The theme of interpersonal disconnection in the technological age runs through the album, and while Everyday Robots doesn’t make any points about it that haven’t been made countless times before, it benefits from this kind of sincerity. Admittedly, it’s still a little clunky, but it’s an endearing clunkiness. He’s always had a tendency toward groan-worthy earnestness - “Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head,” anyone? - but the sparse closeness of this album’s production makes lines like “ We’re everyday robots in control / In the process of being sold,” seem less self-righteous than emotionally truthful. This kind of simplicity looks good on Albarn. Everyday Robots lacks that album’s sense of haphazard immediacy, but there’s even more of a sense of intimacy: most of the songs sound like Albarn sitting in his bedroom, scratching out song lyrics onto a notepad. There aren’t any radio-ready tunes here, nothing as immediately catchy as “Tender” or “Feel Good Inc.” If there’s any album from his extensive discography that is most similar to Everyday Robots, it would have to be The Fall, the quiet little Gorillaz album he made on his iPad while on tour in 2010.
There are collaborations, sure (with Brian Eno and Bat for Lashes’ Natasha Khan), but mostly Everyday Robots is a surprisingly personal affair. The sparseness of the album art indicates that we’re finally getting Albarn at his most simple, removed from his often over-conceptual tendencies. Now, after over a quarter-century in the music industry, Albarn has released Everyday Robots, his first proper studio album. This is without even mentioning his numerous one-off side projects and soundtracks, which more often than not took strong cues from world music. After transforming Blur from punkish Britpop to more experimental electronica, he moved on to Gorillaz, an ambitious project that saw him blending alt-rock, hip-hop, electronica and soul into one surprisingly cohesive project. Out of all the figures who emerged from the Britpop movement, Damon Albarn has had the most diverse career.
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