1995, Blur and their greatest rivals, Oasis, are both releasing their single the same day, to finally know who is the best english band. The sales say it all : Blur, with Country House, beats Oasis. They officially are the best english band. (Or at least for some time. Blur won the battle but many argue Oasis won the war later on, but that is another whole debate).

Blur members

    It could have stopped here : Damon Albarn, frontman of the best english band. But history tells us more. In 1998, Damon is watching MTV. He is terribly deceived with the music industry he finds superficial and lacking of authenticity. That's how he have a revolutionary idea. With his cartoonist roommate Jamie Hewlett, he creates Gorillaz, the world's first “virtual” band. The concept is totally new to the music industry : Damon and Jamie gave life to an imaginary band, with imaginary cartoon members and completely new music and concept. This is the occasion for Damon Albarn to make the kind of music he possibly couldn't with Blur. Gorillaz is a new concept open to every genres of music : rap, pop, reggae, and more. Since Gorillaz (so really just Damon Albarn) cannot be a proper band on its own, it is based off multiple featurings with very different artists : Snoop Dogg, Elton John, Lou reed, Sparks, De La Soul, Tame Impala and much more great musicians.

    Since Gorillaz features so many different genres and artists, their albums and songs are all very different and unique, not like any other's. Gorillaz might be a virtual band but it is still a band. So Damon and Jamie Hewlett created its fictional members : 2D, Noodle, Murdoc and Russel. Gorillaz's concerts are also quite special : there are musicians (obviously) but also holograms of the fictionnal band's members.

 

Demon days cover with the band members on it

From up left to down right :

Murdoc, 2D, Noodle, Russel

 

    I almost forgot to mention that after Blur, Damon had another band : The Good, The Bad and The Queen (TGTBTQ). With four famous musicians : Paul Simonon, The Clash's bassist, The Verve's ex guitarist Simon Tong, Fela Kuti's drummer, Tony Allen and Damon Albarn, TGTBTQ is a real supergroup. Despite the popularity of each member's ex band, TGTBTQ did not have as big an impact as Gorillaz or Blur on the music world.

    Damon Albarn also have his own solo career, even though he alone is much less famous than his bands. His solo songs are more personal, melancholic (I personally don't really listen to them (sorry Damon) but if you like calm song that feels like sleeping by a river you should check his latest album), offering once again a totally different genre to bless your ears.

Thank you for reading my article ! If I convinced you to listen to Damon Albarn's music, here are some song recommendations :

Blur : Song 2, Charmless man, Country House, Beetlebum, End of a century, Good song...

Gorillaz : Every single song is good, maybe start by listening to Plastic Beach (the album) and as for some songs recommendations i'd say New Gold, Rock the House, El Manana, Dare...

I don't really listen to TGTBTQ and Damon Albarn's solo songs but I'd like to hear your recommendations if you have any !

PS: Gorillaz is releasing a new album in March so if you like my article please send money so I could see them live! (Just kidding oviously. I will just probably sell a kidney if I need to)