+- Music Discussion (https://www.music-discussion.com)
+-- Forum: Music Discussion (https://www.music-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Classical/Opera/Modern Classical/World Music (https://www.music-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=16)
+--- Thread: Damon Albarn - Dr. Dee (/showthread.php?tid=6983)
Damon Albarn - Dr. Dee - Music Head - 13-05-2012
online listen
was leaving this open for CH, but he opted out
consider yourself spared mate
I shoulda known better
billed as an opera soundtrack
from Blur to this
go figure
1.2 from me and a converted 1.8 from the pros at allmusic
from the album - The Marvelous Dream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0PFZ06YYgI
released May 8th, 2012
![[Image: s21494ffat8.jpg]](http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drs200/s214/s21494ffat8.jpg)
Bio - from allmusic
As the frontman for Blur and Gorillaz, Damon Albarn helped shape the British mainstream during the '90s and beyond,
first establishing himself as a Brit-pop icon before expanding into hip-hop, opera, electronica, and world music.
Born in London on March 23, 1968, he was raised in a bohemian household, studying a number of instruments (piano,
guitar, and violin) during his youth and befriending Graham Coxon, a fellow student at the Stanway Comprehensive
School, as a 12 year-old. Albarn later studied drama before joining the little-known synth pop outfit Two's a Crowd;
at 15, he also won the regional heat in the Young Composer of the Year contest. While a student at Goldsmith
University, he again crossed paths with guitarist Coxon, and together they formed a band called the Circus. With the
additions of bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree, the group rechristened itself Seymour before finally
settling on Blur upon signing to Food Records. Their debut single, "She's So High," cracked the U.K. Top 50, while
the follow-up, "There's No Other Way," went as high as the Top Ten; however, the baggy beats and shoegazer-inspired
textures of Blur's 1991 debut album, Leisure, earned the band unkind critical comparisons to the dying Madchester
scene, and with the follow-up, 1993's Modern Life Is Rubbish, they consciously set out to evoke a more traditional
pop sound.
With 1994's Parklife, Albarn's songs revealed an altogether new sophistication, his wry social commentaries and
clever melodies evoking the great British pop tradition of bands like the Kinks and the Jam. The album made Blur the
most popular and influential band in England at the time, and it captured a rabid cult following abroad as well.
Although chief rivals Oasis quickly usurped Blur's dominance, 1995's The Great Escape debuted at number one
nonetheless. Still, when the record slipped down the charts, the band was written off by the music press and spent
much of 1996 in seclusion, although Albarn made the most of that time by releasing his solo debut, "Closet
Romantic," which doubled as his contribution to the Trainspotting soundtrack. Blur's self-titled LP restored the
band's luster one year later, as the single "Song 2" became an American hit. The same year, Albarn made his film
debut in Antonia Bird's Face, and Blur's full-length 13 followed in 1999.
In 2000, Albarn debuted Gorillaz, his highly successful "virtual hip-hop group," which released four albums between
2001 and 2011. Other Albarn-driven projects arrived during the new millennium, too, from Mali Music -- an eclectic
collaboration with Malian musicians like Afel Bocoum -- to the Good, the Bad & the Queen, a British supergroup
featuring Paul Simonon, Simon Tong, and Tony Allen. Albarn also began exploring cinema and theater projects, co-
creating the opera productions Monkey: Journey to the West and Doctor Dee, while also scoring a film adaptation of
his sister's own book, The Boy in the Oak. Rocketjuice & the Moon, another supergroup featuring Allen and Red Hot
Chili Peppers bassist Flea, released their first album in April 2012; a month later, a recording of the Dr. Dee
opera -- inspired by polymath and advisor to Elizabeth I John Dee -- arrived.
Album Review - from allmusic
Officially, Dr. Dee is Damon Albarn's first solo album but that's the tiniest misnomer. Ever since Graham Coxon left
Blur during the recording of Think Tank, Albarn has been the unquestioned director of his projects, his
authoritative stamp evident on Think Tank, all three Gorillaz albums, Mali Music, the Good, the Bad & the Queen, and
Rocket Juice & the Moon, so Dr. Dee doesn't exactly have the shock of the new even though it's certainly willfully
odd. An opera -- not a rock opera, or the first opera Albarn has written, as he has 2007's Monkey: Journey to the
West under his belt -- Dr. Dee concerns itself with the story of John Dee, the 16th century mathematician and
occultist who was an advisor to Elizabeth I and is said to be the inspiration for Marlowe's Faustus and
Shakespeare's Prospero. Rich material for an opera, in other words, and Dr. Dee is certainly thick with ideas,
Albarn not running away from his signature tropes so much as using them as a launching pad for a stately, lugubrious
collection of minor-key instrumentals, skeletal pop songs, plainsongs, and madrigals. Much of this is intriguing,
yet as an album if not a production, Dr. Dee stays just this side of compelling, always threatening to veer into
surprising, dangerous territory yet never quite succumbing to the risk. And that is where Dr. Dee's roots in the
stage show: perhaps it is a bit stuffy and hidebound for art rock, but taken as a theatrical production, it's
adventurously cerebral, an album to ponder if not quite embrace.
Track Listing
1. The Golden Dawn
2. Apple Carts
3. Oh Spirit Animate Us
4. The Moon Exalted
5. A Man of England
6. Saturn
7. Coronation
8. The Marvelous Dream
9. A Prayer
10. Edward Kelley
11. Preparation
12. 9 Point Star
13. Temptation Comes in the Afternoon
14. Watching the Fire That Waltzed Away
15. Moon (Interlude)
16. Cathedrals
17. Tree of Beauty
18. The Dancing King
Damon Albarn - Dr. Dee - SteveO - 13-05-2012
^very nice clip..thanks MH ! Worth checking out.
Damon Albarn - Dr. Dee - Music Head - 13-05-2012
SteveO Wrote:^very nice clip..thanks MH ! Worth checking out.
beware
only 4 or 5 tracks are similar to that
Damon Albarn - Dr. Dee - CRAZY-HORSE - 14-05-2012
Phew...thank God i didnt do that one then....
actually saw Corey today and he steered me away from it immediately, his thoughts are the same as yours MH!!!!!!
Damon Albarn - Dr. Dee - teardropsamsara - 09-06-2012
hmm, interesting