Damon Albarn Preps New Solo Album And Tour, Offers Blur Album Update
In an exclusive new Rolling Stone interview, Damon Albarn reveals that he's completed a new solo album (his first if you discount last year's Dr. Dee) with XL Recordings head Richard Russell, who most recently co-produced Bobby Womack's The Bravest Man In The Universe with Albarn last spring. Perhaps more importantly, though, he also offered up an update on the preposterously overdue new Blur record that may or may not be in the works.
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Damon Albarn (Sort Of) Confirms Blur Will Record New Album In Hong Kong
Bands have formed, released albums and broken up in the time Blur has spent deliberating whether they will or won't record a follow-up to 2003's sans Graham Coxon swan song Think Tank. Has Damon Albarn finally made up his mind this time? Certainly sounds like it: at a concert in Hong Kong last night, Albarn reportedly announced the cancellation of an upcoming Japanese tour leg, adding: "So we have a week in Hong Kong, and we thought it would be a good time to try and record another record."
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Now, I know, a week doesn't seem like much time to record a new album… especially one with such towering expectations… but ...
Okay, some facts we know about Blur: they haven't recorded an album in almost 10 years (more than that if you don’t count 2003's Graham Coxon-less Think Tank). They reunited properly for a handful of festival gigs in 2009. They released the one-off Record Store Day single "Fool's Day" in 2010. They performed at this year's BRIT Awards. A new single called "Under The Westway" was recorded with William Orbit earlier this year. They'll be performing in London's Hyde Park as part of the Summer Olympics closing festivities.
...Oh, and if you can believe Damon Albarn, they won't be writing, recording or performing together after that August 12 appearance. Ever.
Fans of Albarn absolutely must read John Harris's devastating new piece in The Guardian, in which Damon responds to the question of whether Blur will ever release another album or play another concert together with a resounding, "No, I don't think so… No, not really."
He adds, "And I hope that's the truth: that that's how we end it. I don't know: you can write scripts, and they always end up going… [pause]… well, one thing I've learned, and I'm sure you're exactly the same, is that everything I think I've got totally sorted out, and I know exactly what's going to happen – it never works out that way…"
If that's not enough of a blow to the gut for you, Albarn also details his extensive (although clearly not debilitating) addiction to heroin in the late '90s and more or less shoots down the notion of ever working with Jamie Hewlett on another Gorillaz project ever again. Gee, not exactly how I wanted to kickstart my weekend, Damon. Golly!
You can read the complete Guardian interview right here. If you don't mind, I'm going to go listen to 13 in my room and mope around for a bit.
Do you think Blur (and Gorillaz) are really done for good? Leave your two cents in the comments section below. Cheers.
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