Everyday Robots

Everyday Robots
Studio album by Damon Albarn
Released	28 April 2014 (2014-04-28)
Recorded	2011-2013
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Richard Russell
Damon Albarn chronology
Maison Des Jeunes (2013) Everyday Robots (2014)
Singles from Everyday Robots
"Everyday Robots" Released: 3 March 2014

Everyday Robots is the upcoming solo debut album by British musician Damon Albarn. It is to be released on 28 April 2014. It was produced by Richard Russell of XL Recordings.

Background

The album was first announced in September 2011, when Albarn had confirmed he was working on a solo studio album to be released under his own name. He also stated that the concept of which is supposed to revolve around "empty club music".^[1] In a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he said that the record would have a sound that he describes as a combination folk music and soul music. He also stated that he will be taking his album on tour, during which he will play songs from all of his other bands, such as Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad & the Queen.^[2]

On 18 January 2014, the Warner Music Store was updated to include Damon Albarn's new album and its name was revealed — Everyday Robots, which is also the name of the first single, set to be released as a limited edition 7" vinyl on March 3 along with a non-album B-side, "Electric Fences".^[3] The deluxe edition of the album will come packaged with a DVD of Albarn performing a few album tracks live at Fox Studios in Los Angeles, California. The DVD was filmed on 3 December 2013. On the next day, the album's information was removed from the website, which made many believe it was not supposed to have leaked so soon.^[4]

Damon himself said in his official Facebook page that this record is his most soul-searching and autobiographical yet, explores nature versus technology and features guests Brian Eno and Natasha Khan, also known as Bat for Lashes.^[5] The official promo video for the first single, "Everyday Robots", was directed by artist and designer Aitor Throup, and posted on the singer's YouTube page on 20 January.^[6]

Recording process

In a January 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, Albarn revealed that Natasha Khan will appear on the track "The Selfish Giant" as a "ghostly echo", and that Brian Eno had collaborated on the album's final track. He also revealed that the track "Mr. Tembo" was recorded for a baby elephant that Albarn met in a zoo in Mkomazi, Tanzania. He said: "It was recently orphaned and walked onto this aerodrome; the people I know took it in and called it Mr. Tembo. I was there, and I met this little elephant, and he was very sweet. I sang it to him." As for the recording process of the album, Albarn started it with nearly 60 songs written down, and then would allow co-producer Richard Russell to pick his favorites, which would then become tracks on his album, "I wrote the songs, but Richard Russell was a fantastic editor and did a lot of the atmospheric stuff, so in a sense it's not entirely my record. It is my narrative, and my voice and my songs. I started off giving Richard a lot of songs, 60 or 60-plus — he had the editorship."^[7]

In an interview with NME about the album, Albarn explained that the lyrics were "the hardest part". He commented: "The lyrics were the hardest part. The music… leans towards my more melancholic, introspective soulful side, which is where I love to sing, but lyrically it took me a long time. I wanted it to be about my life, in a way, and I went right back to... it sort of starts in 1976." He added that every song on the record is rooted in a real life experience, saying: "every line on this record happened".

Speaking of the collaborations with the Leytonstone Choir, Albarn felt that the choir held a nostalgic importance to him and asked the Church if he could record with the choir, "Back in Leytonstone, there was a Pentecostal Church at the end of my road that belonged to the city mission. I remember standing outside with my bicycle listening to the singing, but never being able to find an entry point. But it was a very strong childhood memory that I've carried with me. I got in contact with that church, and they've still got a small choir, so they very kindly agreed to sing on the record a bit."^[7]

Albarn had worked with Russell before, spawning the DRC Music album Kinshasa One Two, which was recorded over a 5-9 day period in the Democratic Republic of Congo along with producers such as Jneiro Jarel and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. The duo also worked together to produce Bobby Womack's comeback album, The Bravest Man in the Universe.

The duo even talked about the possibility of the record being a collaborative effort, rather than an Albarn solo effort. Speaking to Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 6 Music about the making of his solo album, Albarn said: "We first sort of played around with the idea of starting another band, but I think we both realized that's an exhausting process, starting again. I mean, it's fun, but you know, coming up with a name and all of that stuff...". In the end, Russell told Albarn that he wanted to produce a record for him instead. "At that point it occurred to me that that might be something that I should probably do, 'cos I haven't done it before."^[8]

Speaking to John Kennedy's Xposure show on XFM on 21 January, Albarn said he found the term "solo record" to be "a bit weird". Albarn will headline the Saturday night of Latitude Festival, which takes place between July 17–20. "Someone showed me some flyer for Latitude and it's got my name on it and that's a bit weird as I've always been a part of something," he said. "And I'm still part of something, but that something is Damon Albarn. I do have a kind of problem with the term solo generally because it doesn't mean anything does it? You don't make a record entirely on your own. You can't. I mean you can, but I don't," he continued. "This one's no exception to that. Brian Eno's singing on it, Natasha Khan — Bat for Lashes — and it's produced by Richard Russell who also did a lot of the drum programming, well, all the drum programming, and contributed samples." Despite this, Albarn said the album is still a personal album. "Any record's a collaboration. In this instance, yes, it is a very personal record and it's got my name on it but, for me, I've always written the songs I've sung on. I don't think it's a big deal."^[9]

"Hollow Ponds" referenced key dates in Albarn's life, including the 1976 summer drought. "Read into that what you will," he said, when quizzed about its lyrical content. "And let’s not talk about Australia."^[10] He also references Blur's Modern Life Is Rubbish name origin, which is from a bit of graffiti Albarn saw spray-painted on a wall in London in 1993.

Track listing

References

External links

• Damon Albarn official website