During an interview with Zane Lowe, NME reports Damon Albarn confirmed the long-anticipated sophomore album from The Good, The Bad & The Queen is “Sort of finished.”
The rock supergroup, which is comprised of Albarn, Paul Simonon (The Clash), Simon Tong (The Verve) and master Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, released their debut album, The Good, The Bad & The Queen, in January 2007. Albarn touted the record as a concept album centered around modern life in England and described it as “a song cycle that’s also a mystery play about London,” during an interview with Mojo.
Albarn is busy promoting his new Gorillaz album, The Now Now, due out June 29, as well as a new tour, but still found time to discuss his upcoming album with The Good album, saying, “We’re playing it back at the moment downstairs,” he told Lowe. “So, yeah I think [is finished]. So anyways, it’s been a really exciting time. It’s been a fantastic year so far. Been in South Africa, did a album with amazing artists and then did The Now Now and then The Good, the Bad & the Queen so it’s a lot of music coming out, so there’s a lot of music coming out. I hope [I’ve] sort of been good with my editing otherwise everyone is going to be sick of what I do.”
According to Consequence of Sound, in November, the group confirmed David Bowie producer Tony Visconti would be involved in the upcoming record. The producer projected the album would be completed in April and released in 2018. In January Visconti told the Irish Times “We’re about two thirds of the way through and taking a break, as Damon is off on a Gorillaz tour,” he said, “but we will resume in April and it will be probably be out before next Christmas. It’s a great album and I think people will be very impressed with it.”
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat