Saturday, May 12, 2007

Modern Chiefs is rubbish

Damon Albarn has served up the worst possible criticism for the Kaiser Chief's new album - he's compared it to a bad Blur record:

“I've made two bad records. The first record, which is awful, and 'The Great Escape', which was messy.

"The Kaiser Chiefs' new record sounds a bit like The Great Escape in that it sounds a bit empty. Sometimes records are like that if you try too hard to repeat your success."

We'd argue pretty strenuously against Allbran here - not about the Yours Truly, The Angry Mob, which he's pretty much on the head with. But we think he's made more than just the two bad records, and one of them isn't Leisure - which might not be perfect but is a bloody good debut album. Hands up if you didn't feel a twinge and the urge to go off and play it when a track from it turned up on The Apprentice earlier in the week.


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Haha, i noticed you're not a particular fan of the Albarn and Blur in general, are you ? But which records would that be ("bad" that is) in your opinion ?

Take out Leisure and he hasn't made a single bad record! The Great Espace may very well be the weakest one in comparison but it is still a bloody good one on the whole and surely anything that's got He Thought Of Cars on it must be better than the latest Kaiser Chief's offering.

Chris Brown said...

Actually I think 13 is the worst Blur album but let's not forgot all that extra-curricular bollocks Albarn has put out. Nobody really thinks that first Gorillaz album is good, do they?

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

Henders,

You're wrong - actually, I loved Blur, and as I said up there, I think that Leisure is a cracking debut LP. I agree with Chris, though, that 13 is terrible - a series of inspired ideas that ran into trouble.

Added to which, I don't like the Good, the Bad and the Queen stuff, which constitutes a collection of bad late period Blur b-sides. And Gorillaz is at best a singles novelty act that shouldn't go anywhere near an album. Or anything longer than a two-track single.

anon as yet said...

It's all water under the bridge now i guess, but it does rile me when artists badmouth their own albums. The Great Escape's a good example, I loved it when it came out and still enjoy it today... But they never really stopped dumping on it, which does colour your perception of it after a while...

James Brown would never have done that... About the last 10 albums he put out came with the claim that "this is my best album since The Payback". Bless him!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, fair enough. 13's one of my alltime favourite albums though and (in my book) definitely their best...I'm not keen on the Gorillaz debut but Demon Days is a cracking pop record from start to finish.

Chris Brown said...

You know I'd already forgotten about the Good The Bad And The Queen. To be fair, 'Green Fields' is a decent song that might have turned out quite well had he recorded it back when he could be bothered to sing properly.

Unknown said...

I think I prefer Great Escape to Parklife, which is pretty patchy towards the end. Also, I'd take 13 and Think Tank over Leisure...

The less said about any of their solo projects the better though. I think Alex James probably comes out of that the best...

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

Thom... are you saying that 'Goblin In The Office' has hidden depths?

Anonymous said...

I agree with Thom..... Alex's ponderings about cheese in The Independent are of far more value than any of the other "solo" attempts :D

Anonymous said...

As a lifelong Blur fan, I found Think Tank to be the most hard work. I remember Out of Time, Battery in Your Leg and We've Got a File On You being brilliant tracks, but the rest being a bit meh.

As for Alex's solo stuff, I remember 'Hanging Around' by Me Me Me being fairly ace, handily coming out at around the time I was busy being a (rubbish) student DJ. He also looks like my uncle Brian.

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