New Blur Book: England, Damon Albarn and the Art of Melancholy

For die-hard music fans, there’s nothing more enjoyable than being able to find out more about your favorite band and it’s members. Whether it is the lead singer, the roadies, groupies, bodyguards, managers, producers, spouses or the other band members’ high-school classmates, the roadies, groupies, girlfriends, boyfriends, wives-husbands-kids, the list can go on to include all the people who have been part of a musician’s career.

Music is people-orientated – we create the music. However, one thing that is often overlooked is the importance of physical places that influence a band’s musical style. Geography matters- whilst The Beatles launched into a new musical direction after visiting India, Blur’s front man Damon Albarn similarly experimented with new sounds depending on his geographical location.

England, Damon Albarn and the Art of Melancholy (By Dylan Moore)

Kindle Price: $6.99 (£3.96)

A new Blur book titled England, Damon Albarn & The Art of Melancholy is the first full-length study and analysis of one of Britain’s greatest talents. 

The book is a combination of geographical analysis, cultural commentary and biography, exploring each of Damon Albarn’s bands, collaborations and projects (Blur, Gorillaz, Mali Music, The Good, The Bad and The Queen, Dr Dee).

About the Book  

In the summer of 1995, Damon Albarn seemed to have Britain at his feet. Blur had been awarded a record four Brits, Parklife had sold a million records and new single ‘Country House’ had won a much-publicised chart battle with rivals Oasis.

But within months, relationships within the band and Albarn’s personal life had begun to fray. Blur’s subsequent change of direction, a new relationship and subsequent fatherhood, and a trip with Oxfam to Mali were to mark the beginning of an artistic renaissance that was to see Albarn emerge as one of the most critically-lauded musicians in the world. Gorillaz, a cartoon concept band, were to sell more than Blur ever did, while The Good, The Bad and The Queen – a song-cycle about London – confirmed Albarn owed as much to William Blake as to David Bowie.

In the summer of 2012, Damon Albarn appeared in his own Dr Dee, an English Opera, and travelled around Britain on a train called the Africa Express. At Hyde Park, Blur returned to the stage, closing the London Olympics with songs that still capture the unique atmosphere of a nation that has never quite been sure what to think of itself.

Framed by the events of England’s glorious summer, what Albarn has called ‘the golden twilight’ of Queen Elizabeth II, England, Damon Albarn & The Art of Melancholy traces the decline of the English seaside town and the disappearance of the village green, documents the boredom, binge-drinking and violence of suburban commuter-belt towns, explores the layered histories of London’s music halls and examines how even Albarn’s globetrotting sojourns – to Iceland, America, China and Mali – always seem to evoke a very English melancholy.

The book is available on Amazon (US) (UK) on Amazon's Kindle Store, Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle, iPad, iPhone and Android. 

An exclusive interview with the author talking about why and how he was inspired to write the Blur book will be available soon.