The Good, the Bad & the Queen
Merrie Land
It is 11 years since Damon Albarn’s vision of a sepia Britain of memory and forgetting first came to us down the telegraph wires. Back then, the obsession with English nationalism and declinism seemed like Damon’s quaint private hobbies. Not any more, bitches. Here, Damon dons the black top hat and strides back through the pea-soupers, to deliver a stunning national elegy in hobbled waltz time.
Beirut
Gallipoli
Weird that Zach Condon has chosen as his return a song about a first world war battle when the second always seems to get more love from Gen Y. (Check Twitter: we can’t get enough of Hitler analogies.) Maybe, though, the cool kids have always known the Great War was the superior attempt at global suicide. Poetry. Blackadder. Yet even contemplating the slaughter of the Anzacs, ol’ Benzo lungs remains tinctured with so much bright expectation, the most hopeful depressive in history.
Cardi B
Money
Rap fraternity: “We’ve saturated the market with songs about cash and genitals.” Cardi B: “Hold my beer.” This is not only an icy neon blade of trap, the sort Darth Vader would get ready to on a Saturday night, it’s also an exquisite bit of product. Perfectly positioned and perfectly hollow, so tight it sits in the uncanny valley of hip-hop, like if you plugged all the coordinates of rap since Gucci Mane into one of those computers that defeats chess grandmasters.
Capital Punishment
Delta Time
Before this reissue, the legend of Capital Punishment had grown and grown down the years. Who were these snotty NYC kids with their offhand wit and lamentable faux-English accents? Well, it turns out one of them is now an Arizona supreme court justice. And another is Ben Stiller. Yes, Ben Stiller’s teenage joke punk band was better than your joke teenage punk band. He will never be half the quantity surveyor you are, though.
White Lies
Believe It
White Lies are back, with their song. You know the one. It was a great song back in the day and it’s still pretty good. Despite a decade, I am still not sure who their fans are. I want to say estate agents but I think they’re all into Cardi B now. I want to say sociopaths but legal advises me against it. Seriously, if you pull up in traffic and the car next to you is blasting this, run the red.
