#39 The Good, The Bad & The Queen – The Good, The Bad & The Queen

I remember being kind of the go-to guy for music during middle school. Guys would test me on Metallica lyrics in the locker room (yes, it’s “Body my holding cell”) and I could name every Nirvana b-side (“Marigold” was awesome, but it was written by Dave Grohl, not Cobain). But now that I look back over the ’90s, it’s like I missed half of the music that was actually worth a damn, and spent too much time with the likes of Stabbing Westward and Gravity Kills. One of those groups I completely overlooked was Blur; to be honest, I still haven’t heard Parklife or ever remember hearing “Beetlebum” on the radio. But after coming across Blur frontman Damon Albarn’s side project The Good, The Bad & The Queen, I feel as if I’ve missed something special in the same way I completely bypassed Pavement and Sonic Youth. With Danger Mouse at the helm on production – again, my only exposure to him was Gnarls Barkley, and never even tried Gorrilaz – and Clash bassist Paul Simonon lending a special touch, their self-titled album only gets better every time I hear it. Although nothing overwhelming ever pops to the surface across its 12 tracks, every song has its own highlights that are undeniably, simply good. Hints of Air pop up on “The Bunting Song” and the rest reminds somewhat of … some other influential Brit-pop band I haven’t given a shot yet. But all in all, this is as self-realized an album as you’re likely to come across, very conscious of its own low-light design and comfortable with ever hook enough not to press it too thin. It’s a good thing most records past the decade-old mark are barely more than a few dollars on Half.com, ’cause I’ve got some catching up to do.