Music Times writers share an office area of roughly 45 sq. ft, which makes having face-to-face conversations totally impossible. Junk Mail is these millenials' attempt to discuss and review the week's hottest album releases... without needing to look at each other.
This week: Ryan Book, Caitlin Carter, Joseph DeGroot and Carolyn Menyes e-mail back and forth about Damon Albarn's Everyday Robots.
CAITLIN: To start things off: I was really excited for this album to come out. Damon Albarn has been making music for 25 years, and I've enjoyed most of what he's released. However, this is his first proper solo album. The effort as a whole is akin to a journal. Some scribblings are observations (such as his critique of technology in the opener "Everyday Robots"), some are autobiographical (such as "You & Me") and others tell tales of his worldly encounters ("Mr. Tembo"). The result is a very personal, fluid album that is sonically diverse, not necessarily in tone but in detail.
CAROLYN: Conversely, I wasn't that excited for this album to come out. I guess I had no real opinion on the matter. I was always an Oasis girl, and I like Gorillaz just as much as the next person... but Damon Albarn's music isn't something I've actively pursued in my personal music listening life. That being said, I ended up enjoying the vibes on Everyday Robots a lot. It makes me want to revisit Blur, to be honest.
I guess you're looking at the lyrics, Caitlin, but I haven't quite dug that deep yet. Sonically, though, this music is really fulfilling. I keep revisiting "Hostiles" and I found it hard to move past that on my listen throughs. It's just that good. It's got that Beck Sea Change drippiness and sadness to it while still being just so rich. It's a contender for one of my favorite tracks of 2014 thus far, actually.
RYAN: Unconversely, I was neutral to this album coming out, as I am to all albums that come out (I was peer pressured into giving my thoughts about the existence of the album).
Albarn cleverly approaches what I judge to be his most personal album in a deeply impersonal tone. The album opens with "Everyday Robots," a commentary on humanity's developing inhumanity, which serves as a distraction from how personal the rest of the narratives are. "Robots" features impassive instrumentals, designed to complement the song like a cyborg lounge act in a shady Steampunk bar. That unenthusiastic mood continues into "Hostiles" and the rest of the tracks so that the listener doesn't realize how much of himself Albarn is spilling onto the page for the rest of the album.
("Mr. Tembo," although an amusing and cheery track, doesn't fit into the lineup because of the vibrant spirit it displays. I enjoyed it greatly, but it still should have been a B-side)
JOSEPH: I'm always skeptical of solo albums from people who were in great bands, ever since Thom Yorke's okay but clearly sub-Radiohead The Eraser.For the first few tracks of Everyday Robots, though, I thought Damon Albarn was going to prove my skepticism wrong, since the title track and "Hostiles" are both really interesting songs. I agree with Carolyn's Beck comparison, since I found the album to be a sort of halfway point between Beck's downbeat albums like Sea Change and some of Radiohead's more subtly electronic songs, but the repetitive atmosphere and unmemorable melodies made me lose interest after the first few songs. The only other standout to me was Ryan's favorite, "Mr. Tembo," but the ukelele made me feel like I was watching a commercial for a travel website. Ukeleles have been played out, everybody, so let's give them a rest.
CAITLIN: It's interesting that Ryan mentioned "Mr. Tembo" as an outlier on the album. I read in an early interview that "Mr. Tembo" was just a random diddy that Albarn threw onto the demo he gave his producer. He didn't really plan to put it on the album, but was urged to by Richard Russell. Normally I would agree that it doesn't fit and that it feels a little uninspired, but I think when you're writing about your life there has to be some uplifting, cheesy moments. It might not fit in with the feel of the rest of the album, but if fits within the context of his autobiography. I guess that's to say that the song is thematically consistent rather than tonally consistent. Unrelated to that argument though, the spoken-word section of the song reminded me of Blur.
CAROLYN: I feel like we could talk about "Mr. Tembo" all day, but I'm going to throw in my two cents as well, and then perhaps we'll move on? I totally agree with Ryan (which is as surprising to me as anybody). This song sticks out like a sore thumb and it should've been a B-side. I get that life has its ups and downs, and I'm glad Albarn isn't all gloomy in life, that would be really unfortunate. But, musically, man, there's just nothing that connects it to the rest of the album. No buildup, nothing. It's tracked between the draggy "Lonely Press Play" and the twinkling, minimalist instrumental "Parakeet." If this song was just thrown on the album like you said it was Caitlin, I believe it -- it sure as hell sounds that way.
On it's own, "Mr. Tembo" is a sunshine-filled little plucky number. It reminds me of Jack Johnson... take that as you will. I need some cargo shorts and mandals now.
RYAN: The RIGHT way to do the happiness that Caitlin "Bonnarooney" Carter so desperately needs is demonstrated in "Heavy Seas of Love," the outgoing track.
It features all of the human elements present on single "Tembo" (the Leytonstone Mission Choir, handclaps, visible displays of emotion), but its placement is far more effective. Albarn has promoted/complained about the concept of numb, robotic existence throughout Everyday Robots, but he breaks the chains of our android overlords for his last track, ensuring listeners that hope exists, for music and for humanity otherwise.
JOSEPH: That last minute burst of hope that Ryan talked about with "Heavy Seas of Love" was one of the most interesting aspects of Everyday Robots. It reminded me of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love, and how side two of that album is oppressively dark up until the last track "The Morning Fog," which is a triumphant rise out of the darkness. Too many artists choose to end their albums with a ballad or something totally depressing, so ending with an upbeat track is a pretty progressive sequencing choice, though it doesn't make the rest of the album's songwriting any more memorable for me.
CAITLIN: As far as songs being "memorable" on their own, I can agree that some of the songs are a bit indistinguishable (see: "History of a Cheating Heart" and "Hostiles"). The album does sort of bring you into a haze that you only break out of on Mr. Tembo and Heavy Seas of Love. As a whole, it sets a mood, and if you're not looking to be in that mood, the record can be very tiring/monotonous. Maybe the crappy weather has made me connect more to this album than I naturally would have otherwise, but when you keep coming back to listen to it over the course of a week, there's got to be something right. Or maybe I'm just simple minded.
CAROLYN: It is rainy today, and like I said earlier at our little block of tables, Everyday Robots is great for a grey, disgusting day like today. The songs do tend to blend into each other quite a bit on this album, except for the ones you mentioned, Caitlin, but I think that can be a good thing. It's a singular, cohesive piece of musical art, not a collection of singles. It sets a mood and lyrical theme (the isolation and monotony of technology, which I got on my subsequent listens) and then Albarn just runs with it.
Joe, do you not like the songwriting on this album? I think it's quite good. While singular songs aren't super standouts (except "Hostiles" to me, which is just so delightfully gloomy), I think each song makes its point through its melodies. Its effective songwriting as a whole, in my opinion.
JOSEPH: I didn't find the songwriting to be anywhere near as inspired as Blur or Gorillaz. I enjoyed the production (apparently Brian Eno helped out, and it shows), but other than the first two songs, nothing really struck me as immediately brilliant as "Feel Good Inc." or anything off of Blur's 13 album. It came off to me like a more sanitized and less fun version of Gorillaz. I think he works better when he's collaborating with other people.
CAITLIN: I definitely agree that working with more collaborators would've made the album more interesting. Albarn is sort of a serial collaborator, so I was surprised to see that only Natasha Khan and Brian Eno were brought in on this one. This album sees Albarn "on his own." It was a worthy attempt when compared to other albums that have dropped in the past year or so (I find myself listening to this over other options), but when compared to his past work, I agree that he puts out a better product when he works with a bigger team.
RYAN: I do love me some Bat for Lashes. Tangent: (going off an off-camera conversation that Caitlin and I had) Albarn and Khan should consider doing an entire album together, in the vein of David Byrne and St. Vincent. Think about it...they're both subtly sullen people that are into exotic rock 'n' roll.
CAITLIN: I'd buy it.
Before we go off making a dream collaborations list, I'm going to start wrapping things up. Everyday Robots album is not Albarn's best work to date, but it's a solid album in my opinion. It sets a melancholy mood that if you're feeling it works well, but if not, might get a bit redundant. The details and sampling held my attention throughout and lines such as "It's hard to be a lover when the TV's on, and nothing's in your eyes" (from "The Selfish Giant") stuck with me. I'm looking forward to see what he does next now that he has the autobiography out of the way.
CAROLYN: It's always a matter of what you're looking for in music, and in this miserable spring weather, I'm totally down for a gloomy, introspective album courtesy of Damon Albarn. I really enjoy the theming throughout Everyday Robots. I wouldn't call it a concept album, per se, but I think it's largely consistent in both its musical sound and lyrical content, albeit with a few exceptions. Though the music largely blends together, I think that works here. But some songs still manage to stand out to me -- I can't sing the praises I feel for "Hostiles" quite loudly enough, and thus, I'll be singing the praises for Everyday Robots.
RYAN: The ends justify the means for Albarn. Everyday Robots isn't a concept album about a Fallout-future...it's a biographical timeline for the star. The one song that deals with the title subject required a moody, disconnected backdrop, and Albarn realized that sound worked just fine with the rest of his narrative. A few songs bring the car off the road, but Albarn executes Robots as a unified album. Perhaps you enjoy the range of styles and moods on his Gorillaz projects more, but none of those records came together like his solo debut.
JOSEPH: After the wild eclecticism of Albarn's previous albums with Blur and Gorillaz, Everyday Robots is definitely the most cohesive album of his career, but that doesn't mean it's anywhere near his best. He doesn't do the moody electronic thing as well as artists like Portishead or Radiohead (or even the Flaming Lips recently), but I respect that he's still trying out new styles at this point in his career. However, sometimes I just want to hear him take out an acoustic guitar and sing "End of a Century" again.
