The Good, the Bad & the Queen | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 22 January 2007 | |||
Recorded | 2005–2006 | |||
Studio | ||||
Genre | Art rock [1] | |||
Length | 42:58 | |||
Label | Parlophone, Honest Jon's, EMI, Virgin | |||
Producer | Danger Mouse | |||
The Good, the Bad & the Queen chronology | ||||
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Damon Albarn chronology | ||||
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Tony Allen chronology | ||||
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Paul Simonon chronology | ||||
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Simon Tong chronology | ||||
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Singles from The Good,the Bad &the Queen | ||||
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Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 76/100 [2] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
The A.V. Club | C [4] |
Entertainment Weekly | B+ [5] |
The Guardian | [6] |
Los Angeles Times | [1] |
NME | 8/10 [7] |
Pitchfork | 6.8/10 [8] |
Q | [9] |
Rolling Stone | [10] |
Spin | [11] |
The Good,the Bad &the Queen is the debut studio album by the English supergroup the Good,the Bad &the Queen,comprising Damon Albarn,Paul Simonon,Simon Tong and Tony Allen,and produced by Danger Mouse. The album was released in January 2007. [12] [13] The album debuted at number two in the UK Albums Chart and was certified Gold in the UK within days of its release despite little media recognition and airplay. [14] In the United States,the album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 49.
It is stated that the record is,in a sense,a concept album,as its songs are all themed around modern life in London. [15] It was described by Albarn as "a song cycle that's also a mystery play about London" in an interview with Mojo .
Although The Good,The Bad &The Queen was first reported as a solo album by Albarn with Danger Mouse producing, NME revealed in late July 2006 that the solo project had been switched to a new group formed by Albarn. [16] The band,which formed in 2006,released their first single,"Herculean" on 30 October 2006. The single followed the band's appearance at the BBC's Electric Proms season at the redeveloped Roundhouse in Camden on 26 October,during which they performed the entire album. [16] Three warm-up gigs in East Prawle at the Pig's Nose Inn, [17] Ilfracombes Marlboro Club and The Exeter Cavern Club preceded their gig on the BBC's Electric Proms,where the album was performed in order with two other songs inserted,"Intermission Jam" and "Mr. Whippy";the latter was a B-side for "Herculean". The band performed four tracks from the album at Abbey Road Studios on 13 December 2006,during a recording session for Live from Abbey Road .[ citation needed ]
For the first few months,Allen would travel from Paris (where he has a permanent home) to London to work in Albarn's Studio 13 for 3 days a week,writing,rehearsing and recording. At the same time as the initial recordings in the UK,Albarn had begun demoing for the second Gorillaz record and by early spring had invited in producer Danger Mouse to oversee the album. Albarn was keen to work in Africa with local musicians again after his work on the album Mali Music (released 2002) so Tony Allen suggested that the four of them (including Danger Mouse) decamp to his home country of Nigeria to continue the sessions. There they recorded at Afrodisia Studios,once used by Fela Kuti,with a huge variety of local musicians,committing huge numbers of songs and ideas to tape before returning to England once more. [18]
The track listing was originally unveiled and commented upon by Damon Albarn and Paul Simonon in an interview in the November 2006 issue of Uncut . [19] The second major gig of the band's career took place on 12 December 2006,at Wilton's Music Hall in East London. It was watched by 300 specially selected fans,as the launch gig of MySpace's The List. The band released their first Top 20 single,"Kingdom of Doom",a week prior to the release of the album. [20] In April,"Green Fields" was released as the third single from the album and debuted at No. 51 in its first week. [21]
On 4 April 2007,The Good,the Bad &the Queen became the first EMI album to be made available for download in the new DRM-free,high quality MP3 format (256 kbit/s). [22]
The Good,The Bad and the Queen was voted the Best Album of 2007 by the Observer Music Magazine. Paul Simonon told the magazine how the record came about:"It's not a commercial record,so OMM's award shows that you can make music that moves people without going down the obvious route. I hadn't been in a band for 17 or 18 years,and then Damon asked me to listen to some tracks he'd recorded in Nigeria. I'd met him once before,at Joe Strummer's wedding reception. We shared ideas about people,musical styles and where we live. With the music,I wanted to complement Tony's drums. I'm not into over-complication –I'm not capable of it,to be honest. The lyrics,the London atmosphere,all that evolved as we played. There's a lot of craftsmanship on the record,and Damon has a vision for arrangements,and everyone slotted in around them. But it's all done now. We won't make another record,and we didn't properly name the band,because a name is for a marriage." [23]
In an interview with Pitchfork about Danger Mouse's involvement in this album,Albarn states:"He was quite adamant that we don't do any kind of harmony and that I kept it a single voice. I thought,"Well that's great." That's how I kind of start the songs in the first place:I get a very basic arrangement and texture them. His attention to that detail was important. And it helped me write the lyrics. It cleared the way for it just having to be a single voice. He's an exceptional talent. With Brian [Danger Mouse] being a kind of third party so to speak,it helps to have someone there. You want a band to work itself,but at the same time you want it to be the best that it can be. I tried it the other way,with Tony leading the tracks when I went to Lagos,and it was great but I didn't fit into that. That is why I scrapped the whole record,because I thought I should be involved at least." [24]
Albarn wrote the original version of the song "Green Fields" following a night out with Blur bassist Alex James and Marianne Faithfull. That demo was recorded in a studio on Goldhawk Road,Hammersmith and Albarn gave the tape to Faithfull.[ citation needed ] It was later recorded by the singer/actress with different lyrics in the verses and released on her 2005 album Before the Poison as "Last Song." [25]
All tracks are written by Damon Albarn
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "History Song" | 3:05 |
2. | "80's Life" | 3:28 |
3. | "Northern Whale" | 3:54 |
4. | "Kingdom of Doom" | 2:42 |
5. | "Herculean" (featuring The Sixteen) | 3:59 |
6. | "Behind the Sun" | 2:38 |
7. | "The Bunting Song" | 3:47 |
8. | "Nature Springs" | 3:10 |
9. | "A Soldier's Tale" | 2:30 |
10. | "Three Changes" | 4:15 |
11. | "Green Fields" | 2:26 |
12. | "The Good, the Bad & the Queen" | 7:00 |
Total length: | 42:58 |
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Nature Springs" (live at The Tabernacle) | 3:16 |
2. | "The Bunting Song" (live at The Tabernacle) | 4:01 |
3. | "The Good, the Bad & the Queen" (live at The Tabernacle) | 4:36 |
4. | "A Soldier's Tale" (rehearsal footage) | 2:22 |
5. | "Interview" (rehearsal footage) | 20:43 |
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Chart (2007) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (ARIA Charts) [26] | 36 |
UK Albums (The Official Charts Company) | 2 |
US Billboard 200 | 49 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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France (SNEP) [27] | Silver | 35,000* |
United Kingdom (BPI) [28] | Gold | 100,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Gorillaz are an English virtual band created in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and Russel Hobbs (drums). Their universe is presented in media such as music videos, interviews, comic strips and short cartoons. Gorillaz's music has featured collaborations with a wide range of featured artists, with Albarn as the only permanent musical contributor.
Damon Albarn is an English singer, musician, songwriter and record producer from Whitechapel, London. He is the frontman and main lyricist of the rock band Blur and the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual band Gorillaz.
Brian Joseph Burton, known professionally as Danger Mouse, is an American musician and record producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from the Beatles' The Beatles, also known as The White Album. In 2008, Esquire named him one of the "75 most influential people of the 21st century".
Paul Gustave Simonon is an English musician and artist best known as the bassist for the Clash. More recent work includes his involvement in the supergroup the Good, the Bad & the Queen and playing on the Gorillaz album Plastic Beach in 2010, which saw Simonon reunite with The Clash guitarist Mick Jones and Blur frontman Damon Albarn – and which also led to Simonon becoming the live band's touring bassist for Gorillaz's Escape to Plastic Beach Tour. Simonon is also an established visual artist.
Tony Oladipo Allen was a Nigerian and French drummer, composer, and songwriter who lived and worked in Paris, France. Allen was the drummer and musical director of Fela Kuti's band Africa '70 from 1968 to 1979, and was one of the founders of the Afrobeat genre. Fela once stated that "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat". He was described by Brian Eno as "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived".
Simon Tong is an English guitarist and keyboardist who was a member of the Verve between 1996 and 1999. He has played with Damon Albarn on tour with his bands Blur and Gorillaz, and as a member of the Good, the Bad & the Queen. He ranks in BBC's "The Axe Factor" as the 40th greatest guitarist of the last 30 years.
"Herculean" is the debut single by the Good, the Bad & the Queen, an alternative rock band fronted by Damon Albarn. Though Albarn later claimed that the band was unnamed, and that "The Good, The Bad & The Queen" was merely the name of band's first album, this single clearly credits the artist as "The Good, The Bad & The Queen", and was released several months in advance of the album. At the time, neither Albarn nor anyone else was claiming the band was unnamed.
"Kingdom of Doom" is a song by the British alternative rock supergroup the Good, the Bad & the Queen, made up of Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, Simon Tong and Tony Allen and is the fourth track on their 2007 album The Good, the Bad & the Queen.
"Green Fields" is the third single by British alternative rock band the Good, the Bad & the Queen. "Green Fields" is also the eleventh track on the group's 2007 debut album The Good, the Bad & the Queen.
"The Good, the Bad & the Queen" is a song by British band the Good, the Bad & the Queen. It is the title song and final track on their 2007 debut album. A live version of the song recorded at The Tabernacle was also released as a B-side on the band's second single "Kingdom of Doom".
"On Melancholy Hill" is the third single from British virtual band Gorillaz's third studio album, Plastic Beach. The single was released on 12 June 2010.
The Fall is the fourth studio album by British virtual band Gorillaz. It was announced on 20 December 2010 and released as a download for members of the Gorillaz fan club on 25 December 2010. This was followed by a wider physical release of the album on 19 April 2011.
Jeffrey Wootton is an English musician, guitarist and songwriter from Manchester. He has been the lead guitarist in the Gorillaz live band since 2010.
The solo discography of British musician Damon Albarn consists of four collaboration albums, four soundtrack albums, three extended plays and twelve singles. Also included are releases by Albarn's various side-projects and groups such as Mali Music, The Good the Bad & the Queen, Monkey, DRC Music and Rocket Juice & the Moon. Most of Albarn's work is either released by Honest Jon's Records, Parlophone or EMI Records.
"Mr Tembo" is the fourth single released by English recording artist, songwriter and Blur/Gorillaz frontman, Damon Albarn, from his debut solo studio album Everyday Robots. Its release as a single was limited to the United States. The track features The Leytonstone City Mission Choir and contains a sample of "Lions", from the 1959 album Way Out Humor as written and performed by Richard Buckley. The track is produced by both Albarn and Richard Russell, whom Albarn had previously worked with on Bobby Womack's comeback album The Bravest Man in the Universe and on the DRC Music album, Kinshasa One Two.
"Photographs " is a song recorded by English recording artist and songwriter and frontman of both Blur and Gorillaz, Damon Albarn, from his debut solo studio album Everyday Robots (2014). The song was featured in a number of promotional teaser trailers for the album, featured on Albarn's official YouTube account in late 2013. The song contains a sample of late writer, Timothy Leary.
"The Selfish Giant" is a song recorded by English recording artist and songwriter and Blur frontman & Gorillaz creator, Damon Albarn, from his debut solo studio album Everyday Robots. The track features Natasha Khan, known professionally as Bat for Lashes. The track is produced by both Albarn and Richard Russell, whom Albarn has previously worked with on Bobby Womack's comeback album The Bravest Man in the Universe and on the DRC Music album Kinshasa One Two.
Merrie Land is the second and final studio album by English art rock supergroup The Good, the Bad & the Queen. It was produced by Tony Visconti and released on 16 November 2018.
The Good, the Bad & the Queen were an English art rock supergroup composed of singer Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, bassist Paul Simonon of the Clash, guitarist Simon Tong of the Verve, and drummer Tony Allen. They released their self-titled debut album in 2007. Their second album, Merrie Land, coproduced with Tony Visconti, was released in 2018. They disbanded in 2019, and Allen died in 2020.
The discography of The Good, the Bad & the Queen, a British art rock supergroup formed in London in 2005. The group consisted of vocalist and instrumentalist Damon Albarn, bassist Paul Simonon, guitarist Simon Tong, and drummer Tony Allen. Consists of two studio albums, an extended play, five singles, a box set, four music videos and ten promotional music videos.