Written November 2020
I’ve spent a decent amount of time “covering the blank spots” in my musical knowledge the past couple of months by listening to a new album each day. Overall a fun daily habit that is making my Spotify Premium account absolutely worth it. The choice of daily ranges from an album of one of my favorite artists that I never listened to, artists’ side projects, critically acclaimed classics I never got around to, albums The Needle Drop gave a 9 and upwards to, and of course random work albums that pop up on Spotify. In doing this project I think I came to some degree of “hot take”: Damon Albarn is this generation’s, David Bowie.
I have dove decently deep into both Bowie and Albarn discographies – primarily acknowledging 2000s Bowie and finally giving Blur a shot. In listening to both artists I began to recognize several significant similarities between the two geniuses.
The main reason why a lot of people may disagree with this take is almost a matter of semantics – Many people know Bowie by name as a legend but it is shocking how few mainstream listeners are able to identify more than a handful of songs in Bowie’s catalog. The opposite is the case for Albarn – because the majority of his work is within the context of a band or group (Blur, Gorillaz) many people might overlook his output. I posit that casual listeners are familiar with about the same number of singles between Bowie and Gorillaz (although realistically Bowie does, most likely, have a slight advantage). Additionally, Bowie is very prolific, starting in 1967 (with this self-titled album) and recording until 2015 when he died. Albarn, on the other hand, released his first work Leisure with Blur in 1991 – So Bowie has almost 25 more years of being in the culture conscious than Albarn, and under his own name, thus being a proper legend. I believe that Albarn will be regarded with the same legend status in a decade or two (if he does not already have it, which I think he does.). And as a disclosure, I am no mean a scholar of either artist, just a big fan, and thus, humbly biased. So, onto those comparisons – I think the first thing we should look at is both artists’ MASSIVE louvers. Bowie has released 27 studio albums from 1967 to 2015, and Albarn has worked on 22 studio albums (7 with Gorillaz, 7 with Blur, then a solo Albarn, and a handful of collaborative efforts and supergroups). They both just have a ridiculous amount of creative output; in fact, I estimate that the ethos of both musicians is to “just create for the sake of expression”. And this just manifests with a lot of brilliant work. Equally, with the sheer volume of content, there is just a lot of Not Good in their catalogs, either represented by bad tracks, bloated albums and just positive meh. But I think that is the price that one has to pay when just creating for the sake of creating (i.e. being an artist) because they both have several legendary-tier, decade-defining singles, and albums.
But it’s not just the quantity of their work, but also the quality of what they create. Especially in how they approach creation. Like all successful musicians, they draw from other sources, but I think that both Albarn and Bowie are rather prolific in where they draw their inspiration. And this then results in the core element of both Bowie and Albarn – the inability to be defined by a single Genre. For both artists’ early in their career “Rock’ (or perhaps better “Brit Pop” for Albarn’s Blur) is the defining characteristic – but as they progressed and aged their musical stylings tend to flow to abstract heights. Just listen to the abstractions and ambient atmospheres on “Low” (especially Warszawa) and “Heroes”, or the Electronic and Death Grip influences on “Blackstar”. “Heathens” could be thought of almost as a Pixies tribute album. Albarn is almost on a different level here – He shifts between rock and pop and hip-hop and electronic without trepidation. Albums like “Plastic Beach” and “Demon Days” are properly genre-less. The ability to not be defined by genre is due to one of their other shared idiosyncratic similarities – the proclivity to perform and record not as themselves but as characters. Bowie’s character menagerie features Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke, Major Tom, and one can maybe even argue “Berlin Bowie”. A good bulk of Albarn’s work is him disguised as a cartoon band of 2-D, Noodle, Russell, and Murdoc – to the point where Albran has his own voice, but then the voice of 2-D (which he, Albarn, describes as sprechgesang, or speak-singing). Because they are not themselves, or at least a fantasized version of themselves, they are able to release pure creative energy because they are not bound to the artistic perimeters of self-hood. And I think that is why both musicians are capable of being so exploratory with their work. Another quality that both Bowie and Albarn share to a degree that not many other artists at their caliber do is work with other musicians, both in collaboration and in lifting their voices to audiences that might not otherwise hear them. Is there a more iconic collaborative song that “Under Pressure”? Likely not. Look: Bowie has recorded and written major tracks with many other legendary artists (and this was before the age of the internet when the collaboration was easier to facilitate) – “Fame,” with John Lennon (interestingly I found a video of Albarn and Bowie performing this together while writing this), “Dancing in the Streets,” with Mick Jagger (a song I admittingly hate), “Satellite of Love” with Lou Reed, the endless Iggy Pop collaborations, Stevie Ray Vaughn playing guitar on 1983’s “China Girl”. And this is surface level, I have not dug deep. But Bowie was also adamant about lifting the voices of other artists, this can be seen in his support of Arcade Fire, even featuring in the song “Reflection”.
And Albarn’s usage of collaboration simply blows Bowie out of the water. Maybe one can argue that Albarn’s signature talent is collaboration. Modern music especially pop music is dependent on collabs, and Albarn was way ahead of the curve on this one. The number of featured voices on the Gorillaz catalog is endless – De La Soul, Lou Reed, Bobby Womak, Mos Def, Little Dragon, MF DOOM, Elton John, Robert Smith, slowthai, Snoop Dog, Andre 3000 are just some of the legendary artists Albarn has collaborated with through Gorillaz – and that is truly a feat.
This Image is very funny Lastly, I think that both of these artists have both defined and pre-wrote the trends of the decades in which they existed. Bowie’s creative talents and forward-thinking choices shaped the music landscape since the late 60s and absolutely influenced a myriad of other artists, ultimately being a cornerstone in contemporary popular music. Albarn’s songwriting and risky non-conventional pairs have given way to the current demand for peculiar mash-ups, and thus a more creative music scene. Overall, these artists are two pillars in how we conceive of music today.
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