How genuinely humble of him to be stunned over the reception. The reception is good because his music is beautiful. It reflects his own lack of embarassment over his humanity. He's such a strong, secure person; I love how he integrates different aspects of experience into hip-hop, the tender with the gritty, how he shows that human expression shouldn't be summed-up as simply "tough" or "gentle". He doesn't set boundaries on what's acceptable. It's a very free, non-judgmental kind of perspective.
He smiles a lot during this interview. Very charistmatic, worth watching just because of that. Kidding! but it's worth watching for the sentence "I hope he wins, but of course I won't be watching, I don't watch things like that."
He's just on it isn't he? I love this guy. He just tells it how it really is and you can tell when he's talking about music that he's really passionate. It really bites him that shows like the Xfactor are brainwashing the future generation and I can completely relate to that.
@MidnightAndLulu What I also appreciated about "Plastic Beach", was how it showcased creativity as a "problem solver". When Albarn was inspired by waste on a beach, he saw it the way creative people do; they see all angles, all possibilities and how to make something extraordinary out of the usual, out of stuff that would illicit an immediate negative reaction in most people. He looked at waste and thought: "How do you interpret this? How do you turn waste into something useful, even beautiful?"
@MidnightAndLulu In Hewlett's artwork for "Plastic Beach", you see beauty found in decay--like the pretty, pollution sunsets--or a reworking of what we know, the creation of something useful and beautiful out of broken pieces left behind. Initially recoil-worthy, bleak or sinister, once you get past the imperfection of the world and its characters, you're open to, essentially, love it (and them!) for what it is, see the "now". Real, on its terms, not "ideal". Ideal doesn't exist. Oddly hopeful.
Gorillaz are cool. But Blur's Parklife and 13> everything by Gorillaz imo. all more power to Damon though, Gorillaz still sound better than most of the twatty shit out right now.
I Kinda Iffy On the Whole Concept Of Everything Nowadays Being Shit compared to back then. I mean, We only bring up the past because We Don't care About All the talentless Synthpop and New Wave bands of the 80's. And I love both Sythpop, New Wave, and post punk.