- Record Label: Virgin
- Release Date: Jan 23, 2007
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
One of the most surprising and magical records for which Damon Albarn has ever been responsible.
-
Where 'Parklife' was exuberant and almost knowingly callow, 'The Good, The Bad & The Queen' is weary, confused, almost mourning for what once was.
-
A near-perfect sonic snapshot of London under Blair's blowback blitz.
-
They sound like a seasoned team, an understated unit where nothing dominates and everything contributes to enhancing the moods of Albarn's songs.
-
The mood is more melancholy than the lineup would suggest — much of the album sounds like ''Waterloo Sunset''-era Kinks set to languid dub grooves.
-
MojoNeither the return of the Last Gang In Town, nor the crisp, literate, wonderfully confident pop with which Albarn perfectly crystallised the mid-1990s. Instead, The Good, The Bad & The Queen is a noir-ishly understated suite of songs, further testament to its chief author's need to keep on moving. [Jan 2007, p.98]
-
For all its weird beauty, this is very much Damon's record - much more so than Gorillaz. Or indeed, Blur.
-
SpinEven with all the name players involved, Albarn focuses the spotlight on the songs, which are terrific. [Jan 2007, p.92]
-
UrbAlbarn claims this album is a letter to the London of today, but it's impossible not [to] get swept into the grandfatherly smell that permeates every number. [Dec 2006, p.127]
-
The eclectic elements combine for dark, muted balladry a la Syd Barrett or the Beatles' White Album, with a touch of dub.
-
You're left both marvelling at the album itself, and considering what a unique figure Albarn cuts. If you doubt it, try to imagine the result if any of Britpop's other major players had assembled a supergroup and made an anti-war concept album. Now take your fist out of your mouth.
-
This is possibly not an album for those wanting immediate hooks and satisfaction, but it's a remarkable achievement and more proof - if any were needed - that Albarn is one of the most innovative and talented songwriters of his generation.
-
The music, however lean, is the most poignant vision Albarn's devout Anglo-centrism has offered: a beautifully dark, boozy, overcast dream of London, cinematic in its scope and careful in its craft.
-
While unlikely to ignite the zeitgeist as "Parklife" once did, "The Good, The Bad & The Queen" probably says just as much about Britain 13 years on.
-
He's orchestrated a unified, dramatic album -- it's a tapestry of impeccable, sorrowful, yet sultry soundscapes -- but given the pedigree of this band, it's hard not to wish that the album offered more of the quartet just playing, gussied up with no effect. Nevertheless, as an album The Good, the Bad & the Queen is singularly effective.
-
Q MagazineAlbarn seems bent on exploring unsettling moods and shuffling rhythms rather than gleaming melodies and addictive choruses. [Feb 2007, p.94]
-
The Good, the Bad & the Queen positively crackles with life and melody throughout.
-
More than any rock album in recent memory... this is a producer's creation.
-
If nothing else, The Good, the Bad & the Queen is a clear demonstration of Albarn's maturation.
-
It is a funereal album whose spark and anger is obscured like the smoldering foundations of a burnt out city.
-
It's not Blur, the Clash, Fela, the Verve, or Gorillaz. It's more than just names on albums.
-
This is a beautiful record; so wistful and reflective when it finishes it’ll make you feel instantly nostalgic.
-
Under The RadarWhile The Good, The Bad & The Queen is more than the sum of its parts, it's also less than you'd expect. [#16, p.92]
-
VibeGood is comparable in spirit to the everything-is-in-play feel of Clash albums like Sandinista!. [Feb 2007, p.128]
-
MagnetSounds far richer than the one-off project that it is. [#74, p.97]
-
But for all its momentary highlights, this is a record that doesn't tend to grow on you as much as sink and seep into your skin: and it does this slowly.
-
With haunted, abstract songs that are about as easily grasped as passing specters or gusts of sea mist, the Good, the Bad and the Queen is a dream collaboration that sometimes feels like a nightmare.
-
We’re left with a brilliant, often mesmerizing but all-too-sketchy defeatist manifesto on the surface, which, with further musical fleshing-out (Verve guitarist Simon Tong is woefully underused), might have been worth serious investigation.
-
The results are cohesive almost by default, considering how monochromatic the bulk of the disc comes off. Yet monochrome by design isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially when you're out to challenge rather than entertain.
-
If anything, that’s the trick here: each time the listener pegs it with one of Albarn’s past sounds, the track subverts and confounds the expectation.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 63 out of 69
-
Mixed: 5 out of 69
-
Negative: 1 out of 69
-
gabrielezAug 6, 2009Album's melancholic sound makes my back trembling.
-
Sep 25, 2012
-
BoniverA.Jul 14, 2008The most beautiful and charismatic album released in 2007, it's magical.