The Good, The Bad & The Queen
You have to admire Damon Albarn's continuing ventures into pasture new. Rather than resting on his laurels after his hugely successful Gorillaz project, he has assembled an impressive line-up of Paul Simonon (The Clash), Simon Tong (The Verve) and Afro-beat drummer Tony Allen for his new unnamed band. The single 'Herculean' was a tantilising taster of great things to come.
Although having the feeling of being a slow burner, the record fails somewhat in living up to it's impeccable credentials. That is not to say it is bad, but it drifts by in a haze rather than grabbing hold of you. Talks of this being Albarn's masterpiece are way off the mark, it has more similarities with Thom Yorke's Eraser album in being a good but not great side project.
Massive Attack did the urban / paranoid / dub thing much more convincingly ten years ago.