The Good, the Bad & the Queen
| The Good, the Bad & the Queen | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Alternative rock |
| founding | 2005 |
| Website | http://www.thegoodthebadandthequeen.com |
| Founding members | |
| Damon Albarn | |
Bass , backing vocals |
Paul Simonon |
| Tony Allen | |
| Simon Tong | |
The Good, the Bad & the Queen is the name of a musical project of Blur - frontman Damon Albarn , also the title of the first album of the band . Originally Albarn had planned a solo album, but in July 2006, according to the New Musical Express (NME) , converted the project into a band with members of his own choosing.
Band history
In the summer of 2004, Damon Albarn, the front man of Blur and inventor of the Gorillaz , began working on a music project with Nigerian drummer Tony Allen and Blur's substitute guitarist Simon Tong . Albarn had the vision of uniting European and African music on one album: "I wanted to make an album to which the English would have access, but where they could also discover exotic new things for themselves." The trio took it performed a few songs in Nigeria, but all pieces lacked a bass part. Albarn asked Paul Simonon , one of The Clash's punk veterans, about this . Simonon has been a painter since the breakup of The Clash and lived just a few streets from Albarn in the Notting Hill district of London . “It's not every day that a genius like Damon Albarn invites you to tea. So I went over to him, and with the first meeting the band was born, ”said Simonon, looking back. In addition, Albarn won the DJ Danger Mouse , who had made a name for himself with Gnarls Barkley , as a producer. In an interview with the Berlin city magazine Zitty , Albarn describes the formation of the band as follows: “We met, hung out more and more often and finally decided to travel to Nigeria. Then I had a little identity crisis down there and came back and Paul Simonon stopped by. So the idea was born. The story was then a bit on hold, because I put in the Gorillaz album ( Demon Days ) in between. "
The Swiss World Week described the music style as follows: “The sound is similar to the dark pop of the second Gorillaz minus hip-hop plus reggae, dub, afrobeat. Always a mixture, never a pure form. "
The first single Herculean was released on October 30, 2006 in the UK. The single was preceded by a performance by the band in the mission Electric Proms the BBC from the reopened Roundhouse in Camden on 26 October. Previously there were three rehearsals in East Prawle at the Pig's Nose Inn , Ilfracombe's Marlboro Club and The Exeter Cavern Club . The debut album The Good, the Bad & the Queen was released in January 2007 on the Parlophone label . Thematically, the record deals with London, the focus is primarily on the western quarters around W 10 and the big topic in these quarters: the coexistence of different cultures and different social classes.
The band gave the second big concert after the Electric Proms performance on December 12, 2006 in “Wilton's Music Hall”, where 300 fans selected by the musicians could see the band as the prelude to the MySpace campaign “The List”. A week before the album was released, a second single, Kingdom of Doom , was released in the UK .
On April 4, 2007, the album The Good, the Bad & the Queen was the first EMI release that was available in the new format without DRM as high-quality MP3 files (320 kbit / s). At the same time, it was the first EMI album that was available on iTunes without copy protection.
In an interview with the NME in early March 2007, Damon Albarn talked about the band's future plans. At the beginning of September 2007 there will be a recording session, the result of which will be published shortly afterwards: “We're going to do another whole recording session in early September. It will be totally different, more funky. We'll try to get it out in early autumn. "(For example:" We will go to a recording studio again at the beginning of September. It will be completely different, more funk- heavy, but also: more extravagant. We will try to publish the results in early autumn. ")
On November 16, 2018, a new album was released with the name Merrie Land . The two songs Merrie Land and Guns to the Head had already been released in advance of this .
Discography
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Herculean (single)
Herculean is the first single from The Good, the Bad & the Queen. It went on sale in the UK on October 30, 2006, but was already available in the iTunes Music Store on October 9 . In the first week, the single was at number 22 on the British singles chart , the next week it crashed to number 72 and was no longer among the top 75 singles the following week. For their musical debut, the band came up with something special: The single was only available in stores for one day, after which it could only be purchased from online music services .
The trade press rated the single positively. So who wrote Q-Mag : "Reminiscent of Blur's stronger moments - think of the ballads, 13 '- or even, it whisper, Radiohead ." (Original: "Much like Blur's weirder moments - think the ballads of 13 - or even, whisper it, Radiohead. ”) The NME also praised:“ Damon [Albarn] draws a mystical London, in the heart of which ghostly, glittering dub landscapes pound. ”(Original:“ Damon pinning for a mythic London while a ghostly, glittering dub-soundscape throbs away beneath him. ")
The promo version of the CD contained the radio and album versions of the song. In addition to Herculean , the vinyl version also features the song Mr. Whippy (with Eslam Jawaad). The song Back in the Day is also available on the digipak edition .
Band member Paul Simonon is responsible for the cover design.
Kingdom of Doom (Single)
Kingdom of Doom was released in the UK on January 15, 2007 as the second single from The Good, the Bad & the Queen. In addition to a conventional CD edition, there are also two different vinyl versions. In addition, a live recording of the song from the concert in the Roundhouse was made available for download.
On the first vinyl version there is a live recording of the song The Good, the Bad & the Queen from the concert in the Tabernacle in addition to the song . The second vinyl version includes Kingdom of Doom and Start Point (Sketches of Devon) . The CD edition includes Hallsands Waltz (Sketches of Devon) and a live recording of The Bunting Song from the concert at the Tabernacle as B-sides .
The cover shows a detailed section of an etching by Wenceslaus Hollar from The Tower of London. In the History of the Nation .
The highest chart position of the single in the British singles charts was number 20.
Green Fields (Single)
The third single from the album The Good, the Bad & the Queen was released in the UK on April 2, 2007. In addition to the digital format as a download, the single was again released in three different physical formats. The CD format contains Green Fields in two versions, England, Summer (In Black & White) Polling Day , and a video for Kingdom of Doom . The single was also released again in two vinyl versions. Part 1 of the vinyl version as green-colored vinyl, part 2 has the black-colored vinyl single in a gatefold cover.
The highest chart position of the single in the British singles charts was number 51.
The Good, the Bad & the Queen (Album)
The self-titled debut album by The Good, the Bad & the Queen was released on January 22, 2007 by EMI subsidiary Parlophone . In Japan it was released on January 17th, in the United States on January 23rd and in Germany on January 26th. A vinyl LP edition was only released in Great Britain. Furthermore, a limited edition was released, which includes a bonus DVD with live recordings of various songs from the performance in the Tabernacle as well as footage from the rehearsals. In Germany, too, the special edition of the album comes with this bonus DVD.
According to the booklet, the record cover shows an excerpt from the painting “The Tower and the Mint” by the painter Thomas Shotter Boys , which was created in the mid- 19th century . In an interview, however, the band stated that the picture was by a painter named Will Banket , who is said to have drawn the burning London mint in the mid- 18th century . The booklet was designed with drawings by Paul Simonon. Pennie Smith , who has photographed for The Clash and other well-known rock groups, is responsible for the band photo .
The feuilletons mostly reacted positively to the album. The Frankfurter Rundschau reported on the “bulky beauty” of the album and explained that there was no getting around the artist Albarn. The Austrian courier wrote: “Simonon's dub-soaked bass lines set the tone and are underpinned by Allen's Afrobeat understanding of rhythm. Albarn packs the whole thing with his song-oriented habitus in a framework that reveals less multicultural attempt than actual identity. From the early psychedelic pop bands of the sixties, to cornerstones of British pop culture such as XTC, The Clash and ultimately also Blur, to African, Indian and Caribbean influences, the pieces of the mosaic that Albarn and Co have put together to create a new image range Süddeutsche Zeitung stated that Albarn was the only one of the Britpop stars to have survived this era artistically unscathed, which is why he can now be mentioned in the same breath as David Bowie and Syd Barrett . The album is outstanding because it is so "quiet and effortless". The taz said that "such strange mixes as Ennio-Morricone-Western twirls, fairground melodies, Afrobeat and bass bombs went perfectly together". The Wiener Zeitung wrote: “The comrades-in-arms in his new project did their job very effortlessly: altruistic, unspectacular, but effective, they build a rhythmic cocoon around the Albarn melodies, which can only develop their seductive power on this solid foundation. "
Merrie Land
On November 16, 2018, Merrie Land , The Good, the Bad & the Queen's second album, was released. It was produced by Tony Visconti .
Individual evidence
- ↑ EMI press release . Accessed on May 31, 2010. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Elan, Priya: Damon Albarn: "I'll Work With Graham" . In: NME . March 3, 2007, p. 8.
- ↑ The Good, The Bad & The Queen: Here the new single "Gun to the Head" including video . Retrieved November 9, 2018.
- ↑ a b Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
- ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
- ↑ The Good, The Bad & The Queen: Merrie Land . Review on musikexpress.de , November 15, 2018, accessed on June 3, 2019.
