Damon Albarn: Democrazy (Honest Jon's/2003)

Damon Albarn, he of Blur and Gorillaz fame, did what many touring musicians do. He recorded demos of songs in various hotel rooms across the United States. However, unlike the majority of them, he went ahead and released these sketch-like recordings, warts and all.

Recorded in 2003 on Blur's Think Tank tour, these fourteen songs on two ten-inch disks all contain a humble-sounding listenable quality. But this isn't the sort of thing you're going to return to very many times. Drum programs, acoustic guitar, organ and vocals are what you hear. And the songs were recorded simply as just a means of capturing an idea on tape to be worked on further.

Of these songs, "I Need A Gun" went on to become known as "Dirty Harry" by Gorillaz. The remainder apparently never went further than the demo stage.

The artwork on the vinyl itself is beautiful and the die-cut packaging is very nice. So it is collectible for this and this alone. Otherwise, for Damon Albarn/Blur/Gorillaz completeists only.

Here's the video review:

Blur: Think Tank (Parlophone/2003)

Blur's 2003 album Think Tank was both a personal landmark for it's experimentation as it was a sad, disappointing finale to the band's first part of it's career. It made over a dozen best-album of the year lists yet, it's a far cry from what makes people connect with Blur. Their blend of diverse guitar-based Britpop is as inventive-sounding now as it was popular in the UK then. Guitarist Graham Coxon was fired during the recording of the album and only appears on the sad, but beautiful “Battery In Your Leg”. The album does suffer as a result of his absence.

The singles were “Out Of Time”,“Crazy Beat” and “Good Song”. “Out Of Time” is one of the band's best ballads and it remains the lone long from the album that the band still regularly performs live. “Crazy Beat” is a Fatboy Slim-produced song and sounds like a stab at writing something along the lines of “Song 2”, but doesn’t really register. “Good Song” is in fact a good song. It has a sweet, poignant melody and is a stand-out on the album. A good amount of the album are murky, low-key grooves that work some of the time (namely on “Ambulance” and “On The Way To The Club”. There are some throwaways (“We've Got A File On You” and “Jets”) and some worthwhile moments (“Sweet Song” and “Battery In Your Leg”).

Think Tank is not a great starting place to discover who Blur is (that would be Best Of Blur, The Great Escape and Modern Life Is Rubbish). And lead singer Damon Albarn and bassist Alex James have since someone disowned the album. However it is an interesting experimental album that does work at least some of the time.

Here's the video review:

Special Thanks: Rebecca Parker.