Everyday Robots
by Damon Albarn

From meruizh 05/23/2014 18:40 | #112776 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Sorry, but this is a fantastic album, so melancholistic and deep at some points. Photographs is one of the best songs of the year. Then you have upbeats like Mr Tembo, which is a perfected crafted song. Best album of 2014 so far.

In my opinion, Albarn has yet to make a bad album. As a huge fan of 13 and Think Tank, I already love this album. It's a strange, beautiful, somber, and relaxing album along the lines of later Blur. Very atmospheric, a sort of rainy day album. Even if it does get a little monotonous near the end, this album ranks right next to Damon's best albums.

From paladisiac TOP 100 COMMENTER 04/24/2014 21:06 | #109979 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Damon Albarn has now cornered the new subgenre known as BritMopePop. This is one dreary sounding album. I think Damon is a great talent, and you can hear it within "everyday robots", but i feel really bad for him as a result of how he sounds on this album and wish he'd just put himself out of his (and my, for listening) misery.

To say I was a tad disappointed isn't an overstatement, because I kind of was. Not that this is a bad album, it really isn't, but it isn't really great either.
He seems to mope from one track to the next (except of course for the fantastically fun Mr Tembo- no matter how cliched it may seem). Some tracks it works well on, some it doesn't, particularly the opening and title track "everyday robots" which, to me, is the album's first mistake in allowing it to be the opener, when it certainly isn't opener-material.
However, Albarn really hits the nail on the head with some unlikely gems such as the 7 minute journey "You and Me" which is some of his best composition and songwriting work since Plastic Beaches.
"The selfish giant" is another standout but does little to make up for the trivial-sadness that exudes from Albarn and eventually swallows most of the album, especially on the would-be tearjerker "Lonely press play".
Like I said, it's not bad but it aint exactly great either. I can see the potential and the immense talent he has (being a Blur fan myself), but not the grand payoff that seemed to be promised. 7/10

From andy_hunter TOP 100 COMMENTER 04/23/2014 13:47 | #109836 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I'd say this is Albarn's most organic piece of work to date. Its down-beat, down to earth, very cool. AOTY so far.