The Good, the Bad & the Queen - Merrie Land
Critic Score
Based on 21 reviews
2018 Ratings: #304 / 890
User Score
Based on 214 ratings
2018 Rank: #352
Liked by 7 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
God Is in the TV

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.

83
Consequence of Sound

It works best as a complete dose of bitter medicine; a groove-happy message of fear, love, and measured hope.

80
Drowned in Sound

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.

80
The Independent

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.

80
Clash

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.

80
Loud and Quiet

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.

80
The Line of Best Fit

Damon Albarn really knows when to pick his moments – but he’s outdone himself with this new record.

80
musicOMH

Merrie Land feels like the perfect soundtrack for these uncertain, worrying times.

TheRootBoy
74

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?

Plats
87

“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

Jebus
77

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

NIKX05
76

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

comico
75

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).

Nyasychild
78

this album makes me feel smart

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Track List

Year End Lists

#33/Clash
#38/Gigwise
#47/Q Magazine
#51/Louder Than War
#62/Under the Radar
#73/NME
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Added on: October 19, 2018