The music and words of Merrie Land hit so many targets, and with such precision, by turns grotesque and horribly emotionally exposed, that it’s never less than utterly compelling.
It works best as a complete dose of bitter medicine; a groove-happy message of fear, love, and measured hope.
Rich and accomplished; beautifully played and immaculately conceptualised, Albarn’s latest trip from FitzRoy to Faeroes and back, via Dogger and Dover, is a drizzle-soaked deep-dive into a fractured land and fractured people.
For all its gloom, Merrie Land is an entertaining and theatrical album, with vocals that capture the social observation of early album Parklife. It’s also an immensely clever feat of word painting, never relying on lyrics alone to reflect the sense of anxiety.
Albarn on Britain is a proven formula, but Simonon, Allen and Simon Tong combine to craft curious twenty-first century folk about curious twenty-first century folk.
As a mirror held up to the country at a time of crisis by one of its sharpest observers ... it’s a record of note, full of intrigue, intimacy and calmly assertive, greatly needed dissent.
Damon Albarn really knows when to pick his moments – but he’s outdone himself with this new record.
Merrie Land feels like the perfect soundtrack for these uncertain, worrying times.
Ruminations on a post-Brexit nation from a bunch of middle-aged musicians is, perhaps, less essential than it seems to deem itself, but there are probing thoughts and moments to make it worth sticking with.
The album is cinematic and somewhat ghastly, all in a timeless fashion. The instrumentation plays to the strengths of Damon Albarn. Why can't Gorillaz sound this consistent?
“Merrie Land” is like riding an abandoned ferris wheel with the ghost of Damon Albarn and his dummy telling tales of the past. The writing and the instrumentation work extremely well together to create a very melancholic atmosphere for us to delve into, making for an eerie listening experience. This is also some of Albarn’s best work in a while!
Fav Tracks: Merrie Land, The Poison Tree, The Truce of Twilight, Nineteen Seventeen, The Last Man to Leave, Gun to the Head, ... read more
This album gives off a very eerie vibe from the get-go. It's very soft sounding but carries and unsettling emotion. This album is like being at a haunted carnival with all of the wierd instumentation on tracks like Lady Boston or Last Man To Leave. Some of the tracks seem to blend in with each other and not stand out too much but others are incredibly different from anything else. Some of my favourite moments on this album are where it starts to go in different, weird directions. Some examples ... read more
Siento que a la larga termina siendo más de lo mismo por así decirse, se siente como una continuación directa de su primer disco con leves mejoras en puntos donde su anterior proyecto fallaba
feels a bit plain in places but generally it's quite pretty and sometimes beautiful when it feels like it (lady boston comes to mind - that choir always gets me).
1 | Introduction 0:13 | 83 |
2 | Merrie Land 4:46 | 86 |
3 | Gun to the Head 4:19 | 86 |
4 | Nineteen Seventeen 3:43 | 86 |
5 | The Great Fire 3:56 | 83 |
6 | Lady Boston 4:19 | 90 |
7 | Drifters & Trawlers 2:34 | 79 |
8 | The Truce of Twilight 4:22 | 86 |
9 | Ribbons 2:52 | 83 |
10 | The Last Man to Leave 2:38 | 78 |
11 | The Poison Tree 3:40 | 88 |
#33 | / | Clash |
#38 | / | Gigwise |
#47 | / | Q Magazine |
#51 | / | Louder Than War |
#62 | / | Under the Radar |
#73 | / | NME |