Dig into this week’s Saturday Alternative playlist! The Fitting Room album was Merrie Land by The Good, The Bad & The Queen – out now on Studio 13.
Who knows how Damon Albarn is able to find the time to create as much interesting music as he does, but the Blur and Gorillaz mastermind has now returned with the long awaited reunion of The Good, The Bad & The Queen. Albarn first assembled the supergroup around 2006 with Danger Mouse in the producer’s seat. He enlisted Paul Simonon of The Clash to play bass, Simon Tong of The Verve on guitars and keys, and afrobeat drumming great Tony Allen was brought on to complete the lineup. Together they released one album called The Good, The Bad and The Queen and for over a decade we’ve wondered if there would ever be another.
Today we have that sophomore effort, a very British concept album called Merrie Land, with a socio-political focus on life in the UK. This time around, legendary producer and longtime David Bowie friend and collaborator Tony Visconti has produced, and the album – as one might expect with both Visconti and Albarn on board – takes us on a masterfully crafted sonic adventure.
–hour1—
Venus – Twist – Distancing
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Freelance – Toro Y Moi – Outer Peace
In Your Beat – Django Django – Marble Skies
Clad in Skin – Trevor Powers – Mulberry Violence
Broken (feat. Jessie Reyez) – THEY. – Fireside EP
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Look at My Soul (ft. Black Pumas & Kam Franklin) – Adrian Quesada – Look At My Soul: The Latin Shade of Texas Soul
Moonshine Freeze – This Is The Kit – Moonshine Freeze
ABOP – Tunng – Songs You Make At Night
Gallipoli – Beirut – Gallipoli
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We R In Control – Parquet Courts
Standing on the Edge of Tomorrow – The Damned
Balm of Gilead – Iceage
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Born in Black – Laura Jane Grace & The Devouring Mothers – Bought to Rot
Side Tracked – Born Ruffians
–hour 2—
Golden Wings – Gabriel Garzon-Montano
Sleeping Volcanoes – Cass McCombs – Tip of the Sphere
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Burial – Baby FuzZ
Quarrel – Moses Sumney – Aromanticism
Icicle Tusk – Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes – First Collection 2006-2009
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Here We Go – Sean McConnell – Secondhand Smoke
Voices in the Field – Calexico – The Thread That Keeps Us
Oom Sha La La – Haley Heynderickx – I Need to Start a Garden
Swamp Song – Dramarama
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Bloodless – Andrew Bird
Get Gone – Mikaela Davis – Delivery
Anxious – Holy Ghost!
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Starstruck – Sorry
Something for Your M.I.N.D. – Superorganism
–hour 3—
Soft Spoken – Naia Izumi
Death in Midsummer – Deerhunter – Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?
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Puzzled & Amused – Night Marcher – Us & Them
Can’t Hold On – Black Lips – Satan’s Graffiti or God’s Art?
Plastic Skeletons – Jealous of the Birds
Daddi – Cherry Glazerr – Stuffed & Ready
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—-FITTING ROOM—-
Merrie Land – The Good, The Bad & The Queen – Merrie Land
Nineteen Seventeen – The Good, The Bad & The Queen – Merrie Land
The Truce of Twilight – The Good, The Bad & The Queen – Merrie Land
–35
Witching Hour – Spirit Award – Muted Crowd
Water – Ohmme – Parts
Head Alone – Julia Jacklin
–50
Fail Safe – William Tyler – Goes West
