Albarn excels at using bits and pieces of other genres to create something mellow and hummable. Like many globe-trotting pop stars before him, Mr. "Demon Days" was made with the producer Danger Mouse (who became a cult hero, thanks to his unauthorized remix of Jay-Z's "Black Album" with Beatles samples), and its best moments are its most unobtrusive. The problem was that the concert emphasized all the things that the CD lets you ignore. But surely they couldn't have guessed the circumstances. Perhaps the members of De La Soul always hoped that 17 years later, they would be playing sold-out concerts at the Apollo. Albarn brought out De La Soul, the pioneering hip-hop trio that did its best work in 1989. For the group's recent hit "Feel Good Inc.," Mr. Albarn's taste in rap is a bit more old-fashioned than that. There were plenty of hip-hop guests at Sunday's show, although none of them were wearing G Unit medallions. The first Gorillaz CD, titled after the band and made in collaboration with the producer Dan Nakamura (known as the Automator), included the pop hit "Clint Eastwood." The song was so popular that it earned an unlikely tribute: in his autobiography, "From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens," 50 Cent says that seeing the "Clint Eastwood" video inspired him to name his group G Unit, after Gorillaz. With Gorillaz, he has tackled perhaps his toughest challenge yet: few genres are as unfriendly to dabblers as hip-hop is. Albarn pulled the remaining members together for "Think Tank," a hazy, propulsive, grown-up-sounding album that might just be the band's finest moment. And as his once-bratty band, Blur, seemed to be disintegrating, Mr. He knew how easily a British Afro-pop album could go wrong, but he traveled to Mali anyway, and the result was a clever and lovely CD, "Mali Music," made in collaboration with Toumani Diabaté and Afel Bocoum. Albarn has spent much of this decade facing long odds, and usually beating them.
Listen to some of the best new recordings here. Classical Music: 2021 was a year of reawakening for the art form.Jazz Albums: Even the big-statement albums this year had a feeling of intense closeness.Pop Albums: Recordings with big feelings and room for catharsis made the most powerful connections.Best Songs: A posthumous political statement and a superstar’s 10-minute redo are among the 66 best tracks of 2021.And the genre-hopping, guest-filled concert was much the same, only without the charm.įrom Lil Nas X to Mozart to Esperanza Spalding here is what we loved listening to this year. The album is alternately charming and exasperating. The concert was billed as "Demon Days Live," after the group's hit 2005 album, "Demon Days" (Virgin), which has sold 1.8 million copies in the United States. Hewlett's animation was missing on Sunday night, at the first of five sold-out Gorillaz concerts at the Apollo Theater. Albarn makes Gorillaz tracks in collaboration with guests from the world of hip-hop and beyond the illustrator Jamie Hewlett has created cartoon characters to be the public face of this intentionally faceless group.īut Mr.
Albarn, the longtime singer for the great British band Blur, is better known, these days, as the leader of Gorillaz, a musical project that resists the very notion of bandhood. A big setback, especially for those unfathomable people who actually enjoy watching cartoon apes.
So the show would have to proceed without the benefit of cartoon apes. "It's always euphemistically called 'technical problems,' " Damon Albarn began, and he sounded truly glum.