Damon Albarn had a busy year with the release of Blur’s The Ballad Of Darren and Gorillaz’s Cracker Island. He recently said he’s done with the Blur reunion, and in that same interview with French magazine Les Inrockuptibles, he discussed his takes on the new Rolling Stones album and the new Beatles song.
“Initially, it was John Lennon alone in his flat singing a song,” Albarn said when asked about “Now And Then,” translated into English by Damon Albarn Unofficial Archive. “I don’t think it was meant to reach that level of exposure. But you know, it’s a good opportunity for everyone. I heard some compilations are going to be reissued. So, it may not be the last one. It’s a question of scale: if enough people are interested, there could be hundreds of my songs released after my death, including songs that I would never have wanted to release. But you know, it’s nice to hear John’s voice.”
About Hackney Diamonds, he said, “This really annoyed me. Because my family lives in Hackney and the way they showed up at the Hackney Empire venue really pissed me off. They’ve never did a thing in Hackney, they’ve never played there, never contributed to anything. They just showed up. It’s all nonsense.” Referring to the “Angry” video starring Sydney Sweeney, he added, “And I listened to their new song and watched this horrible music video showing them at different stages of their lives on billboards. And this young woman objectified. What the hell is this? There’s something completely disconnected.”
The interviewer then asked, “Can you see yourself there, 80 years old, on billboards capitalizing on your past glory?” To which he replied:
There’s no chance and I’ll tell you why. I did all sorts of things, whereas they’ve never been anything other than the Rolling Stones. I love the idea of devoting your life to one thing, in search of the sublime. But the truth is, they’ve became worse. Worse at persisting to stay themselves. That’s something I don’t understand. Making exactly the same music but not that good. There must be no joy in doing something like this.
