Damon Days

Six days with no new post usually means I've been working my ass off. I gave a Powerpoint presentation on Friday and procrastinated so much preparing it that a colleague stayed late on Thursday to help me finish, earning herself a box of Swiss chocolates in the process.

My father had some bad news about his health this week: his white blood cell count is up to 50. At 100 they consider chaemotherapy. I went for some retail therapy when I heard that.

There's a shop on Park Street called Fopp where you can't listen to albums before you buy them so they let you return them if you don't like them. If you're fussy like me, that's heaven. Under these circumstances and these circumstances only I'll try Demon Days by the "supergroup" Gorillaz.



I was a big Blur fan back in the day so I've kept an eye on the band members' solo careers since. Damon Albarn's opted for a series of pretentious collaboration projects, disguising his lack of inspiration with different musical styles. Demon Days is an improvement on Gorillaz (their eponymous debut) but it's still just two-thirds-baked.

You can hear which tracks are single material as soon as they kick in because they're all kinds of groovy and funky, but the rest sound messy and unfocussed by comparison. O Green World is Blur-ry and Dare has Scissor Sisters written all over it, but they're good. Damon resorts to the same annoying vocal tricks as in Blur but we're spared the frantic-guitar-song-per-album. The guest vocalists are undeniably impressive: Shaun Ryder, Roots Manuva, De La Soul, Neneh Cherry and Dennis Hopper.

If it was ten minutes shorter it would be far better... if it were a four-track E.P. it'd be my Single Of The Year! Will I take it back? Probably not. I like the way the cover riffs on Let It Be.

I bought The Aristocrats too and got a new season of 24 for less than I sold a used one on Amazon Marketplace. I sold a limited edition model Concorde (a corporate gift from London Toy Fair) on eBay for £43.01. This completes my trading report for February.