THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE QUEEN: MERRIE LAND
Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, Tony Allen and Simon Tong Return with Second Album Out Today
UK Dates Begin November 26
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Photo credit: Pennie Smith
“…this album is a masterpiece… the best album of the year.” – Sunday Times Culture
“…Up there with the most evocative attempts by British pop to interpret its locality” – Mojo
“The music they wrote suggests no end of ghosts: off-key pub pianos, bass recorders, an abundance of old-school organ that instantly evokes the British Seaside.” – The Guardian
Presaged by the recently released “Gun To The Head” and its title track (featured in The New York Times’ Playlist)—as well as the band’s first live appearance in seven years on Later…. With Jools Holland—Merrie Land, the sophomore album from The Good, The Bad & The Queen is finally released today, November 16, 2018.
Merrie Land follows an 11-year hiatus since The Good, The Bad & The Queen’s self-titled 2007 debut, and is self-released on the newly created label Studio 13. Produced by Tony Visconti and The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Merrie Land contains 10 new songs – written during the current period in which the UK is preparing to leave the European Union – creating a reluctant good-bye letter, a series of observations and reflections on Britishness in 2018.
Merrie Land’s focus moves beyond GBQ’s London-themed first album to a wider land, with a beautiful and hopeful paean to the Britain of today, an inclusive Britain, currently in an Anglo Saxostentialist crises at the end of a relationship, wondering what might be salvaged. Could there be a more perfect band – with their creative symbiosis of pasts and present and shared acclaimed music histories – to reflect on the anticipation, disorientation and confusion of current life?
In preparation for their shows in Blackpool, Glasgow and London the band will play three intimate warm-up shows in Tynemouth, at the Tynemouth CIU Club on November 26th and Cullercoats Crescent Club on November 27th & 28th – each with a rare capacity of less than 100.
The Good, The Bad & The Queen is Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, Tony Allen and Simon Tong.
The full track listing for Merrie Land is:
– Merrie Land
– Gun to the Head
– Nineteen Seventeen
– The Great Fire
– Lady Boston
– Drifters & Trawlers
– The Truce of Twilight
– Ribbons
– The Last Man to Leave
– The Poison Tree
Merrie Land – STREAM / BUY HERE
The Good, The Bad & The Queen – LIVE DATES:
November 26th – Tynemouth CIU Club, NORTH EAST
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November 27th – Cullercoats Crescent Club, NORTH EAST
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November 28th – Cullercoats Crescent Club, NORTH EAST
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December 1st – The North Pier, BLACKPOOL
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December 2nd – SWG3, GLASGOW
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December 3rd – Hackney Arts Centre, LONDON
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December 5th– Hackney Arts Centre, LONDON
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December 6th – Hackney Arts Centre, London
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NOTES TO EDITORS:
Merrie Land will be available in several formats:
– on CD and vinyl, or limited edition green vinyl;
– limited edition deluxe CD with a beautiful 56-page A4 hardback book
containing handpicked original and reimagined photos by Paul Simonon,
sheet music, lyrics and artwork;
– The Boxset will contain the above, plus heavyweight green vinyl LP, an
exclusive screen print, postcards & bonus tracks.
– The Super Boxset offers all of the above plus a selection of coloured ribbons
and a limited wood-cut print, hand printed by Paul Simonon. Order here.
ABOUT The Good, The Bad & The Queen
The Good, The Bad & The Queen began life as the acclaimed 2007 album of the
same name, a heartfelt tribute to London described by The Observer in a 5-star
review as –“One of the most surprising and magical records for which Damon Albarn
has ever been responsible”. The record traced a journey from the English music hall
tradition to West Africa and Afrobeat, zigzagging through the West Indies and its
reggae and dub, back to England and London’s punk scene, all the while taking in a
strand of British beat music from the ’50s right through to Britpop. The result was a
record specific to a place and mood but with a background that was geographically
wide-ranging.
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