As hinted earlier this week, Damon Albarn has announced a new solo album: it’s called The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows, and it comes out on November 12 through Transgressive. Despite being in myriad bands, it’s only Albarn’s second solo album, following up 2014’s Everyday Robots – an album we named as one of our darkest of all time, which is interesting because he has this to say about the new album:
“I have been on my own dark journey while making this record and it led me to believe that a pure source might still exist.”
The first taste of this “dark journey” is the title track, “The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows”. It’s possibly the most atmospheric track we’ve yet heard from the Blur singer, with his spacious guitar coasting over an endless dust of anti-gravity synth. His voice is appropriately poised, sombre but not without hope and humanity, as he unfurls his hard-earned lesson. Despite the spectral female voice that glimmers in the background, this is Albarn truly at his most isolated, drifting through memories with the lens of regret; reliving the good times, but unable to extricate them from what came after – beautiful, and heartbreaking.
Damon Albarn’s new album The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows comes out on November 12 through Transgressive (pre-order/save). You can find him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
He’s also got these live dates coming up:
2022 Tour Dates (rescheduled from 2021):
21 & 22 February – London (Barbican)
23 & 24 February – Dublin (National Concert Hall)
26 February – Luxembourg (Philharmonie)
28 February – Brussels (Bozar)
1 March – Brussels (Bozar)
2 March – Eindhoven (Muziekgebouw)
4 & 5 March – Paris (Philharmonie)
6 March – Lyon (Auditorium)
7 March – Hamburg (ElbPhilharmonie)
9 March – Copenhagen (KB Hallen)
11 March – Reykjavik (Harpa)
