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Good The Bad and the Queen |
| The Good, The Bad & The Queen |
| Virgin | 2007 | Album |
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The latest UK supergroup has finally landed on our shores. Making music under the moniker The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Damon Albarn (Blur), Paul Simonon (The Clash) along with Simon Tong and Tony Allen have managed to unload the baggage of their previous bands and actually work together to put out a solid album with a major assist from uber producer Danger Mouse, who deserves another round of applause for creating what will probably be one of better albums we’ll see this year. From the band’s choice of cover art, an old painting depicting Britain drowning in chaos and flames, it’s obvious that The Good, The Bad & The Queen are not going to be singing us “Happy Happy / Joy Joy” odes.
Yes, their world is ours – dark, mysterious and often times dangerous, but the upside is that the music is so damn good, you probably won’t notice. Switching between styles that include 50s pop riffs and heavy modern rock, the guys keep things moving along on their debut disc. “80s Life” hides its sinister message behind some doo wopish keyboard riffs. Did the hedonistic decade of greed lead us to where we are now? These rockers certainly aren’t afraid to point a finger in that direction. “Green Fields” has a softer almost Old English ballad tone but the message is similar - “We saw the green fields turn into stone,” sings Albarn in his mournful detached style.
The band also shares their name with one of the tracks on their album and The Good, The Bad & The Queen (the song) is quite a killer. It’s a vicious little track that takes no prisoners. “Don’t kick the crack heads off the green / they’re a political party,” sneers Albarn and not since Johnny Rotten “blessed” the Queen has a band been so after the blood, head, guts and every other part of their own government.
The Good, The Bad & The Queen seem to have appeared out of nowhere and have made no promises to stick around, but if they do, they could end up being one of the more exciting and important voices out there. |
| Amy Wagner |
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